Two PSU Counselor Education students named 2023 NBCC Minority Fellowship Program Fellows

Kapu Dancel, (she/they) and Kennedy Hanson (she/they), are two of just 30 scholars nationwide awarded National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Foundation Minority Fellowships with $10,000 grants. Dancel and Hanson are second-year graduate students in the Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling program in Portland State University’s Counselor Education department.

“The PSU Counselor Education department is honored that two of our students, Kapu Dancel and Kennedy Hanson, were chosen to be 2023-24 National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellows. They are very competitive and prestigious fellowships that are only given to 30 students nationally each year,” said Dr. Rana Yaghmaian, chair of the Counselor Education department.

About Kapu Dancel

Dancel, 32, returned to pursue a master’s degree at PSU following a 10-year hiatus from college. After earning a bachelor’s degree in social work, a new path unfolded.

“I diverged and went into the world of creative movement, starting a nonprofit for teens from high-need backgrounds, giving them access to a safe place for people to express themselves, and making it accessible and without cost for queer and BIPOC teens,” says Dancel.

The ʻIolana Collective, as the nonprofit is called, is named for the soaring hawk over the Hawaiian Islands where Dancel, a Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian), was born and raised on Maui.   

“I’m passionate about counseling theories that draw on Indigenous practices that have existed for a long time. In these counseling approaches, we find healing can come from dance, movement, art, nature, somatic [body-oriented or mind/body], and experiential modalities. My desire is to make this within reach of people, who for racial, ethnic, and socio-economic reasons may feel that maybe they don’t belong in those spaces,” she says.

NBCC Minority Fellows commit to working with minority populations, and Dancel intends to continue looking for new ways to democratize therapy, beyond the often cost-prohibitive, one-to-one model of talk therapy. Following second-year practicum at PSU’s Community Counseling Clinic, in the fall, they will begin an internship with the Portland Therapy Project.

About Kennedy Hanson

Kennedy Hanson works with the LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities as a graduate assistant in PSU’s Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion, and as chair of the BIPOC Student Council for the College of Education. Additionally, they co-founded the abolitionist, healing justice, arts collective, the Healing Underground (@thehealingunderground). 

“When the 2020 uprising happened, I noticed a need for healing. Currently, my main thing is working with the Queer and Trans Black and Indigenous’ communities, and I would do that regardless,” says Hanson. “I came to PSU because there is a wider community, and it is affordable. My interests are in counseling couples, non-traditional families/relationships, and intergenerational healing. I do grassroots community organizing in healing justice.” 

One of the main features of the NBCC Foundation fellowship, is the ability to connect with other counselors around the country, and Hanson, who loves the outdoors, intends to build a larger direction. Their long-term goal is dual licensure to counsel in Portland and Atlanta, an environmental hub city with a larger Black community than Portland. 

“Through my work on campus, I’ve seen many sides of PSU and I’ve learned about how large institutions work, and how they treat their students of color – young adults struggling. I see where PSU is doing good and bad, and I’ve met a lot of great people,” says Hanson. 

One of the things PSU gets right, Hanson notes, is providing financial support and opportunities, such as the tuition-free program at PSU for eligible undergraduate students. However, PSU could improve in doing the work that makes BIPOC students feel safe on campus, instead of focusing on the image of diversity.

At the end of May, Dancel and Hanson will join the other NBCC Foundation Fellows at a national symposium in Atlanta, called “Bridging the Gap: Eliminating Mental Health Disparities.” The 2023 theme is “From Awareness to Action,” building actionable steps that address inequities in mental health care.