Stephanie Rice
CCBC Student
Human Services Counseling
CCBC in three words: Welcoming, motivating and caring
Before making the decision to enroll at CCBC, 12 years had passed since Stephanie Rice had taken a college class, and her life had taken many twists and turns.
“I decided to come to CCBC because I felt like my life was on pause and I was not able to advance in my career the way I wanted to,” said Rice, who is a Human Services Counseling major. “I wanted to expand my reach of how effectively I could help people struggling with addiction.”
Rice wanted to become an addictions counselor because she had been in active addiction herself. To help pay for college, she was awarded an Opioid-Impacted Family Support Program grant, which goes toward tuition costs not covered by the Pell Grant.
“This grant was that extra push and motivation I needed to gain the courage to attend college after such a long break,” said Rice. “I did not have confidence in myself that I could ever return back to school, but I learned that we are capable of anything. All we have to do is take a leap of faith.”
While studying at CCBC, Rice has become an Addictions Counselor Trainee (ADT) and is now continuing her education to obtain her Clinical Supervisor Credential in Addictions Counseling (CSC-AD). Most of her CCBC classes are virtual, which works well with her schedule as a full-time mom and full-time employee who manages a women's support group.
“After finding sobriety, I found my passion in life, and that was to help others as I was helped,” she said. “I aspire to advocate and educate families and loved ones of addicts while also helping the addict themselves.”
If you’re thinking about starting or returning to college after being out of school for some time, Rice offers this advice: “Give yourself a chance to change your life.”
“If you don’t give yourself an opportunity to grow, you will never know what could have been,” she added. “If you think you can't do it, then you have the best mindset to try even harder to achieve your goals.”
After earning her associate degree in Human Services Counseling, Rice would like to continue classes at CCBC to obtain a degree in Business. Her goal is to have her own program that works with families and loved ones of people suffering from addiction and eventually open her own treatment facility.
