Virginia Gregg, Ph.D., now MA-LPC

Dr. Virginia “Ginny” Gregg has one more degree than she did the last time you saw her!

Every seven years, faculty members are eligible to go on sabbatical. Last semester, Dr. Gregg took her sabbatical to do two internships. As a student of Heidelberg’s Master of Arts in Counseling (MAC) program, she completed her final graduation requirements (and some additional research) last semester.

Anticipating Neil Sass’s retirement, which began back at the end of the fall semester in December, Ginny Gregg knew that she would need to take on some of his classes. “I was a little worried about taking tests again,” she began, “but it was really fun to gain a new ‘student’ perspective and to get this new experience.” As a professor and student of some of her colleagues, Dr. Gregg got to see a new side of the MAC program faculty. “Everyone in our counseling program is wonderful. Meagan (McBride) DoHee (Kim-Appel) and Robin (DuFresne) are all different in their teaching styles, in a way that really complements each other. Each is highly student-oriented.”

For Dr. Gregg’s final semester in the program, she completed two internships: one at the W.O.R.T.H. Center and one at the Bucyrus Community Health Center. “I helped run a trauma group at te WORTH Center, and the experience gave me insight to a lot of great methods and new techniques,” She explained. “I didn’t have to do two internships, but I wanted to. I learned a lot.” Funnily enough, during her time, Dr. Gregg was supervised by Lexi Jeffire, a 2015 graduate of the Heidelberg MAC program.

Ginny is now a licensed professional counselor (LPC), which means that she needs continued supervision while counseling people. She’s working part-time at the Community Counseling & Wellness Center to get more supervised hours under her belt and more experience that she can bring back to her students at Heidelberg. In the classroom, she is now teaching a class on trauma, which she never could have done before her internship and earning her new degree. With this new experience under her belt, Dr. Gregg’s future is widening up before her, inside and beyond the classroom. Ginny also hopes that her recent experience as a student and intern will help her assist her students as they move through the Psychology program at Heidelberg.

For students interested in the MAC program at Heidelberg, she encourages taking advantage of Heidelberg’s Bridge Program. “It’s a three-plus-two program. So, five years for your bachelor’s and master’s all together.” The Bridge pathway allows students to earn up to nine graduate credits while completing their bachelor’s degree. Effectively, a student is “double-dipping” for those credits, saving them time as they complete the graduate program! Contact Dr. Traci Stark if you’d like more information!