After 11 years working in elementary education, Andrea King decided to pursue a career change and joined the master’s program in counseling at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. King has worked at Left Bank Books while going back to school, and recently, she won the National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Award. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Andrea King loved working with kids as an elementary school teacher, but over the course of 11 years, she witnessed an increased emphasis on standardized testing.

She couldn’t help but notice how the rigors of testing were affecting her students, and she came to realize how much she cared about the mental and social well-being of her young students.

It spurred her to reevaluate the trajectory of her career.

“That’s what I was really passionate about,” King said. “So, I took a break for a year, not really pursuing anything. I started working at Left Bank Books and wanted to see how I felt. I missed working with kids a lot, and I was like, ‘OK, well, I have to figure out how I can get back to working with them in a way that feels more fulfilling.’ I heard really good things about the counseling program at UMSL.”

King joined the master’s program in counseling in the College of Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 2023 and has been making great strides establishing the foundation of a promising new career. Most recently, she won the prestigious National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Award, which provides financial support to graduate students who commit to serving minority communities through research or service.

The fellowship comes with a $12,000 award as well as access to mentors, professional development and the NBCC Foundation Bridging the Gap Symposium. These resources will help King with her goal of making counseling and mental health services more accessible.

King initially missed the call informing her that she’d been selected, but after listening to a brief voicemail from an NBCC representative, it dawned on her that she had won the fellowship. Joy and a little shock set in simultaneously.

“It doesn’t really feel real,” King said. “We had our first Zoom orientation, so that kind of made it feel like it’s actually happening. It was hard to believe when I first found out, but I found out right before the holidays, so it was perfect timing. I’m really excited for all the resources and professional development that I’ll get because of it.”

King has always gravitated toward helping people.

“I feel like I’m a very empathetic person,” she explained. “I was always looking for little animals to take care of and things like that. My mom had a daycare in her house, and I would always help with the kids.”

Those inclinations initially led her to education. King earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary and early childhood education from Maryville University and a master’s degree in education from Lindenwood University. She went on to teach in the Pattonville R-III School District and the School District of Clayton, but the empathy that made her such a good educator was also leading to fatigue and burnout.

“My mental health was hurting, and I realized I would tell my friends, ‘Don’t expect to hang out with me except during the summer months,’” she recalled. “Eventually, I realized that’s wild that I just accepted that I won’t see most of my loved ones except for a couple months out of the year.”

King began investigating a career change by attending an information night for UMSL’s counseling program. After speaking to several faculty members, it was clear that it would be a good fit. King appreciated the faculty’s people-focused approach and the program’s array of specialized certificates.

The NBCC fellowship will complement King’s education at UMSL with high-level professional development opportunities. King is interested in exploring the advocacy side of mental health care and hopes working with a mentor through the fellowship will help develop those skills.

“As we learn more about the causes of mental health problems, a lot of it is systemic,” she said. “Poverty, climate change, all these things are having big impacts on people, especially those in marginalized communities, and counseling is not very accessible. It’s not super easy for everyone.

“So, how do we broaden our impact? If we really want to make a difference in mental health for whole populations, then we have to start prioritizing the advocacy part of it and working to address some of those systemic issues that are really the underlying causes for it.”

In particular, King would like to find ways for counselors to have more contact with communities outside the walls of institutions like schools and clinics and make their expertise more accessible. For now, she’s learning more about community care and would ideally like to work with children and adolescents in the future. She’s not sure what that will look like yet, but UMSL has prepared her for whatever it ends up being.

“Without UMSL, I wouldn’t be having all of these deeper thoughts, interrogating really what it means to be an ethical mental health professional,” she said. “I do really appreciate the opportunities that the program provides for people. All the professors and everybody are just so understanding that we all have these busy lives and very accommodating for us as whole people outside of this program. That’s been really wonderful.”