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University of Wyoming

Counseling group recognizes grad student Murdock

In a young career that has already taken some interesting and productive turns, doctoral student Jennifer Murdock has found a path-recently recognized by the Wyoming Counseling Association (WCA)-to share evolving love for her profession with an increasingly diverse group of students.

The WCA presented Murdock with its 2006 J.R. MacNeel Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Counselors of Wyoming in recognition of her innovation in taking UW’s “Fundamentals of Counseling” course online and widening the discipline’s exposure to new audiences.

The Hot Springs, S.D., native, who entered UW’s doctoral program in counselor education in 2003, has discovered the potential to impact more lives teaching face-to-face and online counselor education classes. It is an experience that has shifted her career goals toward a higher education teaching position. Introducing students from colleges as diverse as Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Education and Health Sciences to counseling has helped Murdock define an unexpectedly fulfilling professional mission.

“When I came here, I was really focused on student affairs,” she recalls. “But as I’ve spent more time here, I’ve realized how much I enjoy teaching and training counselors.”

Through that experience, Jennifer has seen her influence on college students.

“The unexpected impact is probably the pleasant surprise,” she says. Student comments on mid-term evaluations describe “things that I didn’t realize that they would be excited about or happy about.” One of the more pleasant surprises: many of her students are considering application to UW’s counselor education program.

Murdock accepted her first student affairs assignment-directing orientation programs for Chadron State College in Nebraska-before receiving her bachelor’s degree. A post-graduation orientation program internship at the University of Minnesota solidified her passion for student affairs work. Murdock returned to Chadron to earn a master’s degree in counseling to launch that career path.

After directing a Head Start preschool program and establishing a career development program at an alternative high school, Jennifer acknowledged that she missed the higher education environment and began exploring doctoral program possibilities. She didn’t have to look far: a faculty mentor at Chadron, Kent Becker, had moved to UW. Coincidentally, Murdock’s family ties extend to Wyoming; her grandfather and great-grandfather resided in Sheridan County.

Murdock’s teaching experience began in 2005, when she accepted an assignment teaching the fundamentals course on campus. She moved the class online in the spring 2006 semester, in part, to accommodate program requirements for family and consumer sciences majors and early childhood certification program enrollees.

Taking a skills-focused course online and creating a quality learning experience has required creativity and a bit of hard work. She researched factors for successful online teaching and consulted with expert distance educators at UW in the process, with significant support from her Counselor Education Department faculty. While teaching a skills based course online may introduce different kinds of challenges, Murdock reports that students appreciate the ways in which the novel methods incorporated have expanded their understanding of counseling and their comfort with the core skills involved.

Murdock currently is part of the instructional team teaching the department’s “Research in Counselor Education” class as well as the fundamentals course. She also will teach its “Student Development Theories” class in the spring. Jennifer graduates in May 2007.