ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — Abilene Christian University (ACU) was recently awarded $3.6 million from the Department of Education for mental health programs.
Project SMILE, School Psychologists Molded into Interdisciplinary Leaders in Education, will help Abilene and Wylie ISD students. Dr. Rachel Team, director of the ACU Psychology Specialist Program, said this program will help students at the graduate and elementary levels.
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“Our graduate students are providing some social skills, training, and mental health support through both Abilene and Wylie ISDs, and they are just starting right away,” Team said.
Students will have the opportunity to assist in Pre-K classrooms, helping students develop their emotional intelligence and shadowing school psychologists.
Graduate student Rebecca Ramos aims for a career focused on children. Now, with the grant, she can help students like herself.
“I just knew that I wanted to work with children because of what I went through. I just don’t want children to go through that,” Ramos said. “I didn’t know what anxiety was because I never grew up around that. Mental health is not a big thing in my culture and where I grew up.”
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Team said when she was growing up, students who struggled with mental health were pushed aside.
“We really didn’t talk about mental health. We didn’t talk about kids who were struggling in our class. They often went down the hall somewhere else,” Team said.
Through the program, Ramos told KTAB/KRBC that she provides other students a safe space to acknowledge their struggles.
“I want them to speak up and not be ashamed. Regardless of their culture or beliefs, if something is happening in your life, you have the right to speak up and get help,” Ramos said.
This grant was ACU’s largest federal grant in the last 15 years.
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