Goucher Graduate Sofia Jasani Selected For NBCC Minority Fellowship For Mental Health Counseling
BALTIMORE, Md. – Former cross country/track and field athlete Sofia Jasani, a 2006 graduate of Goucher College, has been selected for the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) Minority Fellowship Program Mental Health Counseling-Masters's (NBCC MFP-MHC-M). As a fellow in the program, Jasani will receive funding and training to support her education and facilitate her service to underserved minority populations.
Jasani was a four-year letterwinner in cross country and a two-year letterwinner for the Gophers track and field team. She finished 25th at the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) Cross Country Championships as a senior.
"Sofia like a lot of her alum teammates have gone on to do great things since leaving Goucher," said cross country/track and field head coach John Caslin. "She was an important team member to our CAC cross country years and it's been great to have her back on campus occasionally to run with the alum team at the Goucher XC Classic."
The NBCC Foundation MFP will distribute up to $10,000 to Jasani and the other 29 master's-level counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award. Jasani is a graduate of Goucher College, in Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently a master's student in the clinical rehabilitation counseling program at Portland State University, in Oregon. Upon graduation, Jasani intends to work with children, adults, and families whose lives are impacted by chronic illness and disability. She would also like to work with people who hold multiple marginalized identities, including women of color and ethnic minorities, who deserve access to culturally competent mental health care. In her roles with the Oregon Counseling Association and Chi Sigma Iota International Honor Society, Jasani has been committed to making professional leadership accessible to counseling students of color through mentorship, community-building, and scholarships. Earning this fellowship will allow Jasani to attend counseling conferences and learn evidence-based practices to better serve underserved populations. Her goal as a 2019 NBCC Minority Fellowship Program Fellow is to establish a state division of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development in order to increase access to effective, culturally competent counseling services for underserved minority populations in Oregon.
The NBCC MFP-MHC-M is made possible by a grant awarded to the NBCC Foundation by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The Foundation administers the MFP, including 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.
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 66,000 board certified counselors in the United States and over 50 countries. The Foundation's mission is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change.