Confronting Hardship with Hope

Mary’s Dr. Carmelita Lamb Secures $6 Million School Counseling Grant

Early last fall, Dr. Carmelita Lamb, Associate Dean of the University of Mary’s Liffrig Family School of Education and Behavioral Sciences, opened her inbox to find a providential notice from the US Department of Education. “I’m on the Department’s Listserv, and they ping me when they make new funding available,” she said. “My colleagues and I were thinking about children in the most remote, marginalized places in North Dakota. We wanted to find out just how bad the need was for school counselors in our rural and especially our tribal communities.”

Her research painted a bleak picture. “We found out it was more than just a need. It was a crisis. The closest place for many of these kids in rural North Dakota is Minneapolis if they need a bed — there’s no place in between. Children are actually harming themselves and losing their lives without access to mental health and counseling services.”

Faced with this desperate situation, Lamb took to her keyboard with characteristic initiative, connecting with K-12 school administrators across the state. “I was reaching out to superintendents and principals and district liaisons all over, saying, ‘Would you partner with us if we could get funding to train counselors for your schools?’”

'Do we really have the fortitude to request that much?' Of course, the answer was, 'Absolutely. We've got to do it to meet this need.'

Her pitch was straightforward: “‘One, they can earn their master’s in school counseling at home because the program is fully online. Two, once we get funding, we can cover 100% of their needs and expenses. Three, they would return to your community and serve your school, serve your children.’” Demand surpassed expectations from the outset. “We were just flooded with responses,” Lamb said. “Superintendents and principals were sharing their stories and saying, ‘This is exactly what we need. Count me in!’”

Emboldened by this outpouring of interest, Lamb penned a request for $6 million in grant funding through the Department of Education’s Mental Health Services Professionals (MHSP) Demonstration Program. “The big question was, ‘Do we really have the fortitude to request that much? We’re a small university,’” she said. “Of course, the answer was, ‘Absolutely. We’ve got to do it to train counselors and meet this need.’ So we wrote the grant proposal for $1.2 million per year, spread over five years.”

In the end, Lamb’s pioneering courage won the university the full amount. “I came back from Christmas vacation, and we were fully funded,” she said, still ecstatic. “I just shot out to Jupiter! I still can’t believe it.”

Grant funds will support the University of Mary’s newly introduced Accelerated Counseling Education for Student Success (ACCESS) program, developed to prepare North Dakota’s next generation of school counselors to fill critical vacancies in their home communities. The program’s online course format allows for maximum flexibility. “Right now, the vast majority of our applicants are coming from rural areas, farms and ranches and tribal communities,” Lamb said. “You have people with a tremendous sense of service saying, ‘I’ll do it. I don’t have to leave my farm, I don’t have to leave my ranch, I don’t have to leave my reservation community where I’m supported? I’ll do it.'”

Wherever they call home, students pursuing their Master of Science in Counseling online through ACCESS will enjoy personalized guidance and support from admission to graduation. “As a CACREP-accredited program, we maintain a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio,” said Dr. Christina Jurekovic, chair of the University of Mary’s graduate counseling program. “That means small class sizes and individualized academic support, whether online or in-person.”

Furthermore, all ACCESS participants will receive full funding in the form of generous scholarships. “Students accepted into this program won’t have to pay one penny for their degree,” Lamb said. “It’s all paid for: tuition, fees, books, licensure exams, internships, travel, the program’s one-week residency. Anything our participating graduate student needs during the two-year program, this grant scholarship covers it.”

Honoring Dr. “Mama” Lamb

Throughout her 30-year career in education, Dr. Lamb has distinguished herself as a tireless advocate for Native American scholars at every level of instruction. “I’ve been involved in education all my career, primarily Indian education,” she said. “I was with Turtle Mountain Community College for years, and then when I came here to Mary, I brought all my Native students with me. I spent a lot of time cultivating a welcoming environment here on campus, one that serves the most marginalized populations in our state, which are our tribal nations.”

Now, on the occasion of Dr. Lamb’s retirement and in recognition of her decades-long commitment to Native American advancement through education, the Liffrig Family School of Education and Behavioral Sciences is establishing a graduate scholarship in her name. The Dr. Carmelita “Mama” Lamb Scholarship fund will carry on Dr. Lamb’s legacy of hospitality and service by supporting Native American scholars enrolled in any of the Liffrig Family School’s Master of Education degree programs.

Though retired, Dr. Lamb will continue to serve the University of Mary and North Dakota’s Native scholars in a part-time capacity. “I’m still going to be on the side here for Mary. I’ll be writing grants, supporting Native scholarship, that kind of thing. I really love it here, and it’s going to be hard to leave” she said. With a laugh, she added, “I do love it here, but it’s time for me to retire — I love my grandkids more.”