612 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 4 fellowship year and into their new roles as early professionals. These reported factors might prevent and or buffer challenges experienced by counselor educators of color. Implications Several recommendations for counselor educators, supervisors, and doctoral students of diverse backgrounds can be ascertained from what we know about the NBCC MFP since its inception in CES in 2012. First, counselor educators can become knowledgeable about the NBCC MFP and its application deadlines to encourage CES doctoral students committed to working with diverse communities to apply. In so doing, counselor educators can also mentor CES students as they gather application materials. Secondly, counselor educators and clinical supervisors may increase their multicultural competency knowledge by accessing the clinical trainings offered by NBCCF and may likewise encourage all doctoral- and master’s-level counseling graduate program students to access those resources. Such training aligns with Seward’s (2014) call to systemically infuse training to address the needs of students and faculty of color. In addition, more direct and open communication about such training needs may also promote an improved classroom and program racial climate (Seward, 2014). According to survey respondents, many aspects of the NBCC MFP bolstered and supported their efforts to complete their doctoral programs and transition to the profession. Counselor educators, supervisors, and CES doctoral students may capitalize on the access and relationships that are made available through the MFP, thereby creating inclusion and support in academic spaces where faculty of color might otherwise be overlooked or misunderstood. Counselor educators and supervisors may consider how the structural elements of the MFP could be replicated within their programs in addition to the focus on clinical and multicultural training, mentorships, networking, and a collaborative student experience, with emphasis placed on addressing cultural factors to create a supportive environment for students and faculty of color (Shillingford et al., 2013). Such an endeavor requires intentionality through an honest evaluation of CES program recruitment and retention practices of faculty of color (Baggerly et al., 2017), an examination of how multiculturalism and social justice are infused throughout the program (Spanierman & Smith, 2017), and ongoing program assessment. Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research One significant limitation is the low number of survey responses. Although we had access to survey responses from cohort members between 2013 through 2018, approximately one third of the 158 fellows across the six cohorts responded to the surveys. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to all MFP fellows’ experiences. Given this limitation, future reviews should include larger numbers of cohort data. To address this limitation, in 2020, MFP administrators initiated a fellow engagement committee to encourage ongoing fellow participation after fellowship completion as well as enforce stricter regulations surrounding survey completion (M. Davis, personal communication, June 29, 2020). In addition, only one out of the nine short-answer survey questions was selected for data analysis. The remaining survey data could be further analyzed for a more in-depth examination of respondent experiences. Future research should include qualitative studies to gain greater clarity on fellow experiences in order to better understand what aspects of the MFP structure were perceived as most beneficial as well as MFP fellow recommendations for improvements to the program. Additional quantitative research focusing on fellow self-efficacy within counselor education could be conducted
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