- When NIU received 2025’s national Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education Program Award, Suzanne Degges-White, Ph.D., chair of the College of Education’s Department of Counseling and Higher Education, was thrilled.
But she wasn’t surprised.
“Look at the facts,” she said.
NIU was the first in Illinois to receive the seal of approval from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, a designation maintained continuously since the 1980s.
Degges-White described NIU faculty as highly engaged in their profession, creative in their scholarship and award winners in their own right. She said they consistently model these qualities in the classroom to prepare future leaders in the field.
“It’s excellence through standards,” said Degges-White.
“Meanwhile, we’re innovative. We created a system where our doctoral students can come in with a graduate assistantship, which is something we weren’t able to do in the past. And because we’re able to do that, we’re able to attract wonderful doctoral students who are ready to get into the classroom as well as begin their practicum and their research.”
Selective admission to the Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral program improves the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.
“We’re able to ensure that every student works directly with faculty members. They’re not working on their own,” Degges-White said.
“They’re able to get that guidance and mentorship, and all of our faculty pride themselves on their ability to mentor the doctoral students so that we don’t leave them to figure things out on their own,” Degges-White said. “We ensure they’re on a path to becoming strong educators, strong mentors, strong supervisors.”
Given by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), the Robert Frank award honors a counselor education program that exemplifies the essence of the namesake’s career as a counselor educator — and, yes, that “essence” is standards and innovation.
Faculty members honored were Degges-White, Melissa Fickling, Yenitza Guzman, Kimberly A. Hart, Dana Isawi, Injung Lee, TJ Schoonover and Peitao Zhu.
“We truly embrace the spirit of continuous improvement. We have implemented numerous curricular changes and initiatives to intentionally scaffold and support our students’ scholarly and leadership development,” Zhu said. “As a result, many of our students are now emerging leaders at the regional and national levels.”
Ph.D. students Babatola Arogundade and Yanfei Mao, and Priyanka Jha, ’25, also received national awards.