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CAPS Peer Educators 2023

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers a variety of ways to get involved with promoting mental health and wellbeing on campus. Learn more about the different ways to get involved below:

Peer Education

The Mental Health Peer Educators are a group of diverse undergraduate and graduate students who support the mission of CAPS by assisting with outreach and community engagement. Peer educators provide opportunities for Charlotte students to learn from their peers, offering workshops on topics such as stress management, burnout, CAPS Services, and ways to support a friend who's struggling. These students serve on the outreach committee and provide input on the implementation and perceived student access to all CAPS services, as well as policies and procedures at CAPS, and have the opportunity to be involved in staff searches. Peer Educators work directly with senior staff psychologists, licensed social workers, and administrators and serve as a bridge between the student body and CAPS.

The peer educator(s) will be responsible for supporting Counseling and Psychological Services in providing peer-led mental health programming for the campus community including:

  • Developing and implementing relevant mental health programming targeted to all students with specific prevention programming focus on general mental health, stress management, burnout, etc. This would include workshops and outreach tabling events.
  • Work collaboratively with CAPS staff on the success of key initiatives, such as Suicide Prevention Week, World Mental Health Day, Stress Less Week, Play Day, Fall Festival, OutSpoken, Candid Convos, etc
  • Provide workshops for students on mental health topics including stress, burnout and how to support a fellow niner who is struggling.
  • Assist in facilitating in-class and student organization presentations on topics such as stress management, burnout and CAPS Services
  • Participate in bi-weekly supervision meetings and bi-weekly staff meetings

Expectations:

  • Peer educators must demonstrate awareness of equity and justice issues, as well as how to integrate these within mental health programming initiatives. 
  • Interest and enthusiasm for mental health and suicide prevention, college health promotion, and wellness education.
  • Familiarity with Counseling and Psychological Services 
  • Strong organizational skills and ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Appropriately handles confidential student information
  • Knowledgeable about campus resources, and community resources

Applications for fall 2024 will be posted on Hire a Niner in the spring 2024 semester.  Search "Mental Health Peer Educator" to find the posting.   

For questions please contact Sarah Besse (sarah.besse@uncc.edu) or Dr. Emily Brown (emily.brown@uncc.edu).

 

Student involvement at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) started with the inception of the Student Advisory Board (SAB) in 2018 with a vision to bring together a community of diverse undergraduate and graduate students to serve in a consultative role to CAPS regarding college students’ mental health. SAB members worked on a voluntary basis and provided insight into how CAPS could engage in different ways with the student body, further promote mental health services, and better serve the student community. In Fall 2022, CAPS had the opportunity to expand the SAB program into a paid position for students to continue to serve in a consultative role with the added goal of providing direct outreach service to the campus community. This is now the CAPS Peer Educator program and we are excited to see how the role of student involvement at CAPS continues to grow.

 

2018-2019 Cohort: 

  • Advisors: Dr. Daniela Recabarren & Leigh Norwood, MSW, LCSW 
  • Thien Nguyen, Mechanical Engineering, Sophomore  
  • Breanna Crisp, Social Work Grad Student 
  • Haziina Butler, Sociology, Junior 
  • Maggie Reasons Social Work  Grad Student 
  • Edwian Arce, Social Work Graduate Student  
  • Rachen Jordan, Psychology, Senior 
  • Lydia Grier, Social Work, graduate Student 

 

2019-2020 Cohort: 

  • Advisors: Dr. Daniela Recabarren & Leigh Norwood, MSW, LCSW 
  • Betsy Ramirez, Social Work, First year 
  • Nylah Singleton, health systems management, senior 
  • Asha Thurman, English and Spanish, junior 
  • Tayla Suitte, Health systems management, junior 
  • Aaliyah Smith, Sociology, senior 
  • Abbey Wallace, Public Health and systems management, junior 
  • Abigail Cawthorn,  English, junior 
  • Alissa Exantus, Pre-nursing, junior 
  • Ashley Muldrow , health systems management, junior 
  • Destini Kollock, Psychology, junior 
  • Lara Elmalek, pre-nursing, junior 
  • Riti Kathwadia, psychology, sophomore
  • Yasmine Huggins,  counseling, graduate student 

 

2020-2021 Cohort: 

  • Sofia Escotto Pimentel, Psychology, junior 
  • Tyler Hardy, Psychology, junior 
  • Betsy Ramirez, social work, sophomore 
  • Asha Thurman, English and Spanish, senior 
  • Destini Kollock, psychology, senior 
  • Morgan Halsey, psychology, senior 

 

2021-2022 Cohort: 

  • Donya Abosaba, public health, junior
  • Kobe Brown, criminal justice, junior
  • Betsy Ramirez Zepeta, social work, senior 
  • Hanna Sanford, criminal justice and psychology, senior 
  • kaitlyn leverton, psychology, sophomore 
  • Kryschelle Fakir, psychology, first year 
  • Neil Deshpande,  civil engineering, first year 
  • Sofia Escotto-Pimentel, psychology, senior 

Volunteer with CAPS

Are you passionate about mental health and have an interest in volunteering with CAPS?  We welcome you to complete this volunteer interest form to share your contact information with us.  When different events or programs arise that needs additional support, we will reach out to you to share these opportunities.  This could include things like helping with Fall Festival, Play Day, campus suicide screening events, or other initiatives.