Portland State University, Graduate School of Education Newsletter features Catherine Nyhan!
Partners in community counseling— PSU and Fir Ridge Campus
What are the ingredients for a great partnership? Enthusiasm? Support? Leadership? All of these come together at Fir Ridge Campus.
School counselor Catherine Nyan, assistant Kim Anderson, and Fir Ridge student Tierra Howard prepare for the community resource fair.
Fir Ridge Campus is an alternative school in David Douglas School District in east Multnomah County. Led by PSU alumna Catherine Nyhan, high school, community college, and PSU students flourish in an environment that's invigorating, optimistic, and caring.
Ms. Nyhan, Fir Ridge school counselor, holds a license in mental health counseling and is also adjunct faculty for PSU. She is one of our licensure-only graduates. She teaches a PSU class in working with at-risk youth and supervises PSU counseling students and interns. She is involved in multiple projects at Fir Ridge and recently organized her sixth annual community resource fair for the school's students and the broader David Douglas community.
"At Fir Ridge, we're like a lab for counselor education students," says Ms. Nyhan. "An alternative school has issues that come up with greater frequency than other sites. Students get a lot more exposure here than they would anywhere else in the same time period."
Ms. Nyhan is originally from Seattle, where she worked in a variety of settings with youth. She interned at Group Health and also volunteered to counsel sexual minorities. She completed a foster care study for the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research—and helped gang-affected teens on a boat-building project. "I enjoy working with complex students and in a more multicultural setting," she says.
As a PSU alumna, Ms. Nyhan has become a great resource for our PSU Counselor Education program. Always able to spot a collaborative opportunity, she worked with PSU's Julie Porter on a senior capstone project that provided tutoring and other volunteer opportunities for PSU's students at the Fir Ridge school. PSU's Community Counseling Clinic students started participating in Ms. Nyhan's resource fair years ago, and several GSE students from various specialty tracks volunteer with the fair coordination effort and will work the day of the fair.
The Community Resource Fair at Fir Ridge gives students the opportunity to interact with adults in a positive environment. Students Tonya Smith Pharr (left) and Rashad Tanner learn about services and resources available from local community agencies.
Ms. Nyhan's professors are equally enthusiastic about her work. "Catherine Nyhan fulfills the school counselor's mission on every level. She readily serves her students, her colleagues, and the profession," says Lisa Aasheim, coordinator of the School Counseling program and director of the Counseling Clinic. "While dedicating herself fully to helping her students achieve success at Fir Ridge, she also helps our students at PSU find their best academic selves. She provides supervision, mentorship, and guidance in a creative and nurturing manner. Our students become strong professionals as a direct result of her teaching and guidance."
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