MLK Day of Service

Greetings fellow counseling folk!

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable, restful, and reflective winter break. It can be difficult to reorient ourselves to the Mercy Hall culture I would also like to congratulate our December graduates. Semmonne Aguillard, Lanier Clement, and Thomas Cowan. Congratulations!

From left: Lanier Clement, Tom Cowan, and Semonne Aguillard 

What an amazing thing you all have accomplished. I am sure you will all be greatly missed. When I consider all of the lovely people I have had the privilege to meet and get to know in our program, I am filled with so much awe and gratitude that I get to be here. Every single person is unique, bringing new perspectives and anecdotes to the conversations we have with each other and with our clients. Counseling truly is an art, and throughout my experience in Internship, I am coming closer and closer in contact with my voice. I am seeing this transformation not only in myself, but also in other students at all stages of the process.

I think that one important piece of finding ourselves as counselors is also figuring out who we are in the larger community. We are currently learning how to make a difference in a therapy room, but there is so much more we can do for those who do not sit in a chair across from us each week. Last week, a few of us had the privilege to volunteer for SBP for MLK day. SBP is an amazing volunteer organization that seeks to provide assistance to people impacted by natural disaster, not just in Louisiana but all over the country. SBP did, however, begin when a couple from Washington D.C. came down to New Orleans to volunteer in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and became inspired by the compassion and fortitude they saw in the people here. They have reached an astounding amount of growth over the years thanks in part to help from AmeriCorps. The core goal of SBP is "shrinking the time between disaster and recovery."

Vinaya and Sean working together to install sheathing

As a part of our volunteer day, we worked on the house of a man who has been familiar with the organization for a while now because he picks up the trash from their dumpsters. He lived in the house with his mother prior to Katrina. By the time the hurricane hit, it was too late to evacuate. He remained calm as the water rose, and eventually found himself up to his neck in water. He ended up having to break through the ceiling with a hatchet to get into the attic, where he would spend four days without food or water until rescue efforts reached his area.

Part of volunteering with SBP is familiarizing yourself with the many unique and often heartbreaking stories of those to whom the organization provides assistance. Especially for those of us from out of state, the experience brings us into contact with enduring trauma and the various ways in which the New Orleans community continues to recover and heal.

From right: Jen, Vinaya, Kelly, Jenn, and our lovely site supervisor, Shaugnessey

For those of you who missed out on our volunteer day and are interested in doing something like this, please contact me or any other CSI board member to see how you can get involved. Hopefully we can organize one more event to volunteer with SBP this semester.

I hope everyone enjoys their spring semester.

Sincerely,
Anna McGowan, Parliamentarian Historian