Students Can Access Online Counseling

An Internet service and a producer of educational videos announced Thursday that they will join forces beginning Saturday to provide a Web site for students in need of personal and educational counseling.

To kick off the new venture between Camarillo-based Education Equation and PacificNet of Canoga Park, company officials said there will be a live chat room from 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday where students can discuss problems or seek advice from professional school counselors online.

The online counselors are members of the Fullerton-based California School Counselor Assn.

Bill Gorback, a counselor at Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills and a member of CSCA, said the group was “happy to participate [in the program] to help students with their academic and personal social development. This is a great first step toward fulfilling these students’ needs.”

“Many students don’t feel comfortable walking into a counselor’s office discussing things that are problematic to them,” said Dennis Maness, executive director of Education Equation, based in Camarillo.

“This Web site gives them a confidential place where they can go and receive professional school counseling,” Maness said. “In addition, counselors will be offering academic help, such as how to create a report, and how to develop organizational and stress management skills.”

Maness said the online service will be offered again during the same hours on April 18, but students may visit the Web site and send questions to counselors at any time. Response time varies from a matter of minutes to a few hours, he said.

For the partnership, Education Equation will provide literature and PacificNet will provide the Internet access, he said.

“Education Equation approached us and when we heard their idea and what they wanted to achieve, we felt that it was a worthwhile cause and something that we can definitely help them do,” said Lisa McCarthy, director of marketing at PacificNet.

Interested students may visit the Web site at www.dengem.com