Prospective Employees & Internships

Prospective Employees

SPPS School Counselors are:

Educators who stand in the gap for students and families
Authentically committed to urban education
Leaders in their buildings, district, state, and nation
Change agents
Anti-racist activists and warriors for equity
Collaborators and supporters - both professionally and personally
Driven by data, research, and promising practices
Creators of ASCA-aligned comprehensive school counseling programs

SPPS Counselors benefit from:

A district that values school counseling
A culture of rock star counselors that support one another to be their best
A comprehensive ASCA K-12 counseling system
A consistent core counseling curriculum districtwide
A minimum of 3.5 hours per month of targeted counselor professional development
Specific support from a lead counselor at each level
Award winning colleagues
Celebrating one another and having fun

How to Apply

How to Apply

If this sounds like the school counseling work you want to do:

How to apply for a counseling position:

Counselors interview for the school counselor pool. Those selected for the pool may be routed to building administrators for an additional interview.
Prospective employees may apply for the pool beginning in February.
The school counselor pool is currently posted. You can apply by following these steps:

Go to https://www.spps.org/about/careers.
Click "prospective employees".
Type "counselor pool" in the keywords.
Click "School Counselor Pool - SY 2024-2025". Click that link to review the job description; click "Apply for Job" to apply.

School Counseling Internship Application Process

Thank you very much for your interest in interning at Saint Paul Public Schools. All school counseling internship placements are determined through the Office of College and Career Readiness.

Please do not contact specific schools or school counselors in Saint Paul Public Schools directly. The Saint Paul Public Schools School Counseling Department works cooperatively with partnering graduate institutions to place school counseling graduate students.

Current Partnering Graduate Institutions

Minnesota State University, Mankato
Saint Cloud State University
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
University of North Dakota
University of Wisconsin – River Falls

The instructor/coordinator of each graduate program will provide pertinent information to students as they begin the internship planning process.

Graduate students interested in interning in the Saint Paul Public Schools must submit the required documents and participate in an interview with the Lead Counselors.

Interview Dates

Fall (for Spring 2025 Internship only)

Resumes and cover letters are due September 27, 2024 by noon.
Interviews will be held in the afternoon on October 4, 2024.

Spring (for Fall 2025, Spring 2026 and 2025-26 Yearlong Internships only)

Resumes and cover letters are due by noon on Friday, February 7, 2025.
Interviews will be held on February 13 and 14, 2025.

Graduate students will be contacted if they are selected for an interview. Interviews will be held online through the Microsoft Teams app.

Application Process

To be considered for a school counseling internship experience in Saint Paul Public Schools, qualified graduate students must submit the following to Jari Vang by email:

Letter of intent, which includes the following:
- University name and program supervisor contact information
- Internship dates requesting
- Total internship hours requesting and hours preferred at each school level (elementary, middle, high school)
Current resume – please include email and phone contact information

Submit all paperwork via email to Jari Vang at Jari.Vang@spps.org.

Internship Placement

Not all applicants are guaranteed placement. Intern placements are matched and determined based upon availability of school sites and counselor supervisors. Candidates who are interested in future career opportunities in the diverse urban Saint Paul Public Schools will be preferred. An internship in SPPS does not guarantee job placement. Placements are subject to change in the event of school counselor staffing changes.

School Counseling Practicum

Saint Paul Public School counselors have a partnership with Minnesota State University - Mankato and the University of Minnesota for practicum experience. At this time we do not take practicum students from other programs. Observation hours can be arranged directly with the building school counselor.