A special group of students was among USF’s 2,612 graduates who were honored during
the Summer 2024 commencement ceremonies: the first-ever class of the Master of Arts
in Rehabilitation Counseling and Disability Sciences (RCDS). While they are unique
in their own ways, all four of the program’s graduates have one thing in common: they
are dedicated to improving the lives of others, particularly those living with disabilities.
The fully-online RCDS program prepares students to work with individuals with physical,
mental, emotional, and chemical disabilities. By the end of the program, graduates
are on track to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and their
families. However, even before commencement ceremonies began in the Yuengling Center,
many of them had already started making a difference in their communities.
Mirna Garcia, MS, is a certified assistive technology instructional specialist (CATIS)
and worked at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind teaching technology to blind people
during her time in the program. Garcia, who is also blind, wants to make sure that
individuals living with visual impairments can have the same access to technology
as sighted people.
“A lot of the time when clients lose their sight, they lose themselves because they
lost the freedom that they used to have,” said Garcia. “Counselors can not only provide
clients with the tools that they need to get back to work, but with the confidence.”
Mirna Garcia meets with program faculty Brandon and Leah Worthey on Microsoft Teams.
This degree also prepared Garcia to pass the examination to become a certified rehabilitation
counselor, a licensing that opens doors to various agencies serving people with disabilities,
both locally and nationally. With this certification, she started a new job at the
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and is working toward her mission of restoring
hope for her clients.
“I really believe that a rehabilitation counselor provides more hope because they're
not so focused on the problems,” said Garcia. “They're focused on finding the client’s
potential, their inner resources to eventually help them flourish.”
Rachquel McMillian has also been helping people flourish and has been since her early
20s. She works as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, a career in which she advocates
for and empowers her clients to attain and maintain employment. Although she returned
to school to advance in her career, her purpose for disability advocacy lies much
closer to home. McMillian is a single mother of two boys and caretaker of her mother,
who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“I'm doing this for my family and for my community to help them learn because I'm
African American, and in our culture, it is not very well known for people to go into
mental health awareness,” said McMillian.
Leah Howes, who wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as she was nearing the end of her
undergraduate degree at USF, saw an announcement about the RCDS program shared by
the Department of Psychology and knew it was made for her.
“I loved the idea of a virtual master’s program, I already loved USF, and I have a
passion for disability advocacy and helping others, so I knew it was the right choice,”
said Howes. “Each class gave me valuable knowledge and perspective about the rehabilitation
field and the disability community.”
The graduates gathered online for a commencement celebration on Friday, alongside
program faculty. During the meeting, Leah Worthey, PhD, an assistant professor of instruction in the program, shared her amazement with
the current graduating class, applauding them for their constructive feedback and
preparedness for their futures.