Marshall adds new embedded counselor

The Marshall School of Business has a new embedded counselor: Andrew Iskandar. Iskandar’s embedment into Marshall is a part of a greater effort by the Counseling and Mental Health services team to provide easier access to their services. The program was initially launched in the cultural centers across campus. The School of Architecture, the Gould School of Law and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, among others, also have embedded counselors.

The embedded counselor model was created in response to data USC got back from students in the 2019 Healthy Minds Study, according to the USC Student Health website. Forty percent of survey respondents said that they needed some sort of mental health support. 

Marshall appointed Iskandar, a licensed clinical social worker and clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, their embedded counselor at the start of Spring 2023. Iskandar previously worked with adults with autism and intellectual disabilities before earning his master’s degree in social work at USC and joining the Counseling and Mental Health department at Keck School of Medicine in 2015. 

“It’s something that I’ve been drawn to for basically my whole life,” Iskandar said of his career in social work and counseling. “Being in that world where you’re connecting with people and understanding how they see life and how they navigate all the problems that they come up against in life and just trying my best to see the world through someone else’s eyes [has] always been interesting.” 

Summer Zapata, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at Keck School of Medicine, said the decision to embed counselors was a strategic one, specifically targeting “certain academic schools where there were health disparities” — including Marshall. There is no cap to the number of sessions one can have with an embedded counselor, Zapata said. Instead, counselors attempt to create personalized treatment plans with students whether that entails short-term or long-term care.

“Marshall’s decision to embed a counselor is part of our commitment to student well-being and to making mental health a priority in our community,” wrote Maureen McHale, assistant dean and director of Undergraduate Advising and Student Affairs at Marshall, in a statement to the Daily Trojan. “By embedding a counselor, students will have access to a well-qualified mental health professional uniquely familiar with the Marshall undergraduate experience.”

Iskandar said he already has some experience with the unique challenges of Marshall students from his time at the Engeman.

“[Marshall students] are going into the world to be leaders, to be placed in business, to create things and there’s so much pressure on them,” Iskandar said. “There’s so much competition for them, there’s so much push for them to achieve these really high levels.” 

Iskandar said being able to help students in times of great personal stress is one of the best aspects of his job. 

“It’s really gratifying, it’s really great to be the person that they can kind of come back to themselves,” Iskandar said. “[Having] that stress come out of them and seeing how it’s affecting them and trying to understand who they are and what brought them to this place and get into this right mindset and be in this creative place where they can expand out into the world.”

Chloe Young, a freshman majoring in business, said she’s thankful that Marshall now has these resources, but felt that it is well needed in other schools as well. 

“Having [therapists] especially where Fertitta [is], having it in the same easy access is something that’s definitely helpful,” Young said. “A lot of different schools can really use the resource. I always hear my Viterbi friends super stressed out; They’re always studying hard.” 

Iskandar said he “has a lot of availability” now that he works almost exclusively with Marshall undergraduate students.

“I’ve only been at Marshall a couple weeks now,” Iskandar said, “but I can say that it’s been really exciting to meet everyone and to learn more about the ebbs and flows of what a Marshall student goes through.”

As a mental health professional, Iskandar understands the importance of participating in activities that help him destress, one of which is hiking.

“This is a beautiful area to just go out into the wilderness and just be out there with the sun and the sky and the birds and all that,” Iskandar said. “I like to go spend time with my friends and family.”

Correction: This article was updated to reflect that counselors are embedded within colleges across campus, not in career centers. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.

Correction: This article was updated to reflect that the included list of colleges which have embedded counselors is not exhaustive. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.