AEC wins CREST Award, Education Foundation Grant

Alternative Education Center won two awards during the school year 2023-24: Counselors Reinforcing Excellence in Students in Texas (CREST) and Education Foundation Grant. CREST is awarded yearly by the Texas School Counseling Association to Texas public schools implementing the Texas Comprehensive School Counseling Program with the highest integrity. Schools are judged based on the five categories specified in the Press Release below. It was the first time that AEC received this award, and the community of Odessa joined in the celebration. This state award is living proof that integrating global education into school counseling does not imperil the core of counseling; instead, it enhances students' mental health as they start seeing their significance and contribution to the world. We were featured in the news. 

On the other hand, the AEC counseling project, Gamifying School Counseling, won the Education Foundation Grant early this school year. The project aims to integrate play therapy into school guidance and counseling, targeting significant topics based on the Texas Model of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs. A set of play therapy tools worth more than a thousand dollars was purchased through the grant money and has been productively used in individual and group guidance and counseling sessions with students since the first semester. Our project was featured in the news.