MISSION

The mission of the MRC program is to ensure that persons with disabilities, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age or other personal characteristics, have access to qualified rehabilitation counseling professionals. To that end, the MRC program is committed to the advancement of opportunities for persons with disabilities, especially opportunities associated with productivity, independent living, meaningful access to the community, and overall quality of life. The MRC program recognizes that the lives of persons with disabilities and their significant others will be affected directly by the personal commitment and professional preparation of MRC program graduates.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the MRC program include ensuring students receive the opportunity to:

• Understand and engage in personal reflection in relation to the MRC program's underlying values as stated;

• Acquire a comprehensive, fundamental knowledge of the rehabilitation profession so that individuals with wide-ranging disability types, including those with severe disabilities, may be served competently;

• Develop a recognition that rehabilitation professionals must engage in lifelong professional development in order to attain and maintain the fundamental competencies required to serve individuals with disabilities;

• Develop a personal commitment to assist individuals with disabilities in the development of empowering personal characteristics, including the capacity for self-understanding, environmental understanding, and active personal agency in developing and attaining personal, educational, vocational, and other goals;

• Recognize differences in individual consumer values and provide professional services that reflect those values in rehabilitation plan development, including the selection of professional services;

• Develop the competencies necessary to provide rehabilitation services in an ethical manner evidenced by personal and professional integrity; and

• Personally develop and foster consumer development of the critical self-assessment and problem-solving skills that are essential to efficacious rehabilitation counseling intervention.