The Indian Country School Counselors Institute (ICSCI)

The Indian Country School Counselors Institute (ICSCI) is a 7-month professional development institute for School Counselors to grow their capacity and effectiveness in working with Indigenous students. Members of the ICSCI cohort will build their capacity to support student wellbeing through culturally sustaining and responsive practices. Counselors will engage through readings, activities, and discussions that will culminate in writing a guidance curriculum unit on a topic of their choosing, which they can use in their schools to implement with students individually or in group settings. The guidance curriculum unit will be published online as a resource for others. 

ICSCI Seminar schedule 2025*

Downloadable PDF above *please share with your administrator

Benefits of program participation

• Certificate of completion with seat hours noted for professional development
• A stipend provided upon completion
• Self-authored guidance curriculum unit is published on INE website
• Connected to a diverse community of school counselors with a shared commitment to culturally responsive best practices with/in Indigenous communities

Participants in the ICSCI are motivated, intellectually curious school counselors who want to improve their content knowledge and have high expectations for their students.

Application Process

Application due: Friday, February 14, 2025

Step 1: Get your principal’s support.

You will need to confirm that your principal supports your application. Please discuss this with your principal before you apply. 

Step 2: Confirm your eligibility

Please carefully read the “Eligibility criteria” and “Time Commitment” sections to confirm your eligibility. This includes ensuring that you can attend ALL in-person and virtual meetings.

Eligibility criteria

• Employed full-time as a School Counselor in a tribal grant, Bureau of Indian Education, or public school in the Southwestern U.S serving over 25% Native students
• Pair your counselor experience and expertise with new content knowledge to develop and write a culturally sustaining and responsive practice curriculum unit to implement in your practice
• Ability to attend ALL in-person and online meetings (See 2025 ICSCI Program Calendar here)
• *Garner support from your school administrator/principal/supervisor to participate in the ICSCI program. Please provide your administrator/principal/supervisor with a copy of the seminar description and schedule to ensure they understand the level of commitment asked of you to participate.

Time Commitment 

• Through successful completion of ICSCI, you will earn 30 Seat Hours for Professional Development which entails:
  • (1) 1-hour online orientation meeting
  • (8) 2-hour online seminar meetings
  • (2) 1-day Saturday seminar meetings at NAU’s Flagstaff campus
  • Attend in-person Showcase in November at NAU’s Flagstaff campus
  • Scheduled time for reading/writing each week

Step 3: Submit your application

The application is completed via Google forms, which requires you to complete and submit the entire application at one time. Please be sure you allow sufficient time to do this; we recommend approximately one hour. 

The application includes three questions that should be answered in 300-600 words. The questions are:

“Part of our mission is to work with counselors who are leaders in their schools/centers or communities. How do you demonstrate leadership in your role as a counselor?”

&

“Please explain why you are interested in participating in ICSCI, and describe a specific way you could integrate this seminar topic into your teaching.”

&

“Through this program, you will write a culturally responsive curriculum practice guide to teach in your classroom. Please describe a topic or theme that you are interested in writing your curriculum practice guide about.”

It may be helpful to draft your response in a Word/Google Document (or something similar) then copy and paste your response into the application when you are ready to submit. 

Step 4: Notification of acceptance

The Institute for Native-serving Educators will inform you of your application status by March 3, 2025. 

Ready to get started?

Apply to ICSCI!

Click the link above to be taken to the application page.