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WMU gets $546,000 grant to establish model program

Jan. 28, 2010

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University's Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology has received a three-year $546,000 grant from a state agency to create a model program for recruiting rehabilitation counselors.

Michigan Rehabilitation Services, a bureau within the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, awarded the grant to establish a Rehabilitation Internship/Employment Recruitment Model Program for DELEG-MRS.

The project will provide funded internship experiences with MRS for students in rehabilitation counseling programs at WMU, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and Northern Illinois University.

It will use state-of-the-art distance-learning technology and include development of online clinical supervision training modules for MRS rehabilitation counselors. Those who complete the internship program will be recruited by MRS to fill entry-level rehabilitation counselor positions.

Three members of WMU's counselor education and counseling psychology faculty are co-directing the grant project. They are:

  • Dr. Patrick Munley, professor and department chair
  • Dr. Stephen Craig, associate professor and Counselor Education Unit director
  • Dr. Jennipher Wiebold, an associate professor who serves as Rehabilitation Counseling Program coordinator and has a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies

Also serving on the WMU project team are:

  • Dr. Robert Leneway, associate professor of educational leadership, research and technology
  • Dr. Stephen Magura, director of the Evaluation Center

To carry out the goals and objectives of the grant project, the team will work in collaboration with Margie Hojara-Hadsell, director of MRS' Workforce Improvement Division, which encompasses Kalamazoo County.

MRS helps Michigan residents with disabilities achieve employment and self-sufficiency, primarily in their communities through a network of field offices staffed by rehabilitation counselors. Its parent agency, the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, promotes job creation and economic growth in Michigan by centralizing and streamlining the state's job development, workforce development and economic development functions under one department.

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Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

WMU News
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