The counseling department at Bakersfield College is putting forth an effort to motivate students and to get them aware of the new and old resources that it offers.

This year, the counseling department has added new things that it believes will help students with their college and life careers. The counseling office has gained a few new counselors, and this is believed to be a big part in the new resources in the office.

“We have a really good nucleus of veteran counselors that look out for us and make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, and we have the new excitedness coming in as well,” said new BC counselor Jonathan Schultz.

When a student goes into the counseling office, one of the first things available for them to grab is the fall 2015 workshops pamphlet. This pamphlet informs students of every workshop that the counseling department has this fall.

There are new workshops that the counseling department believes will be beneficial to students.

Two of the new workshops are the Probation Workshops and the Disqualification Workshops. Schultz said, “So the probation students that need to come in and see a counselor, we can see them as a group rather than just one on one where they have to make an appointment.”

Another new workshop is the How to Choose a Major/How to Choose a Career workshop. This workshop will help students decide what direction they want to go in their school and work careers.

The SEP Workshop is also a new workshop. This is a workshop where students have the opportunity to complete their student educational plan. The things that make the counseling office believe this workshop will be so beneficial are that it will be a quicker process for the student, and the counselors can reach more students at once.

Schultz explained that they can inform a group of students at once about what the educational plan consists of, and the student can then get it signed during their next visit to the counseling office.

“At the most, you’re going to see two [students] in an hour, so if we can do five or six in an hour in a half, we’ll double the students that we can see,” said Schultz.

The counseling office has added a gong to its décor as well. Students hit the gong when they are officially able to file for graduation. When the gong is hit, students will have a picture taken of them, and the counselors will come out of their office and applaud them. The picture will also be posted on the school website.

“I thought it would be really cool when we get grad papers that we can just say ‘Yay! Good job!’” said counseling department chair Kathy Rosellini, who came up with the idea for the gong.

Schultz came up with another idea for trying to bring a good feel on campus and something to show students that the counselors are just regular people too. So the counseling department is challenging the Student Government Association to a volleyball game.

“What we’re trying to do is biannually have the SGA and counselors games,” Schultz said. “We’re just trying to get us out of the offices and outside so people know we’re humans.”

The volleyball game will be held in a visible grassy area on campus on Oct. 14.