Counseling MA Student Awarded $8,000 in Fellowship from NBCC
Winston-Salem, NC—The NBCC Foundation, an affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), recently selected Felix Morton IV of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the NBCC Minority Fellowship Program-Youth (MFP-Y). As an NBCC MFP-Y Fellow, Morton will receive funding and training to support his education and facilitate his service to underserved minority populations, with a specific focus on transition-age youth (ages 16–25).
The NBCC MFP-Y is made possible by a grant awarded to NBCC by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in September 2014. The Foundation is contracted by NBCC to administer the NBCC MFP-Y, as well as training and collaboration activities, such as webinars, that are open to all National Certified Counselors (NCCs). The goal of the program is to reduce health disparities and improve behavioral health care outcomes for racially and ethnically diverse populations by increasing the number of available culturally competent behavioral health professionals.
The NBCC MFP will distribute $8,000 education awards to Morton and the 29 other master’s-level counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award. Morton is a graduate of East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina, and of The University of North Carolina at Wilmington and is currently pursuing a master’s in the clinical mental health counseling program at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upon graduation, Morton intends to serve transition-aged youth, particularly those in the high school and college settings. By combining the skills and knowledge acquired from his MEd in higher education, Morton hopes to become a competent counselor in a college counseling center as well as an active support system and asset to his surrounding community. Understanding the need for men of color in counseling, Morton also hopes to strengthen the bridge into the profession for minority males through mentorship and advocacy. Earning this fellowship will allow Morton to attend counseling conferences to establish a stronger professional identity as a counselor, learn evidence-based practices to better serve underserved populations, and advocate for the counseling profession as a whole.
The NBCC Foundation has also awarded 23 $20,000 doctoral fellowships through the Minority Fellowship Program and 34 master’s-level fellowships of up to $11,000 through the MFP-Addictions Counselors (MFP-AC). The Foundation plans to open the next NBCC MFP-Y application period in fall 2018. To learn more about the NBCC MFP and its fellows, please visit http://www.nbccf.org/Programs/Fellows.
ABOUT THE NBCC FOUNDATION
The NBCC Foundation is the nonprofit affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), based in Greensboro, North Carolina. NBCC is the nation’s premier professional certification board devoted to credentialing counselors who meet standards for the general and specialty practices of professional counseling. Currently, there are more than 64,000 board-certified counselors in the United States and more than 50 countries. The Foundation’s mission is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change.