Congrats to NBCC Foundation Rural Scholar Guile Contreras (CED master’s student)

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.

In the UNCG counseling program, Guile is learning to become a professional school counselor so he can support the mental health issues faced by immigrant students in rural schools. He also wants to challenge the mental health stigma in the Latinx community. Guile has demonstrated his commitment to these populations through his previous work experience as a teacher and his activism as a board member of committees in Siler City and Chatham County. Congrats!