Join other school counseling professionals for four days of inspirational keynote sessions, informative breakout sessions, in-depth looks at hot topics in the school counseling profession and networking opportunities.
Meet school counselors from across the country and around the globe you can call on again and again for help throughout the year and take home valuable, practical tips you can put into practice immediately.
Discover companies that can help you find the products and services you need to run a top-notch program. Interested in exhibiting or sponsoring? Email Brian Levy.
Have the chance to earn CEUs, Contact Hours and/or graduate credit at the ASCA Annual Conference.
For one registration fee, you’ll get access to educational sessions, networking events, keynote speakers and more. Can't attend in person? Check out the virtual option.
"I am a first-year school counselor, and going to this conference solidified that this field is exactly what I want to do and what I am meant to do. It was an amazing conference with wonderful people. I am bursting at the seams with new ideas to introduce and implement at my school. Thank you for hosting such an inspiring event."
"Attending this conference literally helped me to regain my passion and focus on my goals as a school counselor. I am able to breathe, review my professional goals and look forward to what's to come in the near future."
"This conference is a wonderful professional experience. I always come away from the conference rejuvenated and excited about my profession."
Thank you to our Diamond and Platinum sponsors:
July 11, 2021
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
The astonishing journey from migrant farm worker to renowned surgeon, scientist, innovator and philanthropist is full of stories. Dr. Q will share the stories that demonstrate the importance of building bridges and the ways bridges sustain and enhance our lives. His journey is a reminder that each student is full of potential, and it is our joint responsibility to build bridges to them so students have futures worth hoping for. Whether it is bridging resources through his global missions or bridging ideas in the lab using STEM cells to find a cure for cancer, Dr. Q uses bridges to find cures and give hope.
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa – just call him Dr. Q – was an impoverished teenager living in a rural Mexican village before he hopped an 18-foot fence into California and found his way through hope, hard work and perseverance into the loftiest heights of the American Dream. The eldest of five children, he toiled by day as an undocumented migrant worker in the tomato fields and rail yards of central California. On his days off, he attended biology classes at the San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton. Then he became a gifted student at Berkeley before transferring to Harvard, where he received his medical degree and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, all before the age of 30. After completing his residency at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Q became a professor of neurosurgery and oncology, neuroscience and cellular and molecular medicine at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr. Q is widely regarded as one of the world's finest surgeons and scientists, operating on some 250 brain tumors every year and leading cutting-edge federally funded research to cure brain cancer.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
11 a.m.–12 p.m.
Behind the Mask
With school buildings, mentoring programs and extracurricular activities temporarily shut down, many families gained a better understanding of the work school counselors do on a daily basis to help students manage difficult emotions and behaviors. Compounding students’ mental health issues during this time of isolation were circumstances that put students at risk of abuse, neglect and food insecurity.
Kristen Geez is a digital content creator, training consultant, TEDx speaker, author and founder of Advising Generation Z, a nonprofit organization focused on helping students and young adults become the best version of themselves. She is the red carpet reporter for Women That Soar, a Dallas-based media and content development company.
July 13, 2021
9–10:30 a.m.
Joaquín Zihuatanejo inspires audiences with his talk and performance of poems and stories from the classroom that will leave both students and school counselors alike inspired to write, think and live more deeply.
Joaquín Zihuatanejo is a poet, spoken word artist, and award-winning teacher. Born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas, in his work Joaquín strives to capture the duality of the Chicano culture. Sometimes brutal, but always honest, his work depicts the essence of barrio life, writing about a youth that existed somewhere between the streets of the barrio and the dream wanderings of a boy who found refuge in a world of stories and poems.
Please note: ASCA is currently planning for an in-person conference this year. ASCA is working with the Las Vegas conference facilities on safety protocols and will continue to monitor recommendations from the CDC and WHO. However, should public health guidelines prevent in-person gatherings, we will again offer a virtual-only conference and will provide registration refunds upon request. Please use care when booking travel arrangements; ASCA is not responsible for airfare or other travel reimbursements should public health guidelines require cancellation of the in-person conference.