New Mom Relishes BVU Mental Health Master's Degree
Emily Dicks balances motherhood and graduate school by taking convenient online classes through BVU. She is set to walk through the Victory Arch at graduation in May.
More than a dozen students in a Buena Vista University Graduate School mental health counseling cohort created a social media page for themselves a couple of years ago. Together, they’ve shared the news of births, baptisms, home runs, and graduation receptions their children and families have experienced in their time together as grad school students.
And now, they’re counting down the days.
“We’re getting so close, and it’s so exciting for all of us,” says Emily Dicks, who will pass through the Victory Arch at BVU in May on her way to Commencement. Dicks will leave the ceremony with a master’s degree in mental health counseling in-hand.
“You can’t quite get the same hands-on therapy experience in a Zoom meeting as you can in a one-week class done in-person. Those residency sessions were very beneficial.”
Emily Dicks
The fact her classmates will be there sharing in her joy speaks to the determination of the cohort, and the focus of administrators, professors, and staff of Buena Vista University, which has seen the group through from start to finish.
“So many members of our cohort will graduate together in May because BVU was able to work with us,” Dicks says. “I think we’re all going to graduate at that time.”
Dicks’ determination showed during one of those times in life where academics takes a back seat. It came during labor for the first-time mom.
“I was in my first year of graduate school and I went into labor on a Friday,” she remembers. “We had class the following Monday, and I had a paper due in class on Wednesday. I emailed Dr. Casey Baker, program director for BVU’s masters in mental health counseling program and told her I might not be in class because I was in labor.”
Baker immediately told Dicks that the last thing she would worry about was a BVU class session.
“I’m pretty organized, and I pride myself on working ahead when I can,” Dicks adds. “I told Casey that I had just turned in the paper that was due on Wednesday.”
Dicks and husband Seth welcomed a healthy baby daughter, Addie. And, Mom never missed a class.
“That’s the beauty of the convenience of online instruction,” says Dicks, who graduated from Newell-Fonda High School in 2012, then Iowa State University in 2015. “I could be in my home and getting the instruction I needed. I even recorded a presentation once while I was holding Addie. I couldn’t put her down at the time because she would start crying.”
Dicks, who is interning at the Autumn Center in Spencer, loves to focus on children from newborn to age 5. She’s relished her instruction, lauding the efforts of Dr. Kathleen Ruscitto, assistant professor of counselor education; and Dr. Elisa Woodruff, assistant professor of counselor education. The one-week on-campus summer residency program proved to be a perfect complement to online gatherings.
“You can’t quite get the same hands-on therapy experience in a Zoom meeting as you can in a one-week class done in-person,” Dicks says. “Those residency sessions were very beneficial.”
As a BVU master’s graduate, Dicks will take her exam to become a licensed mental health counselor. She will then seek a position with an entity offering therapy for the youngest among us who experience trauma.
“My joy is play therapy for children ages zero to five,” she says. “We need to recognize that children that age can experience trauma. It is so important we identify it and get them the care they need.”