Counseling and Supervision Doctoral Student Awarded $20K NBCC Fellowship
SUMMARY: Mina Attia was one of only 23 doctoral counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award, the fellowship will help Attia become more involved in his research area through direct clinical service, community involvement, advocacy for underserved populations, and education and training of future practitioners.
Mina Attia, a doctoral student in JMU’s Counseling and Supervision program, was awarded a $20,000 counseling fellowship from the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Foundation as part of the NBCC Minority Fellowship Program (NBCC MFP). As an NBCC MFP fellow, Attia will receive funding and training to support his education and facilitate his service to underserved minority populations. The goal of the program is to strengthen the infrastructure that engages diverse individuals in counseling and increases the number of professional counselors providing effective, culturally competent services to underserved populations. The fellowship program was originally made possible by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in August 2012.
As one of only 23 doctoral counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award, the fellowship will help Attia become more involved in his research area through direct clinical service, community involvement, advocacy for underserved populations, and education and training of future practitioners. Attia’s current interests focus on working with the underserved refugee and immigrant populations. His research agenda includes examining the American mental health care system and its competence for working with refugees and immigrants, issues of multiculturalism and social justice, and the role of counselors and counselor educators as advocates. In addition to supporting Attia’s research and learning, this fellowship will help fund opportunities to engage with local, regional and national professional counseling organizations, as well as further training to competently provide services to underserved minority populations.
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 60,000 National 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. In addition to the doctoral fellowships, the NBCC Foundation has also awarded 30 $8,000 master’s-level fellowships through the MFP-Youth (MFP-Y) and 31 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 application period in September 2017. To learn more about the NBCC MFP and its fellows, please visit www.nbccf.org/Programs/Fellows
