Student Spotlight: April Parker

April Parker, a second-year student in the Wright Institute’s Counseling Psychology program, was born and raised in Northern California. She lived with her mother, who was a single mom, and her older brother. “My mother worked very hard and was doing the best she could to take care of two young children,” she reflected. “A lot of our social safety nets were already weakened at that time and there were a lot of ways our family fell through the holes.” Despite the family’s personal and financial struggles, April remembers a childhood filled with laughter and fun. “I was taught from a young age how to laugh in the face of life's most difficult challenges,” she explained. “That's a lovely piece of my childhood that I feel really grateful for.”

As a child, April’s favorite place to be was in the classroom, even though her family’s frequent moves meant that she attended many different schools. She loved the organization, schedule, and support that the school environment provided. “From the jump, school became a really meaningful place for me,” she recalled. “I took heavy advantage of our public schools and I will be forever indebted to public school teachers, staff, coaches and everyone else who works there.” April took her education very seriously and was focused on earning a scholarship to attend college. Through years of hard work and good fortune, she was able to achieve that goal and became the first person in her family to earn a degree.

For her undergraduate studies, April attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Before leaving for college, she had never traveled east of the California-Nevada state line, so she was excited to get to the east coast and move into student dorms. “It was challenging at first - there was a cultural shock of coming from a household that didn't have educated adults at the college level or books in the household,” she explained. “I definitely had to work hard to make up for lost time and figure out how to succeed at a higher level in college.” After about a year and a half at Brown, April was feeling a little lost and decided to take a year-long leave of absence. “At that point, my goal for so long had been to just get to college that, once I was there, I didn't really know how to best support myself,” she shared, “I ended up living and studying at Green Gulch Farm, a local Zen Center here in the Bay Area, which was a really grounding experience and gave me lifelong access to grounding practices.”

April returned to Brown rejuvenated and decided to major in religious studies. “I was naturally interested in existential meaning because my family didn't have a legacy story - we didn't have greater institutions or a religious community that we were connected to,” she reflected. “It was a fragmented experience and I was seeking bigger ways of conceiving how to live life well and exploring how other cultures and religious traditions went about doing that.” April enjoyed studying the common threads among the major monotheistic religions, but she also enjoyed exploring human development and behavior in the psychology courses she took during her time there. April graduated with her BA in religious studies in 1994.

From 2001-2002, April completed one year of a graphic design MFA program at Yale University School of Art in New Haven, CT. “Because of my background, I had a need for external validation,” she explained. “I felt motivated to collect gold stars and going to graduate school felt like a big one.” She had been working as a graphic designer for seven years and was looking for something to relight the spark of her creativity. “What I realized after being there for a year was that I learned a lot and it was really valuable, but I didn't want to stay on the path of being a graphic designer,” she shared. “I was more interested in what the painters were doing in the department next door to me at the school of art.” April withdrew from the program and, with the support of her partner, began to pursue a career as a painter.

After becoming a mother, April decided to find volunteer work that would allow her two children to participate alongside her. “My kids inspire me to be the best version of myself possible,” she explained. “I didn't want to just have a charitable spirit, I wanted to be charitable in a way that was accessible to them.” She volunteered for Loaves and Fishes, an organization that supported and provided companionship for homebound seniors, in Portland, OR. “We got paired with a wonderful woman who was 92 when we first met her,” she recalled. “We got to have some sweet family moments during our weekly visits and helped her around the house and garden for five years until we left Oregon to move back to California.”

From 2007-2024, April worked as an artist based out of Marin, CA, creating and showing art across the United States. “The privilege of exploring my creative interests was wildly fulfilling and not something I would have ever dreamed I would have the opportunity to do,” she reflected. “Many artists don't, so it was very special and I'm deeply grateful.” She also loved that painting provided her with solitude in her studio at a time when her home was filled with her spouse and children. April shared that one of the most challenging aspects of the work was the extensive manual labor involved.

Over the years, April has created five portfolios, but she has been the most proud of her Cathedral portfolio. “From the first memories I have of being able to walk and toddle around in the yard, I’ve been entranced by being in nature,” she shared. “I find it deeply soothing and restorative.” Then, while pursuing her bachelor’s degree in religious studies, she became interested in the religious triptych paintings from the Middle Ages. “Highly respected artisans were brought in to depict religious stories on three-part panels,” she explained. “It really kicked off a dramatic phase in the development of western art and the ability for artists to draw and paint in perspective.” April decided to tell environmental stories through the style of the triptych painters. Her favorite piece, titled Circle Around Me, is based on the work of the scientist Suzanne Simard who studied the underground fungal networks of mushrooms.

In 2015, April did a three month residency at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, where she created a community art project that was open to the public. “They had an abundance of space, so I was able to set up work tables that could accommodate 30 people so whole families, people of all ages, would be able to visit and just sit down,” she recalled. “I had lots of art supplies available and people could just make whatever they wanted.” April had a table set up for her own work and guests could donate their creation to be added to her piece. “From those materials, I was cutting little fragments to make a larger, enormous three-dimensional gem,” she shared. “On each of the facets, if you looked closely, you could see their individual artwork, which I found really charming.”

