During the month of February we celebrate so many things, like Presidents Day, the very cliché Love Day, National Pizza Day, just to name a few. February is also Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, which honestly should be noted more frequently than just during the shortest month of the year. It is a month dedicated to honoring those that are known for making a difference in our history. It is a month to draw attention to those that have made an impact, but have gone unnoticed or unrecognized for their contributions.
Get involved, learn, and support Black History Month in whatever way you can. Consider supporting Black owned businesses, bookstores, restaurants, and not just in the month of February.
Check out what the Carruth Center has been doing to celebrate Black History Month.
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Let’s talk about what we’ve heard as a university from our students. We know that you are wanting Carruth, even BeWell to have more Black-identified clinicians. I’m really excited to share two things with you. First, let me introduce a dear colleague of mine, John Spraggins. John was one of my first supervisors. I’d consider him a mentor and have learned so much from him during the 8 years I worked with him at Carruth. He retired from WVU a few years ago, but is passionate about providing care to students and so, he’s back! Specifically, he is back to meet with HSC students wanting to meet with a Black clinician. If you are interested in meeting with him, feel free to reach out to BeWell and we will try to get you connected to John. Check out our staff page for more information on John Spraggins. https://www.hsc.wvu.edu/be-well/meet-the-team/
The second thing I'd love to highlight is a virtual drop in support group for Black students called "What's Good?!" Ife Sinclair is one of our amazing psychology interns at the Carruth Center. She has been developing this exclusive space for Black-identified students to chat with Black clinicians at Carruth. They plan to kick off weekly, beginning February 19th at noon. Register once and you can drop in as little or as much as you’d like throughout the semester. Contact Ife.sinclair@mail.wvu.edu for more information.
To close, we've updated our BeWell website to make accessing services a little easier. You can request an appointment by clicking on the tab and filling out the very brief form, which will then get sent to me. We've also added a tab for faculty, staff, or student organizations to request outreach through BeWell. We are constantly pivoting and learning together on how to navigate this pandemic while working remotely. We hope this makes accessing BeWell easier for each of you. Take care!