On Sunday, April 10, graduate students from the counseling program and Counseling Services held a conversation with BIPOC students to assess students’ experiences with the counseling services and to hear thoughts and ideas that could help improve counseling services at EMU.  

The goal of this event was to allow BIPOC and international students to have a place where they could freely express their ideas, concerns, and questions regarding counseling services at EMU and how to benefit from them. 

Some of the questions that arose were how to make counseling services more accessible to people and what mental health means for BIPOC students.

The students in charge of the event– Hà Pham, Fabiana Espinal, and Olivia Dalke– came together to organize this event with the idea of learning how to “become multiculturally competent and culturally-affirming mental health professionals.”

Students who joined the conversation had the opportunity to get convo points, enjoy some pupusas, and simply talk with other students who relate to similar issues such as being a minority attending a PWI (Predominantly White Institution). 

A lot of students discussed the lack of advertising for the counseling services which has prevented them from learning about the benefits that EMU provides with these services. They also discussed the difficulty to connect with counselors who are not BIPOC and might not understand the struggles and cultural differences that this implies. 

Espinal also mentioned, “We noticed that there was a desire to better serve POC, BIPOC, and International students but at the same time there hasn’t been much initiative to directly collect thoughts or ideas from the students themselves about how counseling services could better and more expansively serve them. Our goal was to create a space for BIPOC, POC, and International student voices around counseling and mental health, and we got so much amazing feedback from our participants.”

Senior Tahj’ae Coleman said, “It would be great if counseling services took into account what BIPOC students are asking and needing in order to succeed at EMU; I really hope they listen.”Espinal also mentioned what the goal for this project was in order to bring better services to BIPOC students at EMU: “Our plan is to formally share what we collected from the event and the survey with the DEI department (Jackie Font-Guzman helped us get a small grant to cover the cost of food for the event), counseling services, and our professors from the MAC department as well, considering that many of those in at the counseling center are actually interns from the program. We hope that this feedback informs future efforts that will benefit the mental health care of BIPOC, POC, and International Students at EMU.”