NEW COUNSELOR BRINGS WHAT SHE LOVES TO MHCC

Counselors play an essential role in everyone’s life, especially in the lives of students who need guidance with their career planning and/or personal issues. The Mt. Hood Community College counselors work very hard to provide assistance for all students on campus, and have had the opportunity to welcome a new faculty member to their team this Winter Term: Rachel Falk.

Falk will have a major role in providing career, personal, and crisis counseling to students within, and beyond, Accessible Education Services (formerly Disability Services). She will also be teaching at some point this term, most likely in the Human Development department.

Although she knows she is taking on loads of work, she says it’s work she loves and enjoys doing.

Photo provided by Rachel Falk

Falk started her hiring process to work at Mt. Hood in September. She says one of the reasons for her interest in MHCC was the wide diversity the campus has. Before coming here, she worked at Clark College, in Vancouver, Washington, in the Career Service department, and before that she was at Portland Community College, in the Workforce Development and Career Counseling departments.

It may come as a surprise to some that Falk is actually from New York City. Starting at the age of 12 and continuing into her 20s, Falk’s biggest focus was theatre. She received a bachelor’s degree in theatre, but later realized it was hard to make a living out of theatre and did real estate for about a decade. After that, she helped her husband start an advertising agency for several more years.

Even though Falk took on many jobs, she says this is how she discovered what she loved doing the most: meeting people (and learning their different backgrounds) and helping them make important transitions in life. This is something she likes talking to students about, she says: That it’s okay to take on different jobs, because at the end you can take all your favorite pieces of your past jobs and figure out what you enjoy the most.

After discovering her new career interest, she moved to Oregon and earned a master’s degree in clinical mental health and rehabilitation counseling, specializing in mental health counseling to work with people with disabilities, at Portland State University.

Falk is really excited to start working with students at Mt. Hood, and says one of her goals is to “meet with as many students as possible.” She says she will try her best to be present at different school events to connect with students, so that students don’t always have to go find her.

She would like students to know that they may contact her through email or make an appointment at the Career Planning and Counseling Department. Students can also schedule an appointment through the Advising Center.

Falk’s office is located in AC2162, in the Advising Department in the Student Services center. Advising hours are 8 a.m to 5 p.m. weekdays (opening at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays).

Advocate Staff