AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta University has received the largest grant in school history, $5 million, from the U.S. Department of Education.

The grant will fund a program that will put qualified counseling interns in Richmond County Schools to address the mental health of students and staff.

Augusta University says this is an opportunity to help bolster the resources that could be offered in public schools.

The grant will provide hands-on experience for qualified school counselors studying at AU to become qualified mental health professionals.

Efforts to make mental health more accessible to Richmond County students are one step closer to getting to the next level.

"I know the importance of school counseling," says Dr. Jordon Beasley, assistant professor in the AU counselor education program. "I know that oftentimes we are on the front lines of student mental health. We may be the only mental health professionals that students have access to."

Beasley and Dr. Alicia Becton say they know from experience as counselors how important it is to provide resources to youth.

The "Train and Retain" initiative will focus on building up the next generation of school counselors through specialized training to help them be ready for real-life trauma scenarios-- as well as self-care and educator wellness.

"It's one thing to educate individuals, but also how we are retaining school counselors in the field," says Dr. Alicia Becton, chair of the Department of Research, Counseling and Curriculum at AU's College of Education and Human Development. "So 10, 20, years from now, the knowledge is still here in Richmond County Schools."

The American School Counselor Association says the national average ratio of students to counselors is 385 students per counselor. That's more than 100 students above the recommended ratio of 250 students per counselor.

Becton says the potential of having more trained mental health professionals will be a game changer.

"When you hear stories about trauma, especially in the home, and how when students go to school, maybe they're not eating, maybe they're acting out, maybe you see behavior," says Becton. "But now, if we had more trained mental health professionals in the school system, how do we start to see some of those behaviors decrease?"

It's an initiative they hope stays in the classroom for years to come.

The program is expected to bring in 64 interns over the next five years and it is projected to impact about 10,000 students in 15 high-need schools across Richmond County.

University officials say they plan to start their first class next fall.