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-: So we were very fortunate.
We got some funds
from the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska
to recruit and train 10 residents of rural Nebraska
to be school psychologists.
-: So with our training model,
this grow your own approach,
we have 10 students
who've been endorsed by the schools
who are committed to being in the rural communities,
and so at the end of this training program,
we'll have 10 students trained and ready to go
to help provide mental health services
to those communities straight away,
with a greater likelihood
that they'll stay there and impact those students.
What's really unique to me about this project
is that we've been able to address
some of the biggest barriers
to school psychology training for rural residents.
Every single course is virtual.
Then this allows our students
to stay in their home communities
for the duration of the training program.
We also have transformed our curriculum
from a three-year program to a four-year program.
This allows them to maintain their full-time employment
and reduce the cost
associated with coming to graduate school.
And then the third thing that I think makes this unique
is tuition and fees are completely covered
for this cohort of students,
and so we've really made it cost effective for them.
-: This is a very viable service
that we can be offering
from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
to the state community
that's going to address a really significant need.
Children's mental health services
are a critical part of raising a child
who's going to be healthy and successful and well.
-: We're gonna provide services for dozens of students
every single year in these districts.
That's hundreds of students every single year
who will benefit from a highly-trained school psychologist.
-: What I have learned from other states
is that once we train people
to be really effective school psychologists
in those communities, they stay there,
and I will go back to the states
10 and 20 years later, and they're still there.
They're still practicing.
They're still benefiting kids.
So that's my goal.
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