friday takeout

Brooke Martin

Mental Health Counselor | Peosta Campus

What aspects of your upbringing most contributed in shaping the person you came to be and why/how?

I would say that the support of my mother has most contributed in shaping the person I became and am still becoming. My mother has always been my biggest cheerleader and encouraged me to push myself outside of my comfort zone to achieve my dreams. Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed or lost in what direction I want to move in next, I hear my mother's voice in my mind saying “just focus and you will be fine.” The word “focus” has become an important word to me, in guiding me in identifying and achieving new goals for myself. Because the word has so much meaning to me, I have even considered getting a tattoo of the word on my wrist as a daily reminder.

Which of the six College values do you most identify with and why?

Resiliency: We learn from our experiences, refocus and seize the opportunity to improve and persist. Building resiliency is critical to developing healthy mechanisms for protection against adverse life experiences. Resiliency assists us in maintaining balance in our lives during times of distress and can also aid in protecting us from the development of some mental health difficulties. Some of us are more resilient than others, depending on our genetic and environmental makeup. Resiliency can also be a learned skill that greatly benefits our daily functioning and ability to cope with life stressors.

What is something you do in your workday that supports the College vision?

I am proud to say that, like everyone who works within the College, I support the College vision daily. In my role as a mental health counselor at NICC, I have the privilege of assisting our students in working through their daily life stressors and exploring and teaching them new ways in which to better cope and problem solve. By teaching students new and healthy ways of coping, this aids in reducing the level of negative impact that their stressors are having in daily functioning and overall life satisfaction.

What is the most important memory you have and why?

The most important memory I have, in terms of my professional career, was during the time of my undergraduate studies. I was working towards my bachelor’s degree at Mount Mercy University and working as a patient care technician at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Emergency Room. During this time, I was taking both psychology and pre-med classes with the intention of going on to graduate school to become a physician assistant. One night while working in the ER, a young man came in by ambulance after a suicide attempt. As I worked alongside our medical team in an attempt to revive him, I happened to look up and see the young man’s wife sitting beside the bed in obvious shock. I realized that she had no one with her to support her during this difficult time. Afterwards, when the room had finally cleared of medical staff, I went back into the room to sit with her and be with her as she grieved the loss of her husband. This was a pivotal moment for me when I came to realize my destined path and switched my focus to pursue a counseling career.

Which famous person would you like to be BFFs with?

If I could go back in time, I would have loved to have been BFF’s with the esteemed John Nash. John was a brilliant mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. His work has provided great insight and advancements into the factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems found in everyday life. John was an individual who lived with the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Despite his mental health struggles, John demonstrated resiliency and went on to live a very productive and fruitful life. I have always been fascinated with mathematically-gifted minds. I myself struggle in the realm of mathematics; however, I have often thought that I may someday return to school to study mathematics, if for no other reason than to continue to fuel my fascination in the subject and prove to myself that I can become a better mathematician with a little determination and persistence.