The NBCC Foundation, an affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors, Inc. (NBCC), recently awarded a $5,000 2016 NBCC Foundation military scholarship to Stephanie Trotti, of Kailua, Hawaii. The military scholarship is awarded to service members, veterans and their spouses who are pursuing a counseling education and commit to serving fellow military personnel, veterans and families upon graduation.
The mission of the NBCC Foundation is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change. The military scholarship was created in 2009 to increase access to counselors for military personnel, veterans and families suffering from a shortage of available mental health professionals. Nearly 30 students from across the country applied for the five 2016 military scholarships.
As a military scholarship recipient, Trotti will receive $5,000 to support her counseling education and recognize her commitment to the underserved. A graduate of State University of New York at Oneonta, Trotti is currently a master’s student in the clinical mental health counseling program at Adams State University, in Alamosa, Colorado. Upon graduation, Trotti intends to work with active-duty service members, military families and veterans. Trotti is interested in working with the communities deployed on overseas military installations. In addition to helping people navigate the major stressors of military life, Trotti plans to focus on long-term skill building. Her areas of interest include stress management with extended family (e.g., how to manage illness, bereavement, and separation from family of origin), positive and calm parenting for the military family, pre- and post-deployment adjustments in areas of intimacy and finances, resiliency-building for the individual and family, new parent support when a family is geographically isolated from natural support systems, and transition to civilian life, particularly for spouses and children. Earning this scholarship will allow Trotti to attend workshops and training opportunities to develop her skill set as a counselor and volunteer in the military community.
The NBCC Foundation has also awarded five $5,000 rural scholarships to increase the number of counselors serving rural areas. The Foundation plans to continue offering scholarships to increase the number of counselors in the areas where they are needed most and will open the next application period in September 2016. For more information or to make a gift in support of the Foundation’s mission, please visit NBCC.
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 60,000 National Certified Counselors (NCCs) 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.
