USC Rossier Educational Counseling program unveils several exciting updates

At USC Rossier, faculty, staff, students and alumni constantly collaborate and strive to develop the most innovative degree programs to solve intractable challenges confronting our education system.

One such degree program, the Master of Education in Educational Counseling (EC), is designed for aspiring academic advisors or counselors who want to work in community colleges and four-year colleges or universities. Educational counselors and academic advisors play a vital role in the lives of college students, and the USC Rossier Educational Counseling program prepares its graduates with an in-depth understanding of counseling, higher education systems and theories of student development.

Today, the USC Rossier Educational Counseling program unveiled several exciting updates that will increase the affordability and accessibility of the program while maintaining its longstanding commitment to excellence and the advancement of educational equity.

Beginning fall 2025, the USC Rossier Educational Counseling program will operate under a new curriculum with modernized coursework that reflects the ever-changing landscape in higher education. The new curriculum continues to emphasize serving and addressing the needs of historically marginalized communities and is governed by the three core pillars and values within the EC program:

• Focus on Educational Counseling
• Center social justice and equity
• Nurture an engaged community

The EC program’s unit requirement will also be lowered from 48 to 40 units. This change will allow the school to reduce student costs and help make this program accessible to current and prospective students.

Additionally, the school announced that the Educational Counseling program will include an online option beginning fall 2025. The on-campus program has established a reputation for creating a collaborative and close-knit community that produces exceptional leaders in the field of educational counseling. Now, students around the world will have access to the equity-driven research and career development that empowers students and alumni to break barriers every day. This will strengthen the program’s network and ensure it has the greatest possible global impact.

The program’s enhanced curriculum will be guided by four key objectives:

• Help students critically reflect on their positionality (prior knowledge, personal and professional experiences) to foster inclusive and equitable spaces as counselors and counseling practitioners.
• Nurture a conscientious and critical lens to ensure cultural competence towards an ethical practice grounded in respecting and valuing diverse student populations in various settings, including but not limited to community colleges and universities.
• Develop critical thinkers of scholarly research, apply counseling and student development theory into practice, and reflect on the development of their own professional framework.
• Engage and participate in community care – a notion of care grounded in individual self-care within the context of contributing to the larger community’s well-being and elevating historically marginalized voices.

Each change has been informed by a multi-year community engagement process. The USC Rossier Educational Counseling Curriculum Revision Committee was established in 2022 and met with students, alumni, faculty and other key audiences within the Master of Education in Educational Counseling program to gather input and ideas to enhance the program and ensure it remains second to none across the nation.

“These announcements underscore USC Rossier’s unyielding commitment to soliciting community input to help the school offer the strongest possible degree programs. The passion USC Rossier Educational Counseling students, faculty, staff and alumni show for their studies and their commitment to student development is incredibly admirable. We look forward to launching this new era of our Educational Counseling program and reaching as many people as possible,” said USC Rossier Dean Pedro Noguera.