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I grew up in Maryland and graduated from Gaithersburg High School. I went to Montgomery College before transferring to Antioch College in Ohio. I graduated with my B.A. in psychology and took a job working at the Abused Persons' Program in Montgomery County, MD. I then took a position as an outreach counselor for the Family Crisis Resource Center.

Next I worked at Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville, MD with youth with severe emotional and behavioral disabilities. I also had the opportunity to work as a special education teacher in Baltimore, MD with 4th and 5th graders, again with serious emotional and behavioral disabilities. I then completed my first M.S. in psychology at Hood College followed by a M.S. in investigative psychology from the University of Liverpool in England.

Now I'm working with adults with severe and persistent mental illness as I work toward completion on my second Hood master's program in clinical mental health counseling.

I chose to apply to Hood’s counseling graduate program because it seemed like most of my professional opportunities were related to counseling. I wanted to develop my skills in this area with the idea of either working at a mental health agency or going into private practice.

Since I had already completed one master’s degree at Hood, I knew the experience would be a good one so it was an easy choice to return to Hood College for a second master’s program.

The Sally Oros scholarship allowed me to take an introductory course in eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing or EMDR which is a technique for treating trauma that has proved to be very effective.

While I will need to take more coursework and training to be able to use EMDR with clients, the introduction has allowed me a better understanding of how this modality works and left me excited to learn more about it.

What I enjoy most about being at Hood College are the small class sizes. It allows me to get the individualized attention I need to fully understand the concepts. It also allows me to build social and professional contacts with my classmates. Not only have I made close friends during my time at Hood, but I believe I will now be in a much better position to search for jobs in the counseling field.

A fun fact: I used to be a firefighter/paramedic.

Inspired by Rhiannon’s journey and ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn about Hood’s Counseling graduate programs by clicking .

Read about spring 2020 Hood College Sally Oros Counseling scholarship recipient, Samantha Slick.