CED master’s student Guile Contreras, recently learned that he has been selected as a NBCC Foundation Rural Scholar. Bravo!
This scholarship, a very selective national competition, is for students pursuing a career in professional counseling who live in a rural area and commit to providing counseling services to persons in rural areas for a minimum of two years following graduation.
Guile is a Salvadorean-American who grew in Siler City, North Carolina. In his childhood and adolescence, he and his family faced many challenges as an immigrant family in rural North Carolina. In college, he became passionate about working with similar under-served populations and, as a result, chose to major in education. Following completion of his undergraduate degree, Guile worked as a science teacher in Smithfield, North Carolina; after a few years, he recognized that his students were struggling with mental health issues that interfered with their academic success.