About Us

The mission of the non-instructional Counseling Department is to provide educational, career, and personal counseling and program advisement. Our purpose is to empower students by providing COC program information and by counseling students to establish goals, evaluate options, develop an educational plan, and learn to study effectively so they may reach their educational and career goals.

Counseling faculty meet with students individually in private counseling appointments for educational counseling, career counseling, and personal counseling; they help students develop educational plans, they facilitate group counseling workshops, and they teach Counseling courses. Counseling faculty are trained professionals available to help you with personal concerns. Counseling involves self-awareness, establishing goals, exploring alternative plans of action and possible consequences, considering possible challenges and how to overcome them, establishing a support network, and evaluating actions. Counselor-counselee interaction leads to exploration of immediate alternatives or options that will assist in decision making. If further assistance is necessary, counselors can provide referral service to experts in personal and social problems.

Program Advisors provide information on COC policies, procedures, programs, services, degree, majors, and certificates, IGETC, CSUGE, and major preparation as listed on the college catalog, assist.org, and articulation agreements.

Please note that COC ensures the privacy of all student records in accordance with statutes set forth in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. By law, college personnel, including counseling faculty and staff, are not permitted to give access to or to release student records/information to anyone other than a student. This statute applies regardless of the age of the student.