The Marquette School of Education will host an open house Thursday for two of its graduate student departments, including a program that is one of three in the state of Wisconsin.
The open house, which will take place on the fourth floor of Marquette Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature the departments of Educational Leadership and Policy Study, and Counseling and Educational Psychology, according to Michelle McClure, assistant professor in the School of Education.
The former department is home to the Masters of Education Leadership degree with an emphasis in College Student Personnel. Besides Marquette, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Concordia University are the only two other universities in the state that offer the program, McClure said.
The three-year-old program focuses on preparing students for a job at colleges and universities in student affairs as academic and financial advisers and for positions in admissions, multicultural affairs, student activities and counseling, McClure said.
The Masters of Education Leadership program has about 50 students from diverse academic backgrounds. An undergraduate degree in education is not required to gain admittance to the two-year full-time program, which has students with business, English and history backgrounds, McClure said.
In addition, students learn theory through hands-on experiences from field placements and internships, McClure said. Like other Marquette programs, the College Student Personnel Program incorporates critical thinking skills as well as aims toward social justice.
Natalie Gross, interim assistant dean for multicultural programs at Marquette, graduated from the program this fall. Gross said the program helped her put what she was learning into practice.
"I have a better understanding of how my practices relate to theories that are tested and proven," Gross said. "The program gave me new ideas on other ways to put everything into everyday life."
The course requirements place emphasis on higher education and acquiring leadership skills.
"The history classes become history of education classes, and the political science classes become politics in education classes," Gross said.
Ramona Johnson, a pre-college counselor for Marquette's Upward Bound Program, is currently in her second semester of the program.
Johnson was encouraged to enter the program because she thought it would deepen her knowledge and skills of her current job as a pre-college counselor.
"The classes in the program are challenging," Johnson said, "but they help you in your current work."
Students are welcome to the open house to learn about the graduate programs the School of Education has to offer, McClure said.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 1 2005.