Oklahoma State University Student Awarded APA Minority Fellowship

Monday, May 3, 2010

Andrea Zainab Nael, a Native American graduate student at Oklahoma State University, has been awarded a $20,976 American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship.

Nael, who is Cherokee and Iranian, makes her home in Norman. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in counseling psychology at OSU in Stillwater.

The goal of the Fellowship program is to increase the knowledge and research related to minority mental health, and to improve the quality of mental health and substance abuse services that are delivered to ethnic minority populations. Recipients must be enrolled or accepted full-time in an APA-accredited doctoral program, and is aimed at students who are specializing in clinical, counseling, school or other programs associated with the delivery of mental health services.

Each Fellow can receive the stipend for up to three years, and travel support is also given to the APA Convention.

After receiving her degree, Nael plans to stay in Oklahoma and work as a psychologist with Native American adolescents. “This Fellowship program will provide me with invaluable resources and training to help me better serve this population,” she said.

She has worked as a counseling intern at OSU’s University Counseling Services since August 2009, and prior to that was a counseling intern at Stillwater Domestic Violence Services for a year. She also spent a year as a counseling intern at the OU Counseling Psychology Clinic.

“My desire to work with adolescents specifically, both at Indian Health Services, and hopefully in the communities that surround their facilities, comes from my belief that it is an age where intergenerational patterns have the most opportunity to be changed,” Nael said.

“Historical trauma has devastated generations of Native Americans and continues to sabotage the lives of the future generation. My passion as a clinician is to work in Indian Health Services with Native Americans who have experienced trauma, to introduce healthy alternatives to alcohol, drug abuse and overeating by providing interventions based on culturally sensitive modes of healing.”

Nael received her B.A. in psychology in 2007 and her master’s of education in community counseling in 2009, both from the University of Oklahoma. She expects to receive her doctorate from OSU in 2012.

Among honors and awards she has received include being named an McNair Scholar; an OSU College of Education Domestic Violence Fellow and an American Indian Graduate Center Fellow, both for 2008-09; and a Cherokee Nation Graduate Scholarship from 2007-10. She was a finalist for the APA – Minority Fellowship Program Scholar in 2009.

Her professional memberships include the Society of Indian Psychologists, Oklahoma Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Psi Chi, and Amnesty International.