To earn a university degree in social work or professional counseling, a student is sometimes required to complete hundreds of hours practicing their skills in an internship.
More often than not, it's unpaid… that requires a student to provide services while paying tuition fees up front.
Now, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is helping reduce the financial burden by providing a stipend.
Amber Myers helps manage the program. She says more than two hundred students were recently selected to receive stipends of up to $15000.
“The stipend does aim to ease the financial pressure on students by allowing them to focus on their professional growth and educational experience, as opposed to worrying about how they're going to pay for it.”
Myers says the program encourages participants to commit to looking for work in Michigan’s behavioral sector after graduation.