April completed a residency with Mother’s Milk in Newton, KS in July of 2022. She lived in communal housing with a small group of artists for a month while they all worked independently on their art. “Artists, in general, are a sensitive lot - we are curious about others and mindful of the impact we have on a space,” she explained. “So it felt very easy and rewarding to share a kitchen, drive to town together to get groceries, make meals, and share a studio space.” She had a wonderful experience and has further partnered with Mother’s Milk to display some of her art in a show about alumni from the residency.

Although she loved her work as an artist, April decided in 2024 that it was time to make a change. “Things started to shift when I became an empty nester - my home had emptied out and was quiet and I was no longer with my partner of 25 years,” she reflected. “I wanted to find a new way to engage in the community and be of service and that's when I looked at going back to school.” After graduating from Brown, she was admitted to Columbia University for their master's program in counseling psychology, but the timing wasn’t right. Now, two decades later, she decided it was time to return to that path.

April decided that she wanted to stay in the Bay Area for her graduate studies. “I feel really rooted in the Bay Area,” she explained. “I was able to circle back and live here and raise my kids in a place close to where I grew up and that feels meaningful.” April was drawn to the Wright Institute’s social justice mission, its academic and professional reputation, and its cohort model. “I actually only applied to the Wright - I didn't apply anywhere else,” she admitted. “I knew they may not accept me, but I'm so grateful they did.” April enrolled in the Wright Institute’s Counseling Psychology program in the fall of 2024.

Despite some challenges and ruptures they have experienced in class, April and many of her cohortmates are very close. “There's a lot of love and respect in the room,” she shared. “We're all committed to the practice of improving people's lives in whatever big or small ways that we can and I think that is really special.” Everyone brings their own strengths to the cohort, including April, who brings a natural joy but also an inner calm. “I've been able to learn about being still and being calm through many long hours, whether it was on a meditation cushion or sitting still in front of a painting, repeating the process of making straight lines over and over again,” she explained. “It has helped me be a better mom and helps me have that reservoir to tap into when I'm with clients now.”

While studying at the Wright Institute, April has pushed herself to examine her privilege as a white woman. Her biggest opportunity for growth came when a member of her cohort called April in and pointed out to her the ways she was acting from a place of privilege. “That person didn’t have to do that and it’s not anyone’s job to help me unlearn and chip away at my blinders,” she added. “It's very difficult in these shared spaces for those of us with more privilege to be able to walk in the shoes of another, so I felt profound gratitude for this gift of perspective.” April considers this to be one of the most important experiences of her graduate school experience and it inspired her to become involved in the White Anti-Racist affinity group. This experience also motivates her work on the Counseling Program Advisory Board to focus on expanding diverse representation of teachers and inclusive learning materials.

April has served on the Counseling Program Advisory Board since its creation in January 2025. “Because of my interest in education in general, I'm very curious about how schools work,” she explained. “So for my own personal interest, I was curious about learning more about how the Wright Institute works.” She also felt inspired by the Student Ambassadors who had provided her with so much guidance and wanted to serve the community in her own way. “I’ve been astonished by the work of Dr. Richardson and the leadership team,” she shared. “I wish more people could see behind the scenes what they do to serve the community because I’ve been very impressed and touched by what they do.”

In fall of 2025, April began her practicum placement at Bay Area Community Resources (BACR). One of things that drew her to BACR was that they have a cohort model, similar to the Wright Institute, so April is in a group of twenty-five trainees. “It's never been more clear that the answers are always found in community,” she reflected. “We need to find resources within our communities and I wanted to continue to have that experience because I've benefited so much from being in my cohort community at the Wright.” April was also impressed by the numerous positive evaluations previous students had submitted about their time at BACR and trusted their recommendation. Serving in an elementary school this year has been a full circle moment for April, working with children who need the structure and support of our public school system just as much as she did as a child.

When she isn’t doing school work or painting, April loves to spend her time singing. In 2024, she joined a community choir in San Francisco, which she adores. While she has enjoyed her time singing with the choir, it has also been very hard work. “From there, I met a woman who became my individual singing teacher and we've been working together weekly for almost two years now,” she shared. “It's hard to describe how joyful it is - it’s so nourishing and it puts me in a sensing space that's completely outside of having to think and that’s really restorative.”

After graduating from the Wright Institute later this year, April isn’t sure yet what the future holds for her. While she knows she wants to work in community mental health and also perhaps private practice, she has realized during her coursework that there are endless options available to her. April is also interested in teaching at some point in the future, possibly at the Wright Institute. “One of the things that I think is special about the Wright Institute is that they offer bite-sized opportunities - some of the teachers invite alumni to do a guest lecture for an hour or maybe be a TA for their course,” she explained. “I really appreciate them extending those opportunities for those of us who may want to experiment.” Wherever the future takes her, April is excited to begin her next chapter.