WINONA, Minn. – A $2 million federal grant has been awarded to Winona State University and Rochester schools to place advanced university students into mental-health counseling jobs. The five-year grant will cover scholarships for 30 students in a two-year master’s program to get into the workforce early. Rochester schools have 17,000 students. The grant was announced by Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, on a swing through southeast Minnesota. The senator noted 32% of Rochester 11th graders have seriously considered suicide and 11% have actually attempted. The district has 32 mental health counselors. Klobuchar’s point: “Not enough.”
Verbatim
Klobuchar: “We all know that we have come through a lot as a country. Through the pandemic everyone was in 300 million separate silos all over our country. People were isolated. And it made people who already were feeling a bit isolated in an ever-changing world even more so.”