Courtesy of Bowie State University
Four Bowie State University graduate students pursuing masters’ degrees in the mental health counseling program have each been awarded a $10,000 Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) grant from the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC).
The four 2024 grant recipients are Keanna Siles, Giovania Jones, Erynne Dixon and Jada Brown (shown in the photo from left to right). The grant will be used to support the students’ counseling education and their commitment to underserved and underrepresented communities.
Last year only one Bowie State student, Romuladus Emeka Azuine, received the NBCC grant.
“These NBCC grants that our students receive will help to increase the number of culturally competent mental health and addiction counselors available to focus on transition age youth between 16 -25,” said Dr. Otis Williams, chair of the Department of Counseling & Psychological Studies.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 55% of the public see young adult mental health issues as a crisis in the U.S., and that many teenagers are not able to get the mental health services they need. Deaths due to drug overdose among adolescents more than doubled from 2018 to 2022 with the largest increases among Hispanic and Black adolescents highlighting the need for more counselors who can work in different cultural environments.
Erynne Dixon says one of the benefits of the NBCC grant is that it will go a long way in helping achieve her goal of becoming a culturally relevant mental health counselor trained to work with diverse populations.
“The NBCC fellowship opportunity has given me the chance to connect with other like-minded students, university faculty and clinicians interested in advancing the diversification in the counseling field, and also provided me the financial support to continue pursuing my master’s degree and research projects with more freedom,” said Dixon. “Now I can take a deeper dive into my interests serving as a multicultural mental health counselor.”
Anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder are some of the most common mental health conditions diagnosed in the U.S. affecting 42.5 million adults according to Forbes. But young adults in the U.S. experience the highest rates of mental illness (36.2%), followed by those ages 26 to 49 (29.4%) and adults ages 50 and over (13.9%).
“Our goal is to increase the number of Bowie State NBCC grant recipients each year to help increase the pool of culturally trained mental health counselors who can help address the crisis that is impacting communities across the nation,” said Dr. Williams.