The University of Scranton\u2019s nationally recognized Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Program will benefit from nearly $1 million in federal funding delivered in the form of a five-year grant U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan announced this week.<\/p>\n
The master\u2019s-level program prepares students to become clinical rehabilitation counselors who help people with disabilities \u2014 be they physical, psychological, emotional, sensory or otherwise \u2014 overcome challenges \u201cthat might impede or create a barrier to full access in community living, including work, going to school, living independently (and) being able to care for oneself,\u201d program Director Samantha Herrick, Ph.D., said.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., helped secure the funding awarded by the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Rehabilitation Services Administration. The five-year grant will provide tuition scholarships, expand online and hybrid learning options and help address regional workforce shortages of rehabilitation counselors, Bresnahan\u2019s office noted in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University of Scranton plays an important role in preparing students for careers that meet real needs in our communities,\u201d Bresnahan said in the release. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m proud to have helped secure this critical funding to expand access to training and help address workforce shortages in rehabilitation and counseling services. I will always fight to bring tax dollars back to Northeastern Pennsylvania to strengthen programs our communities rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herrick said the federal funding will help get \u201cmore of those qualified folks out in the field,\u201d describing the grants as highly competitive with many programs vying for the same money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a significant incentive to be able to recruit the best students and those who most align with the mission of the program \u2014 who really want specifically to help people with disabilities and others kind of get back to life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan\u2019s release also includes a statement from the Rev. Joseph G. Marina, S.J., president of the university, who expressed gratitude for the congressman\u2019s support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clinical rehabilitation counseling field is a shining example of what it means to be \u2018for and with others,\u2019 a Jesuit ideal we hold dear at The University of Scranton,\u201d Marina said. \u201cOur students are trained to treat \u2014 but even more importantly, accompany \u2014 individuals as they face emotional, physical and psychological challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time the university\u2019s program benefited from such a grant was about 30 years ago, Herrick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it as a significant validation of the quality of the program,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have been here 60 years. We\u2019re one of the older programs in the country. We\u2019ve done credible, quality work for a long time (and) had almost 1,000 graduates who have impacted over 1 million lives, and so this is really a significant endorsement of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of Scranton\u2019s nationally recognized Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Program will benefit from nearly $1 million in federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[227,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-87904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-education","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}