Post-Graduate Fellow / Multicultural Focus

Job Description

Amherst College invites applications for the Post-Graduate Fellow / Multicultural Focus position. The Post-Graduate Fellow / Multicultural Focus is a full-time, one-year term position. The expected salary range for this job opportunity is: $44,546 to $45,000.

The salary offered will vary based on a number of factors, including but not limited to relevant education, training, and experience, tenure status, and other nondiscriminatory business considerations. Amherst College is pleased to provide a comprehensive, highly competitive benefits package that meets the needs of staff and faculty and their families. Click here for Benefits Information.

The Post-Graduate Fellowship/Multicultural Focus is a one-year (August 1 to July 31) Fellowship appointment that reports to the Assistant Director of Training Administration and Education. The program emphasizes learning through participation in various multidimensional roles and functions of college mental health practitioners. Fellows will work alongside psychologists, social workers, mental health clinicians, and psychiatric staff to provide a full range of clinical and outreach services to the Amherst College community. An essential role for the Post-Graduate Fellow will be to support diverse student communities by providing clinical, preventative, and educational services to help students address the mental health and developmental challenges they face in their personal and academic lives.

The Center for Counseling and Mental Health provides a variety of services, including individual and group counseling, psychiatry services, case management, mental health promotion and preventative services, consultation, and teaching. These services are designed to help students overcome mental illnesses or learn how to cope effectively with them, improve their academic performance and cognitive functioning, develop a deeper understanding of themselves and the intersections of their identities, create and maintain satisfying relationships, foster a sense of meaning and purpose, and make healthy life and career choices. The Center for Counseling and Mental Health operates within a developmental philosophy and a brief therapy model, and fellowship candidates must demonstrate an ability to work with a diverse student body within these two frames.

In light of the Center for Counseling and Mental Health's deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, this fellowship position will facilitate a unique opportunity for the Fellow to develop and further hone their multicultural clinical and consultation skills, and to contribute to campus outreach programs which support Amherst's student diversity. Amherst College is a highly selective, small liberal arts college with a very diverse student body - 45% of our students are students of color from the US; 10% are international; 40% come from low-income families; 18% identify as LBGTQ+; and 25% have registered disabilities, with 2 out of 3 being mental health or learning disabilities. Consequently, the Post-Graduate Fellow will work to provide culturally appropriate clinical, consultation, and outreach interventions which address identity development and intersectionality, the impact of systemic oppression (both historical and acute), trauma related to marginalized identity membership, and its impact on mental health and student success.

Our training program complies with the requisites for APPIC membership, and we host three post-graduate fellows per year. Fellows will receive 2 hours of individual supervision and 1 hour of group supervision per week. Fellows will also participate in weekly staff meetings, weekly clinical team case conference meetings, and training seminars. In accordance with APPIC standards, Fellows will receive formal evaluation, generally twice a year. Mid-year evaluations are written and discussed formally with Fellows, but mutual feedback is encouraged in an informal, ongoing manner throughout the year. Year-end evaluations are also written and geared toward supporting Fellows in their transition toward employment. The training program has a due-process procedure in the event Fellows encounter difficulties during their training experience.

Summary of Responsibilities:

Responsibilities will include conducting evidence-based, culturally appropriate intakes and clinical assessments, individual and group counseling, urgent care, on-call services 1 to 2 weeks a semester, and coordinating care with our psychiatric staff and case manager. The Fellow will need clinical skills as a generalist, and will have opportunities to develop specialty skills in working with adolescents and young adults. Fellows will work with students who present with mental illnesses that often emerge in this stage of development (e.g. bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, and other major mental illnesses) and with students presenting with normative developmental concerns typically experienced during this period (e.g. identity, relationships, individuation from family). Because more than half the students we serve are BIPOC, international, queer, first-generation, and/or low-income, the Fellow must be interested in, and have some skill in working with identity development and intersectionality, and understand the ways in which systems of oppression affect students' mental health. In addition to clinical services, the Fellow will also engage in and contribute to preventative and educational outreach initiatives. This fellowship position will work to engage historically marginalized communities and communities that typically under-utilize mental health care, with an emphasis on working with BIPOC students. This will include work/connection with our program directors for Mental Health Promotion, Health Education, and identity-based Resource Centers, as well as working collaboratively with a number of other departments across campus. We value wrap-around care, and Fellows must be comfortable working across disciplines.

The fellowship position, along with all the Center for Counseling and Mental Health staff, works toward building and sustaining a center that meets the needs of both individual students and the College community as a whole. We recognize that all of our practitioners bring different gifts and try to assign work from a strengths-based perspective, thus allowing people to grow professionally in ways that best fit their talents and skills. Strong commitments to (1) holistic approaches to student development, (2) understanding current issues facing students of color in historically white institutions (3) interdisciplinary treatment models, (4) the development of on-going, personal and professional multicultural competence, (5) collaboration across the College community and (6) a strong work ethic, are all crucial to succeed in the Fellowship.

Counseling and Consultation

• Provide culturally appropriate individual, group, and couples counseling/psychotherapy to students including assessment, diagnosis, and brief treatment; provide urgent care and crisis intervention; provide consultation to the Amherst College campus community (including students, faculty, administration, staff, and parents-regarding the mental health needs of Amherst students), and also consultation with on-and off-campus health care providers, including Student Health Services, hospitals, community mental health agencies, and private practitioners, Office of Student Affairs' case management, etc. to aid in coordination of care for Amherst College students; maintain up-to-date files, written reports and related data commensurate with current standards of the profession. Will provide on-call services approximately 1 to 2 weeks per semester.

Administrative

• Participation in weekly individual and group supervision, training seminars, clinical case conferences, and team staff meetings.

Qualifications:

Required

• All degree requirements for a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology or Clinical Psychology (PhD, PsyD, EdD), or related field from an APA-accredited program OR Masters in Social Work, Counseling, or related field from an accredited program is required and must be completed by August 15, 2026. Receipt of the degree must be verified no later than August 31, 2026.
• Minimum of two years of related professional experience.
• Able to work in a brief treatment model in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge of, and skill in addressing race and racism in a clinical context.
• Outstanding communication, collaboration, interpersonal, and relationship skills.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Occasional work on weekends and evenings.
• Successful completion of required reference and background checks.
• An acceptable criminal offender records information (CORI) check.

Preferred

• Specific training and experience working with diverse populations including, but not limited to: students of color, LGBTQIA students, students of different ethnicities and International status, first generation, low-income, disability, and/or intersectionalities.
• Clinical experience in college or university mental health settings and/or in community mental health.