Foundation Connections

The NBCC Foundation's mentoring program, comprised of professional counselors giving back to the counseling community, is essential to the NBCC Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). Mentors commit to meeting with a master’s- or doctoral-level counseling Fellow to help them navigate their passion for counseling. Though the requirement is to meet at least four times, many form a lifelong connection and continue learning from each other. 

NBCC Foundation staff interviewed current mentor Dr. Loidaly González-Rosario and NBCC MFP Doctoral Fellow Daniel Dosal-Terminel about their mentoring relationship. Dr. González-Rosario and Dosal-Terminel shared the professional and personal impact the experience had on them. 

Loidaly González-Rosario, PhD, NCC, LCMHC-A, is a 2019 NBCC MFP Doctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Counseling Department at Western Carolina University. Dr. González-Rosario attributed her mentor experience as an MFP Fellow as inspiration for becoming a mentor herself. Through her exposure to the program, she “found trust and honesty on what is best for me as a person and not what I can provide to an academic structure.” Using her familiarity with her MFP cohort, she could connect Dosal-Terminel with others who could help him with his journey. 

Dr. González-Rosario expressed how mentors also gain valuable lessons during their meetings with mentees: “I am constantly unlearning how to exist in relationships in a power-sharing dynamic. I feel like we learn how to exist in a power-sharing way together.” 

Daniel Dosal-Terminel, MA, NCC, is a 2023 NBCC MFP Doctoral Fellow and will defend his dissertation at Georgia State University in July. During the mentorship, Dosal-Terminel shared he learned a lot about time management and self-care: “I can underestimate how easily a project will be done or how much energy and willpower I will have without accounting for the small things that take up energy and time. Dr. González-Rosario reminded me to be kind to myself while preparing for a task and accepting that it might not be as I imagined it.” 

Dosal-Terminel’s appreciation of Dr. González-Rosario extended beyond the professional realm of mentorship. Dr. González-Rosario would invite Dosal-Terminel to be his authentic self by initiating language-switching from English to Spanish during their time together. “Something as simple as pronouncing my name in Spanish went a long way,” says Dosal-Terminel. 

Mentorship did not come without challenges for the pair. Scheduling meetings around their busy schedules proved difficult; however, setting expectations from the start helped them creatively manage their time together. Outside of scheduling meetings ahead of time, they would check in with each other via texts or voice notes if their schedules didn’t allow them to meet. Despite this challenge, Dosal-Terminel says, “I knew I was on Dr. González-Rosario’s radar and could ask for help even if we did not formally meet.” 

When asked what advice they would give someone thinking about becoming an NBCC Foundation mentor, both expressed the importance of being there for their mentee and reframing ideas of the mentor–mentee relationship. The authenticity and commitment they both brought to their exchange were essential to their ongoing success. 

The NBCC Foundation offers many opportunities for counselors and counselor educators to get engaged and support the future of the profession. For more information, visit nbccf.org/beinvolved or email foundation@nbcc.org to connect with our Volunteer Coordinator. 

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