Four master’s students and two doctoral students have been selected this year to participate in the Minority Fellowship Program through AAMFT. The Minority Fellowship Program is designed to provide financial support and professional guidance to graduate students pursuing degrees in Couple and Family Therapy. The program also strives to provide a fellowship program open to Marriage (Couple) and Family Therapy students who are committed to research and serve ethnic minority and underserved populations. The goals of the program look to expand the delivery of culturally competent mental health and substance abuse services to underserved minority populations and to increase the number of culturally competent Marriage and Family therapists. Forty-two Master’s students and 25 PhD students were selected nationwide for this award.
The Master’s Fellows selected from K-State are:
- Scott May; Research interests: Emerging adults; Technology use and its impact on relationships; Relationship and sexual satisfaction within couples.
- Tommy Childs; Research interest: working with Hispanic populations that would otherwise not be able to obtain clinical services.
- Sally Hodges; Research interest: mental health for aging adults with a focus in sustaining relationship quality, and culturally competent therapy for minority emerged adults.
- Becky Sorensen; Research interests: working with depression and suicidality, Alaska Native populations, children and families
The Doctoral Fellows selected from K-State are:
- Heather Love; Research interests: suicide prevention in a myriad of populations, particularly those affected by trauma, military service members and their families, LGBTQ individuals, and individuals and families affected by cultural and identity issues.
- Chelsea Spencer; Research interests: intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and intimate partner homicide
In the past two years, K-State CFT doctoral students Lauren Oseland Rulhmann (2016) and Eric Goodcase (2017) have been recognized as the Outstanding Apprentice Reviewer from the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Both are one of three students to receive this award each year. Lauren was also one of 100 doctoral students in the U.S. and Canada selected to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood.
