TOPSS Ethnic Minority Recruiting Project

Introduction

The Ethnic Minority Recruiting Project was proposed in order to expose minority high school students to career options in psychology, and to encourage and motivate these students to consider pursuing psychology as a career. This was initially a joint venture with TOPSS, the APA Membership Committee, the APA Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs and PT@CC.

The project was designed to facilitate meetings with minority high school students and minority two- and four-year college students and faculty, and with local minority psychologists. The project aims to introduce ethnic minority students to successful minority students and professionals who can serve as role models and mentors. Pilot projects have been successful, serve as excellent examples of what can be done in various communities.

Goal

To encourage ethnic minority high school students to consider pursuing careers in psychology by introducing them to role models and providing career information. Local high school teachers, community college and four year college professors and students, graduate students, and local professional psychologists will collaborate to develop educational sessions for high school students. It is important that the presenters be ethnic minorities, so that they can serve as role models to high school students.

Session Outline

A series of career-oriented programs should be developed and implemented. These programs can be open to all students, but the focus will be for ethnic minority students.

Each high school involved in this project should sponsor approximately three meetings concentrating on psychology as a career. There should be an emphasis that psychology is a viable career option for ethnic persons; minority role models can demonstrate that psychology is a reasonable and reachable goal as a career.

Following are suggestions for the outline of sessions (these can be one-hour sessions):

1) First meeting: A presentation can be given by an ethnic student(s) from a community college/four year college/graduate program in the same geographic area as the high schools. The discussion might cover what psychology offers relevant to ethnic communities and examples of ethnic psychologists who have attained visibility in the field. Discussion topics can include: How did the college or graduate student decide he/she wanted to go on to further education, why did this student select psychology as a major, what did the student do to prepare himself/herself to get into college, what general advice might the student have for an ethnic minority high school students, does the student believe that an ethnic minority person can be successful in finishing college or in a profession, or how might psychology help the student in the career he/she is considering (such as wanting to work as: an attorney, in management, with animals, in the criminal justice system, in a medical profession, etc.).

2) Second meeting: Presentation by ethnic psychologist from the community. This session could cover the services he or she provides, his/her research interests, his/her motivation for being in psychology, how he/she overcame barriers and so on. Once more the goal is to bring in local ethnic persons to serve as models. This reinforces the concepts shown in the video and provided by the students in the first session.

3) Third meeting: Joint presentation by the ethnic graduate student(s), ethnic psychologist(s) and a career/vocational counselor. Advice can be given to students on preparing for an advanced degree after high school (such as which high school courses to take, appropriate study skills, how to select a school and so on). Emphasis should be on goals being achievable, student strengths, and overcoming obstacles. This session can be flexible and instead begin with the APA video "Psychology: Scientific Problem Solvers — Careers for the 21st Century" followed by discussion.

Want to Get Involved?

We encourage all teachers and communities to consider participating in this exciting program. The pilot programs listed below serve as great examples of what can be done in high schools. This program runs on a grassroots basis, and we hope teachers will make contacts in their communities to facilitate meetings with high school, community college, four-year college and other professionals in the community. If starting a high school program, teachers are encouraged to first write to a local college faculty member or local psychologist to initiate conversation about the effort.

Once a program is developed, teachers can send an announcement to all students inviting them to a careers program, or send a personal invitation to selected students.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact Debra Park, Richard M. Suinn, PhD or Bob Johnson.

Pilot Programs

West Deptford High School, Westville, NJ

Contact: Debra Park

Three sessions held at high school

First session. Twenty-one high school students watched the APA careers video, received APA brochures and listened to a local college psychology professor (JW Whitlow, PhD, of Rutgers University in Camden, NJ) and two local minority college psychology students discuss their interests in psychology and explain what college psychology classes are like.
Second session. Lois Briddell, professor of Psychology, Gloucester County College (Sewell, NJ) spoke about career paths in psychology and her own research on depression in African American women.
Third session. Manfred Straehle, teaching adjunct at St. Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA) and founder of Helping America, spoke to students about careers in psychology.

Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical High School, San Diego, CA

Contact: Jaye Van Kirk, MA, National President Psi Beta, Professor of Psychology, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA

Held two sessions at high school

First session. Panel of six college students who spoke about their experiences in psychology; students viewed APA Careers Video and received APA brochures on careers in psychology
Second session. Dr. Bob Guthrie, psychologist, as a guest speaker

During the first session 70 high school students watched the APA careers video, received APA brochures and listened to seven panelists discuss their experiences in psychology. Panelists included four minority university students (all in the Minority Biomedical Research Support program at San Diego State University) and two minority community college students. All panelists were highly motivated students and good role models of commitment to education. Postsession reports indicated that panelists strongly impressed upon the students on how applicable psychology is to a number of fields, demonstrating the value of psychology.

Mission Viejo High School, Orange County, CA and El Toro High School (Lake Forest, CA)

Contact: David Lechuga, PhD, Director, The Neurobehavioral Clinic

Visited high schools to distribute APA careers brochures and speak with students about cultural and diversity issues as they pertain to neuropsychology.

Session conducted in McAllen, Texas (Memorial High School, McAllen, TX)

Contact: Marissa Sarabando

Ms. Sarabando took 13 high school students to the University of Texas , Pan American (UTPA). A 90-minute presentation was prepared to introduce students to an undergraduate psychology program and psychology as a career. Presenters included UTPA Psi Chi officers and Psychology Department Faculty.

Members of the UTPA Psychology Department visited throughout the 90-minute session and gave students some information on their research specialties. Students were most interested in this part of the session.

Also discussed in the session were:

Types of Jobs available in psychology
Requirements for getting a job in psychology
Requirements for being a psychology major at UTPA
Skills important as a psychology major for other non-psychology-related jobs
Research opportunities for undergraduate students.

The following day, students were given the APA booklets.

Resources Available

American Psychological Association. (2003). Psychology: Scientific Problem Solvers — Careers for the 21 st Century [Brochure]. Washington, DC.

American Psychological Association. (1995). Psychology: Scientific Problem Solvers — Careers for the 21 st Century [Video]. Washington, DC.

American Psychological Association. (1998). Psychology Education and Careers Guidebook for High School Students of Color. Washington, DC.

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