Dear Applicants to Multicultural Counseling Program:
This letter is intended to help you out in making decisions about enrolling in the program. First of all, if you are expecting to see several students of color, you might be disappointed. I had two students of color, an uneven number of gender ratio (women outnumbered men), and diverse age range last time I taught.
I would like to let you know my expectations. Since it is a senior class, I expect you to be a responsible and sincere student. The multicultural psychological counseling program is very intense academically as well as emotionally. You are expected to read 300-500 pages per week prior to class and are expected to submit your written assignments on due dates. You are expected to be punctual. This means you are expected to show up in class on time. The class will start at 9:00 am (T. W & F). You are expected to be back on time from the breaks and stay until the class is finished. . Some students say that is not the Evergreen way and the Evergreen way is doing your own thing which implies not being punctual. In my opinion, as a senior, you need to prepare yourself to function well in an another setting like work or graduate school. I do not think it is helping you if I enable your tardiness. There is another side to being punctual. Class community works well only when all members partake their part. For example, your counseling skill partners lose their opportunity to practice counseling skill when you do not show up or you are late. Being punctual makes you feel better; your anxiety is reduced when you submit your written assignments on time and when you are on time, you are exposed to every facet of the program from the beginning. You do feel disjointed or disconnected due to the missing information.
During Fall quarter, you are required to write your personality from at least seven different personality theory perspectives and submit on a weekly basis. Your final project is writing your own ethnopsychobiography which consists of examining yourself from a multiple dimension. Students find this project rewarding but emotionally intense (The main part of Fall quarter written assignments).
Winter quarter will be the most difficult quarter for most students. It is partly because of internship (10 hours per week) and partly because of research analysis component (5-15 hours/week primary article search). Of course, it is also partly because of the weather. You are expected to read at least 10 primary research articles, submit at least 3 abstracts, and write a review of literature on primary research articles at the end of the quarter.
Ethics will be the primary focus of Spring quarter in addition to your 10 hour/week internship component. You will be asked to integrate and synthesize all the information and asked to write a theory of multicultural counseling.
As you can see, it is a highly structured and demanding program. Often students think that counseling is just being a good listener and give your own opinion. Listening is a very important component. However, a counselor also needs to have a thorough knowledge in personality theories, multicultural theories, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, research methods, and ethics in order to develop the most effective treatment for that particular client. If you are a negative person who wants to dwell on anger and victimization, the program will not meet your needs. If you are intellectually curious and have courage to explore multicultural counseling from a holistic perspective apply for the program.
Sincerely,
Heesoon Jun, Ph.D.