By Cyndee Fontana-Ott
After running a first-grade classroom for several years, Chloe Holmes decided to return to college and transition from school teaching to school counseling.
Holmes, born and raised in Porterville, was eager to provide more one-on-one support for children in her community. But it’s not always easy to switch careers—and pay bills—when the required field experience can mean hundreds of unpaid internship hours.
So Holmes, already enrolled at Fresno Pacific University, was excited to hear about a one-of-a-kind School Counseling Residency project from the Tulare County Office of Education and California Center on Teaching Careers, which is housed in that office.
The new residency program, in partnership with the university, offers comprehensive training, hands-on experience, networking opportunities, professional development and a supportive mentor along with a $45,000 stipend.
“That living stipend has really allowed us to just be present while getting our clinical hours,” says Holmes, who drives from Springville in the foothills to work four days a week at Mulcahy Middle School in the Tulare City School District. “It just alleviated that stress of trying to make ends meet.”
Holmes is one of 12 students in the pioneering program. Several districts and schools in Tulare and Kings counties are home to the “residents” with experienced counselors serving as mentors (and earning a $4,000 stipend).
“The goal is to grow the profession in the areas that need the most support,” says Leslie Kelly, program manager in the California Center on Teaching Careers. “Fresno Pacific has been an amazing partner in this work with us.”
The dozen graduate students are working toward a Master of Arts in Education in School Counseling and a pupil personnel services credential, and are scheduled to graduate in May. “The commitment is to stay with a rural district for four years after completing the program,” says Marvin Lopez, executive director of the center.
In part, the residency project’s goal is to cut down sometimes outsized counselor-to-student ratios and to train—and keep—counselors with roots in the region who understand the uniqueness of the area.
“We need more counselors in our schools,” Lopez says. He and Dena M. Fiori, Ed.D., clinical associate professor of school counseling and program director at Fresno Pacific, describe the project as a “grow your own” effort.
“This is why a program like this works in our area—because most if not all of our candidates are from this region, they’re from our local communities,” Lopez says.
Modeled after teacher residency programs, the project is funded by the Tulare County Office of Education through state and federal sources. In 2012, Lopez began researching and studying residency programs around the country with the goal of developing similar pathways here for schoolteachers, school-based social workers and school counselors.
The school counselor residency project was the final piece to roll out. Fresno Pacific was selected as the higher education partner because its credential program aligned closely with the school counselor residency program design, Lopez says.
Originally, the plan was to place eight students in the first cohort that debuted in August 2024. But demand from area school districts pushed the number to 12. Now roughly 15 students may enter a new cohort this fall.
School and district partners “see the value added to the sites, to the students,” Lopez says. “Even their mentors are very excited to have another school counselor on site.”
In addition to beefing up the ranks of school counselors, the residency program is “helping districts build their comprehensive counseling program,” says Kelly, an adjunct professor at Fresno Pacific and former content coordinator of the Teachers of Color Pipeline for the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools.
“When I go out to districts and meet with site leaders, one of the questions I ask is what do your counselors do, and what would you like to see them do?” she says.
School counselors can provide services ranging from academic and career advising to social and emotional counseling. Districts that may only use counselors for disciplinary actions “are missing the meat of what can be more preventative than reactive,” she says. “We’re always looking at how we can better serve kids.”
Fresno Pacific’s program is four to five semesters, depending on the start date, and 800 hours of field experience are required in the second year. Resident students, working 30 to 35 hours a week, accumulate 1,200 to 1,500 hours due to the program’s structure.
Fiori has been impressed by the dedication of residents to their schools, professional development and community engagement along with their willingness to “stay late and come in early.”
“I can’t think of one who hasn’t literally stepped up—and then stepped up even higher,” Fiori says. “We’re hearing that from our districts as well.”
Students meet weekly “at a distance” and have a university supervisor who comes to the school site to observe activities, connect with administrators and offer feedback.
That person is Fiori. “I’ve been blown away and sometimes I leave with a tear in my eye,” she says. “I’m just beaming with pride at seeing what my students can do.”
Holmes, who earned her bachelor’s degree in early childhood development at Fresno Pacific in 2020, is one of those outstanding students. She taught first grade for three years in Porterville, and that experience shifted her career path.
“I just wanted to be able to play a bigger role in the lives of students and to be more of an advocate for them,” she says. “I just knew that in my own classroom, my favorite part of the day was social/emotional learning time...I knew I wanted to make that transition into school counseling where I could do that for all students.”
Holmes appreciates all aspects of the residency program and is grateful to be paired with a mentor on site. Mentors are “able to help us navigate the challenges of the counseling profession and really just learn the ins and outs of a comprehensive counseling program.”
Cultural competency is another important element, she says. “This program has really taught us how to address the unique challenges that our students face from those different, diverse backgrounds—just really ensuring that we are there to offer that equitable support for all of our students.”
Holmes, who is dedicated to remaining in the Valley, says it has been an honor to be part of the program’s first cohort.
“I think it’s doing everything it set out to do, which is providing us with that real world, hands-on experience and just bridging the gap between a school counseling master’s program to actually being a school counselor in the field.”
PHOTO: Chloe Holmes (right) and her mentor Luis Avila (FPU photo by Dena Fiori)