Rebecca Taplin is the 2014 student commencement speaker
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As an instructor in the Professional Mental Health Counseling program, Karen Hixon loves to encourage her students to become involved in the counseling community. Each year, she invites students to consider making presentations at the annual Oregon Counselors Association meeting.
Last year, Rebecca Taplin, MA ’14, took her up on the offer. It’s the kind of proactive, engaged approach to her education that Hixson says characterizes Taplin, who has been named the 2014 graduate school student commencement speaker.
Taplin received her undergraduate degree from The Evergreen State College, where she studied visual arts, philosophy, writing, and teaching. She served as the editor of the literary arts journal and was the Assistant to the Director of the Writing Center. “Evergreen showed me the value of interdisciplinarity within any distinct area of work or study,” she says, “a value that I carry into my counseling practice and career.”
Before enrolling at Lewis & Clark, Taplin answered calls at a local mental health crisis hotline, tutored writing, lead writing workshops, and taught printmaking classes. She grew up in Denver and moved to the Pacific Northwest 8 years ago. Her father was a psychologist and her mother was a teacher. “I am very grateful to have been naturally given a lot of values at a young age that aligned with the mental health and education fields,” she says.
After graduation, Taplin hopes to continue working with clients on an individual and group basis while while pursuing avenues to address larger social and systemic change.
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