St. John's News

Young adults in Vietnam will be the ultimate beneficiaries of a Fulbright Award recently won by St. John’s University Associate Dean Frank Biafora, Ph.D., who will be spending four weeks in that country next month.

Thanks to the Fulbright Specialist Program, which provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) for U.S. faculty and professionals who are unable to make longer commitments to independent study, Dean Biafora will be collaborating with educators at the Hanoi University of Education to, he explains, “help them better understand the philosophy and practices of American higher education and move away from the Soviet-style learning models, and to integrate American-style models.”

He has met several times in the past with Vietnamese education officials and has already presented them with St. John’s Graduate Psychology model, which includes a research-laden curriculum. During his stay, he will be stressing the importance of student feedback to the teaching process--something he says was a new concept for the Vietnamese—and will be giving lectures on research and American history that the Fulbright organization has requested of him. He hopes to leave behind a framework on which the Vietnamese educators can build and enhance their graduate programs.

Teen Delinquency on the Rise
Dean Biafora, who earned his doctorate in Sociology, will also be using his expertise to study adolescent delinquency, which has been on the rise since Vietnam adopted a policy of “Doi Moi,” (“renewal” or “modernization”) in 1986. “By the time President Clinton visited Vietnam in the mid-90’s” he explains, “Vietnam was ready to become a member in the new world order, and took up Clinton’s challenge to embrace free trade, human rights, environmental concerns, and model itself on international law. After that modernization exploded.”

Unfortunately, “Doi Moi” created a tension between modernity and tradition, with youth caught between respect for the ways of their ancestors and the appeal of technology and the 21st century culture. Fueled by the rapid changes that were occurring all around them—including a newly free economy that allows ownership of such luxuries as mopeds and iPods, as well as that open channel of free information called the Internet—the youth of Vietnam began to fall victim to a variety of social ills. Drug abuse, mental health issues, suicide, prostitution and delinquency among the young emerged as serious problems.

Will Establish Crisis Hotline
“Youth culture and the impact of ‘Doi Moi’” on the mental health of the adolescent was the second segment of Dean Biafora’s proposal to the Fulbright program. He plans to establish a crisis hotline modeled on one he is familiar with from his work as a crisis counselor at the University of Miami. He will also create a “train the trainers” program, so that hotlines staffed with trained counselors can be established in other areas around the country.

This will be the fifth trip to the Southeast Asian country for Dean Biafora. On previous visits, he—along with Assistant Dean Hung Le, Ph.D., a native of Vietnam—began building relationships with officials at the Vietnamese Ministry for Education, the American Embassy and the United States Consulate. He expects to continue relationship-building on this trip and anticipates returning to Vietnam to continue the work he begins in October.

Learn more about St. John's Fulbirght recipients.