Field experiences are where so much of the real learning happens. It’s also where programs end up carrying the most invisible work: the follow-ups, the chasing signatures, the “did this get submitted,” the “who’s behind.” Too often, that work gets trapped in spreadsheets, email chains, or tools that are priced like field education is a luxury. It’s not.

FieldX started by sitting with real programs and getting specific about pain points. I met Dr. Eric Beeson (chair of Marshall University’s counseling program), and our early conversations weren’t “product meetings” so much as honest walkthroughs of the day-to-day: placements, hours, evaluations, and the constant scramble to keep records clean for accreditation. We traded drafts, pressure-tested workflows, and kept coming back to the same question: does this reduce admin for programs and supervisors, and does it help students get better support in the field?

That’s also why FieldX is free. We don’t want budget to be the reason a program is stuck doing high-stakes work in spreadsheets. Over the next year, we’ll keep building FieldX alongside counselor educators and field directors, and we’ll take input from groups in the profession when it’s helpful, including ACES. The goal is straightforward: make field operations easier, make recordkeeping stronger, and keep the bar for training exactly where it should be.