School Counselor of the Year Award
Recognizing that professional school counselors devote their careers to serving as advocates for Texas students and ensuring student success, the Lone Star State School Counselor Association (LSSSCA) School Counselor of the Year (SCOY) Award honors outstanding professional school counselors in Texas. Through an extensive outreach process, school counselors, teachers, administrators, and others are encouraged to nominate professional school counselors who run exemplary school counseling programs.Annually one Texas SCOY winner will be chosen by the LSSSCA Board to represent Texas in the ASCA School Counselor of the Year Awards process. To date, Texas has had one (1) national SCOY and four(4) national finalists.
Eligibility for Consideration
Recognition Criteria
The nominee should maintain the highest standards of personal conduct and recognize that his/her personal conduct is held up to public scrutiny. Nominees strive to be model citizens of their community as well as the school counseling community and their broader professional community. They maintain high moral standards in their personal and professional conduct.
Nominees must have been responsible for school counseling innovations or further development of programs to support the career, social/emotional and academic development of all students. Nominees must demonstrate leadership, advocacy, and collaboration in their work and promote equity and access to opportunities and rigorous educational experiences for all students to maximize student achievement.
The nomination form asks for basic contact information. Your nominee will receive immediate notification via email and will be asked to complete the online application process.
2024 Texas School Counselor of the Year Timeline
November 5- February 10 | Texas SCOY nomination link will be opened for nominations. |
March 9 | All nominees will be emailed a letter of nomination with SCOY application information |
April 12 | Application due by 11:59pm CST |
April 22 - May 3 | SCOY committee will review applications |
May 6 - May 17 | Virtual Interviews with top 5 finalists |
May 20 - 24 | Notification of winner |
May 31 | Nomination due to ASCA |
August 15 | ASCA SCOY applications due |
October | National finalists selected |
November 2024 | National finalist face-to-face interviews in Washington, D.C. |
November 2024 | Texas SCOY, SCOY Finalists, and SCOY Semi-Finalists will be recognized at the 7th Annual LSSSCA Conference |
Jan/Feb 2025 | National SCOY activities in Washington, DC |
LSSSCA SCOY Committee
Alicia Alvarado Alicia Sanchez Amanda Bustamante Bertha Pedregon Cara Yeates Christina Jones Cristina Nunez Jen Cowen | Jennifer Madrid Jennifer Salgado Norma Guerra Nwakego Edordo Paige Pendery Pat Avila Rhonda Ramirez Sonia Galvan |
Recognition Criteria
For questions about the Texas SCOY, please contact Monica Dominguez at monica.dominguez@lonestarstateschoolcounselor.org.