Institute of Transpersonal Psychology Presents
Community Engagement Award to Stephen Di Cerbo
The faculty and trustees of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology are pleased to acknowledge Stephen Di Cerbo, M.A. as the recipient of the ITP Community Engagement Award. The first annual award was presented to Stephen at this year’s commencement ceremony. The ITP community is very pleased to recognize Stephen’s accomplishments as Director of the Counseling Program within the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto.
We congratulate Steve on his work at Ravenswood, which has been outstanding. He is providing support and guidance to children and their families in an at-risk area, and the results have been very positive,” says ITP president Tom Potterfield.
Steve has been part of the Ravenswood counseling program for the last two years. The program, which began in 2003, serves students in the fourth through the eighth grades. It focuses primarily on individual counseling; however, in the last year, a provision for family counseling has been dramatically expanded.
The Ravenswood School District contains 12 schools that serve over 4,000 students in East Palo Alto. Poverty is pervasive, and the drop-out rate is high. ITP has been a key collaborator with Ravenswood by supplying the majority of the district’s student interns. The training and approaches to counseling that ITP students receive has proven to be the most effective when working with the challenges that this population faces.
Ruth Woods, Special Assignments Principal for Ravenswood and Steve’s supervisor, remarks, “We have noticed better attendance at school with the students receiving counseling. These kids are much more cooperative now in their behavior, and they have developed a strong understanding of themselves and their surroundings. With the addition and expansion of the family counseling aspect, there has also been a drop in emotional upheaval within their homes, as well.”
Regarding Steve’s contribution to the school district, Ms. Woods adds, “He has such a calm demeanor; it’s amazing. Steve is active in the community; he has an excellent sense of the Ravenswood district and of East Palo Alto and how he can connect here.”
Steve describes his role as that of helping the students reach their full potential. He says, “These kids have challenges that many of us did not have when we were growing up. The Ravenswood district is under a lot of pressure in terms of making academic strides, and if we can free up whatever is interfering with learning, then we are more hopeful about their capacity for learning.”
