CCU’s Counseling Services gets recognition

Coastal Carolina University’s Office of Counseling Services was recognized for its outstanding programming and students at the national 2016 BACCHUS General Assembly held Nov. 17-20 in Kansas City, Mo.

BACCHUS is an initiative of the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, an organization that supports collegiate peer educators and advisers by empowering students and student affairs administrators to create campus environments that are healthy and safe.

Chris Donevant-Haines, assistant director of counseling services at CCU, was nominated for Advisor of the Year, and student Kelsie Miller was named Peer Educator of the Year.

The Students Helping Others Reach Excellence (SHORE) organization, which acts to raise awareness about suicide prevention, was nominated for Peer Educator Group of the Year, and its spring event “Out of the Darkness Walk to Fight Suicide” was nominated as Program of the Year.

Donevant-Haines, who trains peer educators and oversees operations of The COAST, advises the SHORE group, which helps to put on events such as the “Out of the Darkness Walk to Fight Suicide.” This semester the event raised more than $6,000 that was donated to the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention.

Donevant-Haines is a licensed professional counselor and holds memberships in three national counseling organizations. She earned an A.A.S. in legal studies from Marshall University, a bachelor’s degree in social science from Bluefield State College and a master’s degree in counseling from Webster University.

A senior psychology major at CCU, Miller, of Chambersburg, Pa., serves as co-coordinator of the SHORE Peer Educators, and she is employed as a student worker at the Counseling Outreach Advocacy Student Team (The COAST).