The Indian Country School Counselors Institute (ICSCI)

The Indian Country School Counselors Institute (ICSCI) is an 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 and success in sustaining and culturally responsive ways. The program will culminate with each cohort member writing a guidance curriculum unit on a topic of their choosing, which they can use in their schools and which will be published online as a resource for others.

School Counselors who are ICSCI Fellows participate in an 7-month Fellowship that will increase their:

Content knowledge
Curriculum-development skills
Capacity to deliver culturally responsive lessons
Leadership ability
Writing capacity

School counselors participate in a seminar group that is led by University faculty who are content experts. School counselors learn the seminar material through reading, discussion, and independent research. Each school counselor writes a unique guidance curriculum unit for use in their school. Curriculum units are then published online so other educators and professionals can access, adapt, and use them in their own school setting.

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 due: Sunday, March 2, 2025

Click here to complete the 2025 ICSCI application

ICSCI Seminar schedule 2025*

Application Process

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 14, 2025.

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.