Education with Heart
Two schools’ programs cater to students interested in helping professions
If you go by the experience of two Milwaukee-area colleges, there’s an upsurge of student interest in the helping professions. And the two religiously affiliated schools – Alverno College in Milwaukee and Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon – are stepping up their offerings to meet that demand.
At Alverno College, Scott Zeman, the new vice president for academic affairs, says the college is launching two new graduate-level programs, both aimed at the helping professions.
The first is an interdisciplinary education degree designed for students who want to go into schools as licensed school psychologists, specializing in serving special-needs and special-education students. The three-year program, which Alverno hopes to launch in the fall, would lead to an advanced degree called Educational Specialist, or Ed.S., in School Psychology. Students in this program would qualify for a master’s degree after 30 credits, and a doctoral-level Ed.S. after 30 more.
“School psychologists work especially with special-needs students and special-education students to improve student outcomes,” Zeman says, “and there’s a real need both in our state and across the country. There are many openings to be filled in this important field, so we’re particularly excited about that program.”
“We offer a number of master’s degrees already: a master of arts in education, an MBA, a master of science in community psychology, and a master’s in nursing.” Zeman says. But this one would be new.
Also new: a master’s program in music therapy, also launching this fall. Alverno is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its pioneering undergraduate music therapy program, but this will be the first time it’s offered an advanced degree. “The field is developing,” Zeman says. “There’s more need for higher-developed skills.”
Another new offering is a bachelor’s program in social work, which Alverno has never offered before. “It is very aligned with our mission,” he says. “I predict it will be a very popular degree at Alverno.”
Zeman, who arrived at Alverno last November from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, says he loves his new gig, along with Alverno’s commitment to women’s education and its Franciscan identity. Alverno, which is a women’s college for undergraduates (though its graduate programs also have male students), was founded in 1887 by the School Sisters of St. Francis.
“The programs that I highlighted for you,” he says, “all are helping professions – professions that people commit to lives of service to others.
“And I think that that is a direct link and a direct expression of our mission and of Franciscan-based values of compassion and caring and service to others. They’re very natural expressions of Alverno living its mission.”
Concordia University Wisconsin, which in addition to Mequon has multiple other locations in Wisconsin – as well as a sister campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan – is another religiously affiliated school that offers multiple programs in the helping professions. Concordia is affiliated with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
“We do currently offer a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW),” says Amber Schiessl, director of graduate enrollment at Concordia, “and within the last year have actually started a master’s in social work (MSW).
“Because we saw a demand from our graduates in the BSW program and others outside of Concordia, we started our first MSW cohort in the fall of 2017, and we’re gearing up to start another cohort in the fall of 2018.” She adds that graduate students with a bachelor’s degree in social work can finish the master’s in a year if they attend full-time; for those with a bachelor’s in some other field, it would take two years.
Another program facing surging student demand is counseling, Schiessl says. “It’s not a new program, but we do have a lot of students who are interested in the helping professions,” she says, “so we offer school counseling and professional counseling.” There’s also been an uptick in Concordia’s online offerings for that program, she adds, allowing students to combine face-to-face instruction with online learning. That combination – also available in many other Concordia subject areas – allows maximum flexibility to students, especially those who might have job or family responsibilities to juggle.
Another new program, she says: “We’re seeing a teacher shortage, especially in the area of special education, so we developed a new program specifically for initial licensure, for cross-categorical special education.” The program was launched in January. One benefit, she says, is after you get your graduate teacher certification, you need only nine additional credits to qualify for a master’s in education. The school already offers graduate certification in elementary, secondary and early childhood education, but this is the first such program in special education. Demand for it was high among Concordia’s 80 to 90 “preferred education partners” such as school districts, she says. Concordia is exploring whether to offer it at its Kenosha location as well as in Mequon, as there’s a lot of demand in that area.
Another flourishing education program is the superintendent training program offered at Concordia and directed by Elliott Moeser, the former long-term superintendent at Nicolet High School in Glendale. This program is for school administrators seeking to obtain their superintendent’s license, and it’s mostly online, as these administrators have busy schedules that often make it difficult to come to campus.
Finally, Schiessl highlights the university’s nursing programs. They recently relaunched a doctorate program in nursing practice. And a new second-degree nursing program, which allows students with bachelor’s degrees in another field to get a bachelor’s in nursing in 14 months, was launched this semester.