Karria Thurmond

I am currently a student in the Specialist in School Psychology program at Texas A&M University- Commerce, and here I am learning a lot about what it means to be a School Psychologist. I am also learning more about how this role compares to my personal professional development and values. In considering the type of positive impact I see myself making in the field of psychology, I have decided to highlight the views of my future role as a School Psychologist. I will do this by focusing on my ethical/legal commitments and the domains of practice that are particularly important to me.

As a future School Psychologist, my role will consist of ensuring that my place of work is a positive environment for all children. I will do this by making sure all students have the means and materials to cultivate opportunities for them to grow and develop socially, behaviorally, and academically. Also, I believe my role as a school psychologist is to be of service to all students and families by making sure their needs are appropriately met through schools, educational agencies, and community centers that have assumed responsibility for the success of students.

I will do my best to ensure their practices and procedures are in line with the ethical and legal commitments that come with the role. Being a school psychologist comes with the ethical and legal commitments of respecting the dignity and rights of all persons, responsibility to practice within the boundaries of their competence, and maintain honesty and integrity within their professional relationships. There are more ethical and legal guidelines to be considered, but they all fall under those three big ones. My ethical commitments will remain consistent with the ethical guidelines provided, the law that I must abide by, the rules and regulations that come with my place of work, and my morals and ethics. My morals and ethics are primarily concerned with making sure that I practice in a way that only benefits others and ensures that I am not doing anything that can potentially cause any form of harm to any person.

There are 10 domains of practice provided by the National Association of School Psychologists. As a school psychologist, I want to practice under the domains of 7, 8, and 10. Domain 7 covers family- school collaboration services, which means bridging the gap between families and schools to help them collaborate effectively. Domain 8 is concerned with diversity in development and learning; this is making sure I am competent in serving diverse groups of students and families. Domain 10 is Legal, Ethical, and Professional Practice, which includes practicing with professionalism, competency, ethics, and law. Using these domains of practice, I will accomplish my overall goal of being a School Psychologists that can help minority students and families by helping the school become more collaborative with them, ensuring that their needs are being appropriately met, and working in terms of ethics and law to be sure I am doing my job correctly.

As a school psychologist, I will abide by all of the ethical and legal standards required of school psychologists. However, I will also make sure to practice through my ethical and legal scope that is formed by my views. I will also practice under domains that fall under my job description. I will also try to make efforts to practice under the domains and in ways where I can help the minority students. I still have much to learn about the field of school psychology, but this is an overview of how I will make a positive impact in their field of school psychology.