School Counseling and Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

School counselors are the pupil personnel service providers in the school who are responsible for individual and group counseling and consultancy work, all of which require networking collaboratively with administrators, teachers, parents, and the community. Given this context, it is argued that a social entrepreneurship approach is beneficial, in particular for school counselors, who are in a unique position to span the boundaries of their organizations and engage with the larger community. This article examines the work done by interns in a school counseling training program in several New York City high schools. While mainly providing mental health care, they are also engaged in a variety of projects to improve the lives of their students. Their services and activities are evaluated to identify correspondences with social entrepreneurship.