Emmanuel Oppong ’13 is an involved leader in the community.
Emmanuel Oppong ’13 traveled to St. Cloud State University to achieve his master’s degree in community counseling. He continues to live in St. Cloud and is a licensed, nationally-certified professional counselor as well as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor.
Originally from the West African country of Ghana, Oppong came to the United States for his own academic advancement and quickly became an involved community leader, making a difference in the lives of many others.
Oppong works as a clinical therapist at Recover Health Resources in St. Anthony, where he provides a variety of mental health services to help individuals and families recover so they can manage their lives.
“I currently work with minorities and immigrant families, primarily Somalis and Ethiopians displaced, traumatized, abused and marginalized as refugees due to war,” Oppong said. “I deliver therapy and equip them with interpersonal communication, crises assistance and community resource utilization and integration.”
While Oppong was enrolled at St. Cloud State, the school provided him an avenue for his professional development in addition to his academic learning, he said.
“St. Cloud State University gave me an opportunity and a platform to work with diverse groups of people across race, class, religion and culture,” Oppong said.
As a student, Oppong became a leader for several causes supporting campus, local and global communities. He also served as a senator in student government and as the vice president of the Graduate Student Association while on the Graduate Student Advisory Board.
He is an annual volunteer with Books for Africa, collecting books and raising funds to ship thousands of books to Africa and continues to be active with Talent Emergence International, where he helps to create awareness about displaced child soldiers in Africa.
His civic engagement earned him the Minnesota Campus Compact President’s award, recognizing him as a leader in the development of campus-community partnerships.
“As a student, I aspired to be involved in the community and vowed never to allow my rigorous academic demands to be a hindrance to this goal,” Oppong said.
Oppong’s main goal now is to obtain his doctorate degree and become a clinical psychologist. He also hopes to implement a mentoring program for minority students in the St. Cloud community.
