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The funding from the Harding Family Charitable Trust will support campus mental health care for students and offer significant scholarships for students enrolled in BW's new mental health counseling graduate program.
A Harding Family Charitable Trust gift doubles down on support for mental health at Baldwin Wallace University.
The $1 million grant will be used to support both campus counseling services and scholarships for students enrolled in BW's new master's degree program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC).
The support for BW's counseling center will increase the average number of counseling sessions per student, augment access to telehealth options that are popular with many students and double the hours of BW's staff psychiatrist.
"We are deeply grateful to the Harding Family Charitable Trust and for the resources made possible for students through the Trust's generous support," said Dr. Léna Crain, BW Dean of Students. "The Harding grant funding will sustain and expand clinical mental health services available to BW students."
Data demonstrates that students who receive counseling services are better prepared to be academically and personally successful and to complete their degrees.
The gift also supports BW's work to address the shortage of trained clinical mental health counselors more broadly.
"There is a high level of need for licensed mental health counselors within Ohio and across the nation to meet the growing mental health and substance use issues of our population," said Dr. Erin M. West, associate professor and chair of BW's Department of Counseling.
A graduate degree in counseling is required to become a licensed professional counselor.
The Harding Family Charitable Trust grant makes that degree more affordable and accessible by providing $10,000 scholarships to the first 25 students who enroll in BW's Clinical Mental Health Counseling program in both the fall of 2025 and the fall of 2026.
"We know that financial barriers are often the largest reason why well-qualified students choose not to pursue a graduate degree," said West. "At BW, we're excited to offer this degree with generous new scholarship support. The Harding Family Charitable Trust gift will enable more graduates to be immediately eligible for counseling licensure and a career where jobs are plentiful and graduates are able to make a meaningful difference in the community."
The new scholarship awards are eligible to be combined with financial aid available to CMHC graduate students, and the application for the fall 2025 CMHC cohort is now open.
More information on BW's CMHC graduate degree program and scholarships can be found on the CMHC program page.
