About Dr. Siu-Man “Raymond” Ting: As a professor of counseling at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Dr. Ting has taught coursework on college counseling, career development school guidance, theories of counseling, career theory, student development, and group counseling. He is also the coordinator of the counselor education program for certification and online deliveries. With an extensive research focus on career theory and practice, Dr. Ting has published many research scholarly articles from career readiness to teen dating violence prevention.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] Can you explain more about the counselor education program’s mission, values, and goals for their students?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] Our mission is through the Scientist-Practitioner and School-College-Community Collaboration Model, we train culturally competent counselors and counselor educators who are able to work collaboratively across settings to effectively lead, serve and advocate for the academic, career, personal and social development of children, adults, families and communities. We value diversity and have a commitment to multicultural diversity, which is reflected in the required coursework and in the faculty-student community.  Our goals are through teaching, research and service, we offer hope to persons with the least access to educational and career opportunities afforded by life in the 21st century. Also, we aspire to become a leader in using technology for cutting-edge counseling education, research, and services.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] What are some coursework requirements that you find to be imperative to a professional counseling education?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] On top of being a CACREP program, we offer a very comprehensive and practical curriculum, our program also offers a few additional courses such as crisis intervention, family and couples counseling, and a study abroad program in China. We think that these courses will prepare our students to be effective in working with the complicated mental health issues in the 21st century and will be ready to become a professional counselor in the global world.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] Gaining hands-on experiences are imperative to counseling licensure and certification. How does NCSU help students obtain their internship sites and process their experiences?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] We work early with our new online master’s students to plan for their placements. New students will propose three potential agencies either from our agencies list or new ones. If the agency is new, our clinical coordinator will contact the agency to explore whether we can develop an internship contract with the agency. After the relationship is established, we will ask the student to contact the agencies for an interview. We found from our experiences that most of our students will get a good placement in the end.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] For your program concentrations in counseling, the curriculum for counselor education at NCSU is based on the School-College-Community Collaboration Model. How has this model come to influence the approach of the counselor education program at NCSU?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] All master’s students (on-campus or online) will receive the training of the School-College-Community Collaboration Model, which started about 15 years ago. Students of school, college and clinical counseling work on projects together in groups. They learn how to collaborate with counselors in various settings as well as different professionals. From our exit survey, this is a highly regarded component of our student learning.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] What do you think are some qualities that students applying to the Counselor Education program at NCSU should possess?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] The students should be passionate working with people, open-minded, good in communication, have multicultural experiences, and they are an independent learner.

[OnlineCounselingPrograms.com] Some prospective students may be hesitant to pursue a degree through an online program. What advice do you have for prospective students on the value and differences of online versus on-campus programs at NCSU?

[Dr. Siu-Man Ting] Online programs offer the flexibility of time and space for students who either have a full-time job or cannot come to campus. They also allow more flexibility in the learning process. Our online program is part-time and cohort-based three years program, which allows our students to enjoy the learning, and spread the cost into 3 years. Also, a uniqueness of our program is the weekly virtual class, students and the instructor meet for an hour and a half for a variety of learning activities such as practicing counseling skills, conducting role-plays, discussing counseling issues, or presenting student projects. In our program evaluation and follow-up research studies, this is the most popular learning component for our online students. We also use Moodle for our online classes.

Last updated: April 2020