Mercedes Fernandez-Oromendia. Photos courtesy of UCSB
SANTA BARBARA — Mercedes Fernandez-Oromendia and Avery Voos, graduate students at the Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara, have been awarded 2013-14 Ray E. Hosford Awards for Excellence in Professional Behavior, the university reported in a media release. These awards are for service they performed at the Hosford Counseling and Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara.
In a nomination letter, a co-worker said Fernandez-Oromendia, “Worked with clients in a professional manner, ensuring they felt safe to share and grow. She championed a bilingual student group that helped clinicians increase their competence and confidence in providing therapy in Spanish.”
In a letter supporting her nomination, a colleague wrote of Voos, “She consistently presented herself in a professional manner, demonstrating a desire to understand the rationale behind procedures, especially in regard to client welfare.”
Fernández Oromendia is a third year counseling doctoral student working with Dr. Collie Conoley. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Minnesota where she discovered her love for identity research and psychology as a whole; she also took psychology courses in Brazil. Her own migration story as well as her time spent living abroad has greatly influenced her current research interests in bicultural identity development, and strengths-based approaches for counseling immigrant clients. She is also committed to becoming a culturally sensitive bilingual therapist and promoting cultural sensitivity in the field. She enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, and cooking.
Avery Voos
Voos is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology working with Drs. Ty Vernon and Robert Koegel. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Wake Forest University with a minor in Communication in 2009. After her undergraduate work, she spent three years working in the Child Neuroscience Laboratory in the Autism Program at the Yale Child Study Center. Currently, she is interested in using fMRI to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of positive behavioral change in young children with an autism spectrum disorder. In her spare time she enjoys running, yoga, and enjoying the great outdoors.
The Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic is a university-based community clinic that is designed to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive, low-cost individual, couple, family, and group psychological treatment and testing/assessment services to people living within the central coast community. The Hosford Clinic serves as a training site for students in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) of UC Santa Barbara and as a clinical-research facility for the faculty and students of the CCSP Department. It also strives to provide educational, consultation, and training services to professional and paraprofessional clinicians and educators in the tri-counties.