From: M.A. in Mental Health Counseling, 2025
To: Mental Health Counselor at RealFlex Connection Counseling

 

At 55, Lesli Richardson decided it was time for a new career.

She’d always wanted to help others, and she found a path forward in Davenport University’s master’s program in mental health counseling, a degree she earned in August 2025. Just two months later, she earned her mental health counseling license.

Today, Richardson is a mental health counselor at RealFlex Connection Counseling. She recently secured her own office and is building a practice that allows her to work directly with clients on her own schedule.

For Richardson, it’s a new chapter—one she wasn’t sure she had the courage to begin.

“I was scared to start the mental health counseling program at the age of 55,” she said. “But it gave me the support and the encouragement to believe that I had something worth giving, worth learning and knowing about, so that I could then help other people.”

Davenport’s faculty played an important role in helping Richardson turn that goal into a career. During the program, she reached out to one of her professors about serving as her supervisor for the mental health counseling program. That relationship continued beyond the classroom, which gave Richardson the opportunity to learn about private practice firsthand.

The combination of classroom learning and professional experience helped Richardson begin to understand what a career in mental health counseling could look like.

Davenport’s online format also allowed her to build that career while continuing to work. She attended classes at night and on weekends, while faculty worked with students to accommodate different circumstances and schedules.

Richardson also found value in working as part of a cohort. Although the program was fully online, she and her classmates worked together throughout the program and created their own ways to stay connected outside of class.

The collaborative approach mirrored the professional skills Richardson would need in her career.

“Working in groups is critical to any type of future project or business that you might be working in together,” she said.

Faculty accessibility was another important part of Richardson’s experience. She appreciated being able to reach instructors outside of regular class hours, receive detailed feedback on assignments and connect with program leaders when she had questions about her education or career path.

“I always felt like I could reach out to the heads of the programs whenever I had a question in regard to what the future would hold or what something looked like, or what the next steps in the process would be,” she said.

That support helped Richardson navigate the many steps between enrolling in a graduate program and beginning a new career. She hopes her story will encourage others who may be considering a career change later in life.

“I believe that Davenport will definitely help you get where the world is going,” Richardson said.