Oswego graduate student Keturah Hancock, in the mental health counseling program, reflects on her campus involvement, the women who have inspired her, and how women's history has helped shape her career path this Women's History Month.
Q: How are you involved on campus?
Being in graduate school is very demanding. I have a graduate assistantship with the Experiential Learning office... I work with [Associate Director] Tina Cooper and assist her with internships and student employment. Experiential learning is basically applied learning, so any experience, like internships, service learning, employment. Right now I'm planning an informational night for our office where students can come and learn more about what we do. I do open hours too where students can come in and learn how to get an [opportunity]... Just providing programming for them to be able to come and learn about resources they can take advantage of. I'm also involved with [The Triandiflou Institute for Equity Diversity, Inclusion, and Transformative Practice].
Q: Any awards or accomplishments you're proud of?
I do have a diversity fellowship for graduate school. The award is tuition coverage and stipend, that sort of thing. My job is to just be an ambassador for diversity, [to try] and make sure there's more diversity on campus.
Q: Who is a woman from history that inspires you?
Toni Morrison. My undergraduate degree is in creative writing and my favorite book is "The Bluest Eye." She's such an inspirational person to me. That book is what made me want to write, and she started writing when she was in her 40s. She didn't even start her writing career until much later in life, and I just find that so inspirational. I took a long break after undergraduate and I'm almost 30 now getting my graduate degree, so I think about her a lot, and I think about how you can start at something at any age, and still make it.
Q: Why is Women's History Month important to you?
Women are going through a lot right now in this country. Particularly as a Black woman, we're living in a time where what Black women have contributed is kind of just being thrown away, and really undervalued. Women's movements, like feminism, have really undermined Black women, and so for Women's History Month it's really important to highlight Black women and our contributions... I consider myself a good example. I'm not the face of Black women, but I do want to be an example for Black little girls and Black women in general.
Q: Who are some mentors that have impacted you?
My biggest mentor would be my mother. My mother is an incredible woman. I'm constantly trying to emulate myself after her and her character, how she carries herself. She's always somebody that I'm looking to for guidance. I don't trust anybody's opinion more than hers... to give me advice or help me navigate certain situations. At Oswego, I would say Tina Cooper, Taylor Dumsky from Graduate Studies... I wouldn't have any of the opportunities that I've had, like the graduate assistantship, the fellowship. She really fought for me to get those resources, and worked really hard to show me and tell me what was available, what I should apply for. She's somebody on this campus that I feel really cares about students and she'll go above and beyond to help. Cory Brosch, she's my supervisor and she's amazing. Also, professor Jodi Mullen in the counseling program. She's incredible. I look up to her as a counselor and I think she cares a lot about her clients, her students, and it's an honor to learn from her.
Q: How did women's history impact your career choice?
I talked about this in my fellowship application. I really came back to school to like, fill the dearth of Black women in mental health, and just Black people in general. The industry and the space is so predominantly filled with white people, and white women in particular. That should be a good thing in the sense of [having] white women is a form of diversity, but there's that other layer. Black people, because of the history in this country, might not feel comfortable in that space with a white counselor. So if they want a counselor that looks like them and can understand their experiences on a deeper level, that might stop them from getting counseling. In my own family, I lost my father, I lost my aunt, I've lost a lot of people to mental health [struggles], and I think that part of the reason was that they thought that [mental health services] was something that wasn't for them.
After I lost my dad, I started thinking more about mental health, and I was like, you know, I really want to be a counselor. Even going through my own mental health struggles, all of those things happening in my life at the same time, I was like, I need to go to school for this. I've worked with Black youth most of my work experience, and seeing the mental health struggles they go through, and hearing them say things flat out like, "I can't find a counselor that looks like me," that's what also made me decide to come back to school. Even in the program, it's very white... there's not a diverse population in the mental health space and I think it hinders people from getting counseling, and it shouldn't. In a perfect world, it shouldn't do that, right? Because if you're qualified, you should be able to counsel anybody. But there are histories in this country that make people say, "I don't know if I'm safe in this space."
More specifically with Black women and mental health, I think that Black women are in a very vulnerable position, and I do think about that specifically when I am pursuing being a counselor. Counseling Black women and them being able to come to a space and talk to somebody that understands where they're coming from, where they can kind of take off everything that the world has put on them. That's really important to me and I do think about that a lot. How this could benefit women like me.