UW-Casper Counseling Student Receives National Rural Scholarship

A student in the school counseling program at the University of Wyoming at Casper is a recipient of a scholarship from the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Foundation.

Samantha Dawn Wiederrecht, of Douglas, will receive $8,000 to support her counseling education and recognize her commitment to the underserved. The scholarship is awarded to counseling students who are from rural communities and commit to practicing in rural areas upon graduation.

Wiederrecht, who received a Bachelor of Arts from UW in 2012, is a master’s degree student in the school counseling program at UW-Casper. Upon graduation, she looks forward to serving the rural communities in her home state of Wyoming, where mental health services are limited.

Her passion for at-risk youth, marginalized populations and suicide prevention drives her educational and professional goals, according to an NBCC media release. Earning this scholarship will enable her to continue her education without the added stress of additional student debt.

The mission of the NBCC Foundation is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change. The foundation created the rural scholarship in 2009 to improve access to counseling services in rural communities, which suffer disproportionately from a lack of mental health care. Nearly 100 students from across the country applied for the five 2017 rural scholarships.

The NBCC Foundation is the nonprofit affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors, based in Greensboro, N.C. 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.