Rene Dawson, 2nd year MS Counseling student testimonial
Rene Dawson, a second-year M.S. Counseling student from Paducah, Kentucky, describes returning to graduate school after raising four children, choosing DMU for its integration of faith and clinical training, and the community built across two in-person residencies.
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0:04Hi. My name is Renee Dawson, and I'm a second year student at Divine Mercy University. I just started last year, and, I have a husband and four children. They're my kids are a little bit older now, so the timing was right for me to look into going to graduate school. I had been thinking about this for probably about thirty years, and as my children became more independent, the it just seemed like a good time to really look into it. One of my fears about going back to graduate school or starting graduate school, especially in a field like counseling, was that I didn't want to go somewhere and have the information and the formation that I was receiving, contradict my faith and my Catholic beliefs.
0:56So that was something that I really strongly considered. When I found out about Divine Mercy University, I was so pleased to look into their program, the curriculum, especially the, CCMMP and how it applied to everything that we're learning here. And that made my decision to apply to DMU. Just it just really opened the path for me because I felt like it was a very good fit for how I wanted to go about learning to be a counselor and how I want to view people, as I actually, go into the counseling profession. So, I started a year ago, and I live in Western Kentucky in a rural town called Paducah. And I have been meeting people from all over the country, all over the world, in fact. And my experience over the last year has just been, multifaceted.
1:56It has been challenging. I have grown in so many different ways intellectually, but also spiritually. I have really leaned into my faith and, just grown so much in my relationship with God and prayer, and also my relationships with my cohort and my classmates throughout every class. It's been just such a blessing and a privilege to know that I am not alone on this journey, that we're growing together. And just to go through that process and to be able to, just know that it's okay to not know, and to have people that I can, confide in about the experiences and just be supported in this entire process. So moving from, the first residency last year and coming to my second residency, it's just been such a a beautiful experience.
2:57Meeting up with my cohorts, a year later, it's just been incredible. It's, like, been a big family reunion just seeing everyone again and getting to see them in person. And I just look forward to maintaining and continuing these relationships into my professional life. I feel like DMU has really provided just such a wonderful foundation for us to be colleagues in the future and to be able to consult with each other throughout our careers. And I'm I'm very grateful for the experience that I've had here and, grateful for all that I've learned and and how I am developing into, a professional counselor personally and professionally. And I, look forward to continuing on that path to flourishing.