Emily Aiken pursues a counseling degree with support from the Vermont Mental Health Forgivable Loan
This story was originally published by VTDigger on April 4, 2025
“My going back to school for counseling was a big decision for us,” says Emily Aiken of Fairfax. “My husband owns a landscaping and excavation company, where he’s been successful without a college degree. And while he can buy a piece of equipment and make money on it immediately, it’s a lot less certain to spend time and money on a degree without a guarantee that you’ll make that money back.”
But for Emily, the calling to study mental health counseling was about much more than return on investment. It was about investing in a community she cares about.
She’s done that throughout her career in different ways—working in health care research, teaching in a preschool, serving on her local school board, and being a mom to a now-12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. But her dream was always to become a counselor.
“I’ve been inspired by people who have struggled and overcome things, which helped propel me into making changes in my own life—and then to think about how I might help others,” says Emily. “I’m also very empathetic, and I feel things on a deeper level than most people. That makes me want to make a change in the world.”
Emily’s original plan was to go right to grad school after earning her bachelor’s in psychology, with a minor in anthropology, from St. Michael’s College. But when she found out she was pregnant with their son, that put the immediate emphasis on providing for a growing family. So Emily took a job with an allergy and asthma research clinic.
Seven years later, the research project ended, and Emily now had two children at home. She went to work with a friend who runs a preschool, which meant she could earn an income and care for her daughter at the same time. “It was a great experience. I got to spend time with my daughter and spend a lot of time outside,” she says.
After four years there, Emily decided it was time to revisit her dream.
She signed up for a counseling class—Social and Cultural Foundations of Counseling—as part of a continuing education program. “I wanted to find out, ‘can I even do this?’ It had been so long since I was in school. But the course went better than I expected.”
With her fears put to rest, Emily decided to go for a degree. She’s now partway through the mental health counseling program at Vermont State University (VTSU), with an expected graduation date of December 2026. Her program is flexible and partially asynchronous; Emily is not part of a student cohort, but takes classes through the Johnson campus at her own pace. “That helps, because I try to keep summers light, with the kids out of school and that being my husband’s busy time.”
