by Jessica del Curto
Daily Lobo
Through the College of Education's Traverse program, UNM students can provide counseling services to the Albuquerque community while fulfilling graduate school requirements.
Jessica Archibeque, one of many students in the program, said thanks to Traverse, she has no doubts about what she wants to do with her future.
Archibeque said through the program, she was able to work with elementary school students. Later, she worked as a counselor at a local hospital, providing support for parents of sick children.
"That experience was out of my comfort zone; sometimes it was really hard," said Archibeque, who now works as a student adviser at TVI and eventually plans to get back into counseling full time. "But it opened up the knowledge that there is a big need for counseling in hospitals."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Gene Coffield, coordinator of the Traverse program, said since its inception in 1995, the program has helped University students gain real-world experience by allowing them to work at educational facilities in the community.
"The Traverse program allows students to experience many facets of counseling," Coffield said. "We have had students that had never dreamed they would be drawn to school counseling and now have found that this is what they want to do."
Upon admittance into the counseling program, students are required to commit to a certain number of hours for service learning.
Students spend this time shadowing counselors at area elementary, middle or high schools, as well as 43 other facilities such as shelters and support agencies.
On a whim, Archibeque volunteered through sthe program to co-facilitate a career development group with undergraduate students in the dorms at UNM. There, she realized she wanted to work as a counselor in higher education.
"Where I am now is exactly the environment I want to be in," she said. "Traverse was an opportunity to explore so many different areas so I could find what felt right for me."
Kim Corwin completed the program last spring and volunteered at the New Mexico School for the Deaf while in the program.
"One of the nice things about the Traverse program is that it basically demands that you get exposure to what you ultimately want to become," Corwin said. "It's nice to have it right at the beginning. Instead of wasting two and a half years, Traverse is a mini kind of internship."
Part of what makes the program successful is the support and commitment from many professionals in the field, Coffield said.
"Students realize the experience it gives them, and the supervisers out on the field are very supportive to contributing to the students' learning," she said.
