Multicultural Community Emphasis Area - San Francisco
California is facing a marked change in the mixture of multicultural populations. It is expected that in 10 to 20 years the majority of California residents will be of a multicultural group commonly referred to as ethnic minorities. In San Francisco 75-80% of the children are from multicultural families and in certain cities throughout the Bay Area the majority of the residents are from one of the multicultural groups. In response to the changing demographics in California, the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University developed the Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area at the San Francisco campus. Focus The Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area focuses on the psychology of ethnic groups in the United States. The emphasis area concentrates on the psychology of African-Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans / Pacific Islanders and Hispanics or Latinos/Latinas, as communities within the United States. Purpose The overall purpose of Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area is to provide training in working with multicultural communities. It is expected that many persons seeking clinical services will be of a culture different than the therapist. These cases may require such services to be in a language other than English. The Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area curricula, field placements and research clusters focus on the applicability of specific psychological principles to multicultural populations. Training Specific intervention techniques, community and organizational psychology principles, developmental aspects and theories on human identity development are some of the areas that have different psychological processes for multicultural populations than for mainstream populations in the US. It is the policy of the campus that all first year students are required to take an Intercultural Awareness course regardless of emphasis area preference. The course provides multicultural training that embraces considerations of diverse issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, social class and religion. Curriculum The suggested curriculum consists of a combination of certain sections of required courses, up to 12 elective credits, a one-year internship in multicultural training placement and dissertation or project in a multicultural area. Students who complete the recommended curriculum will qualify at graduation for the notation on their transcripts the doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a Multicultural and Community Emphasis. The Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area is designed to coordinate with the other emphasis area course offerings allowing students to combine their interests in multicultural populations with the areas of health, families, psychodynamic. Dissertation, Projects, and Research: Students in the Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area will complete a doctoral dissertation or project related to the psychology of multicultural groups. Community The Multicultural and Community Emphasis Area collaborates with local professional organizations to co-sponsor conferences on mental health and the psychology of multicultural populations. Colloquia, continuing education series and guest lecturers are offered throughout the year on a variety of topics related to multicultural groups. In addition, all of the campuses of Alliant International University have come together to support International-Multicultural Education, Research Intervention and Training (I-MERIT), a system-wide institute to facilitate collaboration across the different campuses in training, research and other activities.
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