On October 21, 2016, PALCS 10th grade guidance counselor Erin Neason had an article published in the Urban Education Journal from Sage Publishing. Ms. Neason has her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from West Chester University and her Master of Science in School Counseling from Villanova University.

Her article is entitled “Local Liaisons: Roles, Challenges, and Training in Serving Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness.” “My article talks about the different needs that students experiencing homelessness experience and how schools (local liaisons) work with those students to help them succeed in and out of school,” said Ms. Neason.

There were a total of four co-authors on the article. Ms. Neason and her colleagues worked on the piece with their professor from Villanova University. “I decided to work on this with her after doing my practicum in a school that had a high homelessness rate and seeing how the whole school community came together to help these students succeed,” explained Ms. Neason. This topic was already very well researched from past scholars so she truly enjoyed gathering evidence and data to support the topic that will hopefully assist future scholars in their studies and work concerning students experiencing homelessness.

Ms. Neason has been a guidance counselor at PALCS since 2014. She is from Horsham, PA in Montgomery County (about 10 miles north of downtown Philadelphia) and has lived there for most of her life. She decided to be a high school counselor because of the influence her counselor had on her when she was a student. “I would like to be the kind of mentor she was to all of my students as they move though high school towards graduation,” said Ms. Neason

She was drawn to cyber school and chose to work at PALCS because of the talented students that she has the opportunity to serve and connect with. “I love the many different ways that the school counselors at PALCS are able to incorporate technology into our work with the students,” Ms. Neason said in closing.

On behalf of everyone here at PALCS we would like to congratulate High School Guidance counselor Erin Neason on getting published in the Urban Education Journals, as well as thank her for all of her hard work! The article abstract can be viewed for free on the Sage Journals website.