The Nicholas A. Vacc Counseling and Consulting Clinic in the UNC Greensboro School of Education is a win-win. It provides mental health services to the campus community and Greensboro at large, while simultaneously giving counseling students training.
Practical training for career preparation
“The Vacc Clinic is unique because we can work with actual clients and be supported throughout,” says Owuraku Affum Boahen-Boaten, a graduate assistant and counseling intern.
Boahen-Boaten focused his undergraduate work on creative arts therapy. In his native Ghana, he was a counselor and provided social services in rural areas for a nonprofit.
“That’s where I got my inspiration to pursue counseling and mental health,” he says. At UNCG, he is studying for a master’s in counseling with a focus on couple and family counseling.
“We have high-level support and supervision from doctoral students, including some who are already licensed clinicians,” he says. The sessions with clients are recorded, so the supervisor and trainee can review them together to see what could be improved.
One of those licensed supervisors is doctoral student Victoria Giles-Vazquez. She currently works in private practice with children and families. A native of Puerto Rico, she provides bilingual services and works with the LGBTQ+ community.
“The Vacc Clinic has played a foundational role in my work here as a graduate assistant and an on-call consultant,” she says.
Besides reviewing their counseling sessions with her, trainees can alert Giles-Vazquez if they encounter a critical situation with a client, such as suicidal or homicidal ideation so she can intervene.
“That consultant role is a really important skill to practice,” she says, adding that the clinic provides many opportunities to grow through experiential learning.
Leadership drives opportunity
Boahen-Boaten has nothing but praise for Clinic Director Dr. Alex Cammarano.
“She’s very approachable, she’s very resourceful, and she’s extremely helpful. We can come to her with any issue,” he says. “The level of support, compassion, and patience provided is helpful for my growth, particularly as a new person here from a different culture. The clinic gives me opportunities to build my skills and my professional identity as a counselor.”
His sentiment is shared by second-year master’s student Whitney Rutter, a North Carolina native who came to UNCG after earning her bachelor’s degree in math and a high school teaching certificate. Counseling felt natural for her, so she changed direction and enrolled in the program.
“We have a wonderful director. I could talk about her all day long,” Rutter says. “She has worked tirelessly to get our name out in the community and to make sure that we, as staff, are supported.”
Rutter chose UNCG because of its top ranking nationally for counseling programs and because of the Vacc Clinic on campus.
“The chance to get clinical hours on campus in such a structured way has been super helpful,” she said. Rutter started an off-campus internship at a private practice in nearby Burlington and feels well-prepared.
A community model that works
During the 2024-25 academic year, the clinic served 333 adult clients, an increase of 23 percent from the previous year. This fall, the clinic expanded services to provide resources for children and adolescents. Children can receive services beginning at age five.
The clinic operates on a sliding-scale payment schedule to be affordable to all. Outreach includes tabling at community events to make attendees aware of the clinic and its work.
“Our goal is to include more community members in our client list, in addition to UNCG students,” Rutter says.
With more than 30 and 35 counselors-in-training at the master’s and doctoral level available for client services, the Vacc Clinic is primed to meet community needs.
“I’m proud to be in the UNCG counseling program,” Boahen-Boaten says. “I’m readily skilled to meet the needs of the community and the world outside the University.”
Story by Mary Daily
Photography courtesy of Alex Cammarano
