When NIU received the national Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education Program Award this fall, Suzanne Degges-White was thrilled.
But she wasn’t surprised.
Just look at the facts, she says.
The first in Illinois to receive the seal of approval from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, a designation maintained continuously since the 1980s. Faculty highly engaged in the profession and creative in their scholarship who are award winners in their own right. Professors who practice what they preach, modeling that in the classroom to prepare future leaders in the field.
“It’s excellence through standards,” says Degges-White, chair of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education.
At the same time, she adds, “we’re innovative. We created a system where our doctoral students can come in with a graduate assistantship, which is something we weren’t able to do in the past. And because we’re able to do that, we’re able to attract wonderful doctoral students who are ready to get into the classroom as well as begin their practicum and their research.”
NIU’s selective admission to the Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision improves opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.
“We’re able to ensure that every student works directly with faculty members. They’re not working on their own,” Degges-White says.
“They’re able to get that guidance and mentorship, and all of our faculty pride themselves on their ability to mentor the doctoral students so that we don’t leave them to figure things out on their own,” she adds. “We ensure they’re on a path to becoming strong educators, strong mentors, strong supervisors – all the things that our faculty are doing. We invest that time and energy back into our students.”
Given by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, the Robert Frank award
honors a counselor education program that exemplifies the essence of the namesake’s career as a counselor educator – and, yes, that “essence” is standards and innovation.
Other awards presented during October’s ACES annual convention in Philadelphia included several from the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (NCACES), which honored NIU with the Innovative Counselor Education Program Award-Doctoral Program.
Peitao Zhu, associate professor and program co-coordinator, calls himself “lucky to have such a wonderful team of colleagues who are dedicated, collaborative and open to change.”
“While our Ph.D. program has always had a great foundation, I believe it has transformed significantly within the past few years,” says Zhu, who received the NCACES Deanna Hawes Outstanding Mentor Award.
“We truly embrace the spirit of continuous improvement. We have implemented numerous curricular changes and initiatives to intentionally scaffold and support out students’ scholarly and leadership development,” he says. “As a result, many of our students are now emerging leaders at the regional and national levels, receiving grants, awards and leadership opportunities.”
Yenitza Guzman, assistant professor, appreciates the source.
“Being awarded as a department is a true honor, especially because we were nominated by our own students who know the great deal of effort we put into our programs, classes and research,” Guzman says. “I’m eternally grateful and motivated to continue to live up to the standards of being an exemplary program for years to come.”
For colleague Melissa Fickling, “the recognition means that our students and our peers agree that we are doing something more than just delivering coursework. It means we are really having an impact on our students professionally and even personally.”
“Our program is one of the oldest CACREP-accredited programs in Illinois and in the country. I think this award speaks to our commitment to standards while still maintaining our identity as a distinct program that evolves with the needs of our local stakeholders,” says Fickling, an associate professor.
“Being grounded in our national standards while maintaining a distinct identity is something our prospective and current students see, and our alumni appreciate about their training with us,” she adds. “We always want to live up to the high standards and expectations of our students who invest so much of their time and resources into their professional preparation.”
The faculty achieve just that, says Degges-White of the group that also includes Kimberly A. Hart, Dana Isawi, Injung Lee and TJ Schoonover.
“We have faculty who graduated from R1 institutions who choose to come here. They bring those skill sets and infuse the counseling program with that knowledge and expertise. It makes me so proud to see what they’ve done,” she says, “and also to be part of a team that wants to make the world a better place and wants their program to excel.”
Proof of NIU’s impact came during the Philadelphia convention, where two current students and one recent alumna also were honored.
Babatola Arogundade received the ACES Qualitative Interest Network Qualitative Research Presentation of the Year and the NCACES Research Grant along with recognition among the NCACES Emerging Leaders, a distinction similarly given to Huskie classmate Yanfei Mao.
Mao also received a research grant from the North Atlantic Region of the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision.
Alumna Priyanka Jha, a May 2025 graduate, received the NCACES Research Grant and the NCACES Emerging Leaders salute.
