American Samoa

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ELMENTARY & SECONDARY DIVISIONS

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING OFFICE
CAREER AND EDUCATION PLANNING

Message from the Counseling & Guidance Program Director
Liza Maria Tuato'o

February, 2012

Knowledge, Pride and Future!
 
The purpose of the American Samoa Plan for Comprehensive Career Guidance and Counseling is to focus and revitalize school counseling programs in American Samoa’s schools to be more responsive to the challenges facing our children, youth, families and communities today and in the future. The continued emphasis is on reaching ALL children with a school counseling program that is based on a defined framework emphasizing standards, student competencies, connecting activities and processes. This program is to be delivered by a well-trained and certified school counselors with campus teams of teachers using appropriate materials and resources. The program must incorporate a team approach, academic, personal/social and career competency development, deficiency remediation and systemic implementation. Further, the program must be continuously improved through quality evaluation, addressing the changing needs of all students and the individual school. Our role is to prepare our youth with knowledge, power and a route to a future of their choice.

Message from the Program Director
 
American Samoa continues to ensure that students learn and achieve and counselors are at the very center of many educational initiatives. Activities that counselors do with students are designed to enable students to achieve success by preparing them for secondary and post-secondary opportunities, meaningful employment, and active citizenship.

The American Samoa Department of Education’s Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program has expanded and adopted the National School Counselors Association’s (ASCA) standards and competencies to ensure all areas are provided for our students. Any education initiative takes time to implement and requires patience from everyone involved as the process unfolds. As a counselor, you will discover that program changes affect your role, responsibilities, and schedule. Change can be stressful, but the truth is that a Comprehensive Career Guidance and Counseling Program fully implemented will actually make your job even more rewarding and exciting. The short term and long term results will support student achievement and success.

As a school counselor, you are in a unique position to help students take advantage of all that education has to offer. You are at the center of the effort to reorganize learning around career clusters that will prepare students to graduate ready to participate in an increasingly competitive global economy.

The curriculum provided here is a tool you can use to help students create an education plan based on their individual interests, talents, and career goals. Each lesson is designed to help students develop directions for their lives and to understand the world of work opportunities waiting for them as well as what those opportunities will require from them.

You have the opportunity to help every student prepare for a lifetime of success. Our students need and deserve the support of every school counselor to ensure that all students reach his or her highest potential in school, at work, and in life. This curriculum is designed to assist counselors in providing content relating to academic, personal/social and career development.

I know that all school leaders should support their guidance and counseling programs as well as publish yearly Support Personnel Accountability Report Cards to update everyone of their schools progress. I thank everyone who supports theses efforts for they are what are needed to ensure the success of future generations.

Liza Maria Tuato’o
Counseling & Guidance Program Director

"LET US PUT OUR MINDS TOGETHER AND SEE WHAT LIFE WE CAN MAKE FOR OUR CHILDREN." Sitting Bull, Lakota Indian - 1877
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AMERICAN SAMOA ...

is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa). The main (largest and most populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manu'a Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory.

American Samoa is part of the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group. The 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 76.1 square miles (197.1 km2), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States.

[source:  Wikipedia]


SAMOANS

 




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