Non-teaching degree program now available

Students in the degree program are able to choose between two tracks, the Counseling Psychology track and the Higher Education and Student Affairs track.

The IU School of Education is now offering its first non-teaching degree, a B.S.Ed. in Counseling and Student Services (CASS).

The CASS program aims to teach students how to communicate, understand diversity, equity and inclusion and listen and help, according to Jesse Steinfeldt, Associate Professor in Counseling and Educational Psychology and coordinator of the major.

Students in the degree program are able to choose between two tracks, the Counseling Psychology track and the Higher Education and Student Affairs track.

For those who choose the Counseling Psychology track, a range of options await them: “Folks who come to our Counseling classes come back for more because they enjoy the applied and experiential nature of our courses,” Steinfeldt said. “We work to bring concepts in psychology to life, to show how to apply the theories, to understand how to engage people, to listen, to critically think. All of those things are important, but more so now in this point of our history.”

Now more than ever, we need more mental health professionals in the field. With a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a reckoning of racial inequality, people are struggling. They need folks who are professionally trained to listen, to assist, to help them gain perspective in order to help them through these dark times and maximize their human potential.

Associate Professor Jesse Steinfeldt

“Now more than ever, we need more mental health professionals in the field. With the unholy trifecta of a health pandemic, an economic crisis, and a reckoning of racial inequality, people are struggling. They are hurting. They need folks who are professionally trained to listen, to assist, to help them gain perspective in order to help them through these dark times and maximize their human potential,” Steinfeldt added.

Danielle DeSawal, Clinical Professor in Higher Education and Student Affairs, says the HESA track is a great opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge to work at higher education institution post-graduation.

“Higher education and student affairs has exclusively been a graduate level program across the country. Indiana University was one of the first institutions to offer graduate degrees in this area, and it only makes sense that we are also one of the first to offer an undergraduate program with this emphasis,” she added. “Higher education institutions have a number of professional student services focused positions that require a bachelor degree. This degree offers students the opportunity to begin their career in the field post-graduation and prepare them for graduate school to advance in the profession.”