Sharing Knowledge and Ideas, Psychology
Students
and Faculty Return to Vietnam
Strengthening their department’s six-year relationship with the
people and universities of Vietnam, psychology students and
professors from St. John’s University spent two weeks in May
touring, exchanging knowledge and experiencing the culture of the
Southeast Asian country.
Two professors and 10 students spent the 14-day trip — May 15 – 29
— at destinations throughout southern and northern Vietnam,
including Hong Bang University and the Hanoi National University of
Education (HNUE). The Department
of Psychology worked closely with HNUE over the past several
years to help create Vietnam’s first formal training program in
school psychology.
Photo Gallery
The
Vietnam Initiative allowed St. John’s students and faculty to
co-teach, meet and discuss standard psychology practices with their
counterparts at the two universities. They began in the south,
where they also experienced Vietnamese language and culture by
participating in a televised program of music and dance. In the
north, they worked with children in varied educational as well as
hospital settings.
The trip was part of an ongoing, international exchange that has
generated four student-centered trips to Vietnam over the past six
years, said
Mark Terjesen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at St.
John’s. Dr. Terjesen helped lead the visit in May with
Robin Wellington, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Psychology.
“The impact on the education of St. John’s students was
significant,” said Terjesen. The trip, he explained, provided an
international, cross-cultural perspective on psychology through
discussions with Vietnamese students and opportunities to observe
different educational settings.
“There is no other way to truly grasp the affect that culture has
on beliefs than to observe it firsthand,” said one student,
Jennifer Shindman ’15Psy.D. “Having the opportunity to exchange
ideas and learn from one another beyond the classroom is
invaluable.”
Testing Language and Culture in Southern
Vietnam
The trip began at Hong Bang University’s two campuses in bustling
Ho Chi Minh City. Along with lectures and cultural activities, St.
John’s students joined their Vietnamese counterparts in learning to
administer the “Stroop task”— a standard measure of executive
attention — in both Vietnamese and English. Dr. Wellington and
Christina Lipinski ’15Psy.D. instructed the students.
This was the first time the Stroop has been given in Vietnamese,
said Dr. Wellington. She noted that one Hong Bang student, taking
the test in her native language, “performed exceptionally well” but
“was likely slowed down” when choosing from multiple words for the
same color. The student confirmed that “it was a little difficult
because of the way we describe blue and green” in Vietnamese.
“Administering the Stroop task to Vietnamese students exhibited
that a client’s native language can affect test performance,” said
Dr. Wellington. “Given that the time it takes to complete the test
is one of the measures to determine impairment, clinicians should
be mindful of the impact of language.”
Before departing, St. John’s students joined Hong Bang students in
a cultural exchange program featuring music and dance. They
performed before an audience of about 500 people, including
Vietnamese dignitaries. Amanda Braverman ’15Psy.D. sang the
National Anthem.
“This experience was truly overwhelming,” said Julia Greene ’13C.
“The degree to which so many people — from so many different
cultures — welcomed us made many of us excited to consider the next
step in how we can continue to work with the people of
Vietnam.”
Matthew Scott Pagirsky ’16Psy.D. added that meeting and sharing
information with students at Hong Bang University “had a
significant impact on my view of psychology from a global
perspective.”
Renewing Ties in the
North
Leaving Ho Chi Minh City, students and faculty took the two-hour
flight to HNUE in Hanoi. St. John’s helped HNUE to develop a formal
training program in school psychology — the only one recognized by
Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training. This year’s graduates
are the first school psychologists formally trained there.
This time, St. John’s students had the opportunity to administer a
psychology measure developed in the United States to identify
developmental delays in young children. “Testing culturally and
linguistically diverse individuals allowed us to put into practice
concepts we discussed in class,” said Brooke Guttenberg
’15Psy.D.
Witnessing cultural diversity was an important part of the visit,
said Dr. Terjesen — and it is central to the many study abroad
opportunities available at St. John’s. Partnering with the
University’s Office
of Global Studies, the department arranged the trip to include
cultural activities as well as service-learning.
The trip brought classroom lessons to vivid life, said Sara Roth
’15Psy.D. “This was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve
had,” she said. One reason I was attracted to the school psychology
program at St. John’s was because I would have this unique
opportunity to study in Vietnam.”
We invite you to learn more about the Department of
Psychology,
and the Vietnam Initiative:
Contact
Raymond DiGiuseppe,
Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Psychology
(718) 990-1955
Cathy Lancellotti
Director
Vietnamese Initiative
(718) 990-6331