Faculty from the St. John’s University Department
of Psychology traveled approximately 12,500 miles around the
world this summer to assist in establishing the first formal
training program for school psychologists in Vietnam. Mark
Terjesen, Ph.D., and Marlene Sotelo-Dynega, Ph.D. of St.
John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences embarked on this
journey to impart their professional expertise and knowledge to
faculty at the Hanoi
National University of Education (HNUE). This ground-breaking
collaboration across continents will bring life-changing services
to children of Vietnam where there are currently no professionally
trained school psychologists.
Jeffrey W. Fagen, Ph.D., Dean of St. John's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, spoke enthusiastically about the relationship:
“One of the most exciting things we are doing in Vietnam now
involves our partnership with the HNUE and Vietnam’s Ministry of
Education and Training. Our Psychology Department will train
Vietnamese psychologists in modern, empirically-supported
assessment and intervention strategies for use with children with
emotional and/or learning problems. In addition to coursework, the
students will be involved in academic service learning in
collaboration with the Daughters of Charity.”
The training program offered this past summer resulted from a
May 2007 trip to Vietnam, where faculty from HNUE were first
exposed to, and exceedingly impressed with, the profession of
school psychology after meeting St. John's School Psychology
program faculty and students. The enthusiasm of all participants
led to a series of subsequent meetings in January and July 2008
devoted to developing the profession of school psychology in
Vietnam.
In January, collaborative efforts between the Applied Psychology
Section (APS) of the HNUE and Dr. Terjesen and Kate Walton, Ph.D.,
began. Along with two doctoral students and research fellows, Maria
Bolger and Kimberly Kassay, the team discussed the anticipated
needs for school psychological services in Vietnam, identified and
analyzed barriers to school psychology services, and developed
collaborative research ideas. They created curricula and
established a training plan and guidelines for a masters program in
school psychology and a bachelors program with a concentration in
school psychology courses.
This past summer St. John’s faculty delivered the first part of
this training plan to APS faculty members. They gave a series of
six 20-hour courses over six weeks. Using data culled from a
faculty survey, the planning committee worked together to identify
areas that were of greatest need and would be most essential to
their training program and to the practices of school psychology in
Vietnam.
“It’s an exciting initiative,” reflects Dr. Terjesen. “It has
taken us 100-plus years to get where we are today in school
psychology. They don’t have to go through all those growing pains
that we went through in the U.S. They can learn what the current
research says is effective and then modify that to work with their
own culture and society.”
The St. John’s team worked with faculty from HNUE for very
intense, full-day workshops. Session lasted from 8:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
in the morning and 1:30 – 5 p.m. in the afternoon. In
addition to Drs. Sotelo and Terjesen, a number of other
professionals were recruited to provide training. These included
Dr. Erin Dowdy from University of California-Santa Barbara, Dr.
John Stokes from Pace University, and two graduates of St. John’s
Psy.D. program, Drs. Brian Harris and Michelle Meskin. Each trainer
provided lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations in English
which were translated into Vietnamese and distributed to program
attendees.
“Their enthusiasm and motivation to learn was contagious. By
Fall 2009 they will begin training Vietnam’s future generation of
school psychologists, who will provide professional services
throughout the country’s schools,” comments Dr. Terjesen.
In total, there were 32 program attendees who came from all
across the country to participate in this training.
Additional service providers, including social workers and school
principals, attended as well to determine the best ways to provide
integrated and sustainable services for the children in
Vietnam.
“There is really nothing in which I’ve been involved at St.
John’s that is more consistent with the Vincentian mission than
this project,” says Dr. Terjesen. “The opportunity to provide
assistance and service to those in the greatest need is so valuable
for our students to experience. Everyone who has gone has had a
reawakening of the Vincentian spirit and an understanding of what
the big picture means. When our students and faculty come back and
work with children in schools in Queens and the surrounding areas,
we understand the impact that culture, economy, and family has on
learning. What we see and learn first hand in Vietnam is easily
translated to our students here.”