Ileana LaGrutta's Portfolio

Objective #1: To create a presentation on suicide to be presented to the student body.

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Evidence: Posted below, in the PDF icon on the left, is the outline that I created for a presentation that will be presented to the study body. Also, posted below in the PDF icon on the right, is the actual presentation. Due to budgeting issues, I was not able to present this presentation this semester, however I created the presentation, in full, to be presented to the study body next semester, even though my internship will be over then. For the presentation, I am collaborating with one of my former professors, Dr. Sara Murphy. I took a class on suicide with her and I wanted to reach out to her to collaborate on this project since she is an expert in the field of suicidology. The presentation and the outline itself was all my own, original work. I simply came up with all of the ideas, sent them to Dr. Murphy, and once I got the "okay" from her on the topics I wanted to address, I went ahead and created the presentation on my own. In terms of the actual presentation, I will most likely present based off of the PowerPoint I created and she will be able to go off of those points and speak on those topics based on her own expertise. In order to develop this evidence and the content of it, I used my own prior knowledge about the topic of suicide, I looked back at materials from the course I took on suicide, as well as visited the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website to gain additional information that I could include in the presentation.

 

 By creating this PowerPoint, I learned how to create an effective presentation on a topic other than academics. The scope of a School Counselor's job goes far beyond helping them with their academics. Oftentimes, a counselor's day will be interrupted when a student comes in with a crisis that needs to be addressed. When I become a School Counselor, I will strive to make a positive impact on the district I work in by bringing awareness to issues that counselors may face outside the realm of academics. For this particular project, I chose the topic of suicide because School Counselors are sometimes faced with suicidal students and it is imperative that they understand how to handle these types of situations. Furthermore, I wanted to present this to the study body because a lot of the time, students are only exposed to suicide and learn about it after the district loses someone to suicide. I wanted the students and staff, alike, to understand what it is so they could become active participants in helping spread suicide awareness and prevention strategies as well as knowing how to act should themselves or someone they know become suicidal. By making this presentation, I learned how to take a step back from the academic side of School Counseling and address other pertinent issues that the counselors and the other individuals of the school community may face. I learned how to create a presentation tailored to a specific age group that can be extremely beneficial and perhaps even save someone's life.