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The number of Americans who belong to ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States has grown tremendously during the last decade. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in the year 2000 there were approximately 36.4 million African Americans, 35.3 million Hispanic Americans, and 11.9 million Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, making up approximately 31% of the total U.S. population (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2000). These statistics are expected to continue to rapidly increase and experts project that by the year 2050, Americans of ethnic racial minority groups will comprise approximately 54% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). Research shows that there is a lack of multi-culturally competent mental health professionals currently practicing across the U.S. despite the need (Atkinson, Morten & Sue 1989). The shortage of adequate culturally-competent counselors and other mental health professionals has resulted in serious problems that could affect the overall economic and social well-being of the entire U.S population (Leong & Less 2006; West-Olatunji, Goodman, Mehta & Templeton 2011; Fouad & Arredondo 2007; Zhon, Siu & Xin 2009). For this reason, the mental health profession has called for a major education reform for counselors-in-training, and graduate counseling programs are now feeling the pressure to prepare their students to work in a culturally diverse world (Brown & Minor 1990; Goodman & West-Olatunji, 2009). While most graduate programs offer at least one multicultural counseling course (often in order to meet professional accreditation and ethical standards), there remains no research-supported consensus as to how best train counselors for work in multicultural practice (Buckley & Foldy, 2010; Ponterotta, 1996). Furthermore, graduate programs have been considered “marginal at best” for delivering what might be considered an effective training program (Ponterotto, Alexander & Greiger, 1995). The purpose of this qualitative study is to 1) identify the experiences of graduate-level counseling students participating in an international cultural immersion program and 2) understand how such experiences may change or alter the development of multicultural competency in graduate-level counseling students. Through the use of semi-structured interviews with master’s and doctoral level counseling students, data was gathered to inform best-practice in Counselor Education programs and the counseling profession in an increasingly diverse world, and to lead the development of another tool for preparing students to gather the cross cultural, knowledge, awareness, and skills needed to work effectively with people of other cultures and ethnicities. |
