Mentoring via the Internet is thriving

A listserv links Asian-American students with online mentors across the country.

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

Nita Tewari was stumped. A doctoral student in counseling psychology at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, Tewari knew she wanted to write her dissertation on the mental health needs of Asian Indian (Bharatiya) Americans?who, like herself, trace their roots to the South Asian countries, including India (Bharat), Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But she couldn?t narrow her focus. Her dissertation advisor was out of town, there weren?t any Asian-American psychologists around to help, and the hours she?d spent in the library had turned up no leads.

Alone and feeling defeated in her home office, Tewari glanced at her computer and realized she had company after all?a troop of potential advisors she could turn to on a listserv run by the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA). Immediately, she fired off a message seeking AAPA members? guidance on her dissertation topic.

She was 'blown away' the next morning when 10 messages awaited her on her computer screen. 'The beauty of it was that instead of just getting one response, I had a whole bunch of people rally to help me with great leads, references and people to contact,' says Tewari. 'There was an immediate reaching out, even though half the people didn?t know me. I never had imagined a listserv to be so active or powerful.'

After reading through a slew of e-mail messages from Gislea Lin, PhD, Richard Lee, PhD, and Derald Wing Sue, PhD, among many others. Tewari narrowed her topic to the psychological issues and concerns of South Asian students at the university counseling center of the University of California, Los Angeles.

The group mentoring approach that rescued Tewari has come to define AAPA?s listserv. Many subscribers, among them Sue, a California School of Professional Psychology professor and president of APA?s Div. 45 (Ethnic-Minority Issues), say it reflects Asian-Americans? 'other' orientation. 'It reflects our cultural tendency to value group interconnectedness rather than looking to one person or teacher as role model,' says Sue.

Capitalizing on that orientation, the listserv now brings together otherwise isolated Asian-American academics, like Tewari, through the simple act of logging on. 'You turn on your computer and you?re not alone,' says AAPA President Reiko Homma True, PhD, of the University of California?San Francisco.

Embracing newcomers

AAPA?s listserv has evolved into an informal system of role modeling for a new generation of psychologists, says AAPA member and University of Arizona professor Alice F. Chang, PhD, a candidate for APA?s 1999 president-elect office.

'This is the only listserv that I?ve ever been on that doesn?t have a single member who?s cruel,' says Chang. 'Everyone has a way of saying something kindly even if it?s mixed with a little negativity. It?s about being understanding, doing your work and sharing your knowledge without being overly harsh or caustic. That?s the Asian way.'

The listserv service is part of the organization?s stepped-up efforts to cultivate the work of budding Asian-American psychologists, according to True. In the past few years, AAPA has added a panel on career development and a mentoring luncheon for Asian-American students at its daylong annual meeting, held the day before APA?s Annual Convention. (Luncheon organizers match two or three graduate students with a faculty member who has similar research interests.)

The listserv that Tewari tapped into is another relatively new addition. APA President-elect Richard Suinn, PhD, initiated it from his base at Colorado State University five years ago. It started off slowly, with members feeling out its purpose, says Suinn. Since then it?s grown active, with its 180 members posting upwards of 10 messages a day on research questions, job listings, professional problems and related issues. And, says Suinn, it has also carved out a niche as a mentoring service, rather than an intellectual forum for senior researchers or a merely pragmatic vehicle for planning AAPA meetings.

'The elder researchers are logging on in a very constructive and supportive way, providing information and support to younger researchers,' says Suinn. 'The elders feel they have a responsibility to share, but only when someone asks. There?s no pushiness like ?you really ought to know this.?'

The listserv also enables young researchers to cement relationships they?ve initiated with other researchers at meetings, says True. Its success has spawned several other listservs, among them are the Korean American Psychology Network Listserv and the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Listserv, run by the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development.

Overcoming cultural isolation

A major attraction of these listservs is their power to combat feelings of isolation?particularly the cultural isolation that ethnic-minority students and faculty sometimes experience. Some feel misunderstood, even penalized for their cultural background, says Sue.

One Chinese-American student?s experience of cultural alienation at a prominent state university?which she shared on the listserv?is well-known among the listserv members members. The student balked at speaking in class, and her silence drew criticism from her professors and advisors. They appreciated her written work, they said, but told her she should participate more in class discussions. When she tried contributing more, though, she encountered sarcastic comments about her uncharacteristic participation.

Upset over the reaction to her reserved manner?which she attributed at least partially to an Asian tendency towards quietness?she sent an SOS over the listserv. A flurry of responses ensued. Some people shared similar experiences. Others sent articles about cultural insensitivity. One person said cultural stereotypes about the passive, self-effacing Asian had contributed to his own verbal reticence, and he shared strategies for surmounting it. Heartened by the response, the woman wrote back to thank everyone for his or her advice.

'One of the greatest battles for [Asian-Americans] is not to internalize the feeling that ?there?s something wrong with me, that I?m personally deficient,?' says Sue. 'We talked about the problems that reside within our mono-cultural educational system and of the importance of not internalizing this.'

People genuinely hoped to ease the woman?s distress, says listserv participant Gordon Nagayama Hall, PhD, a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. 'It brought out the sense of community that?s the real strength of our listserv.'

An electronic family

What Hall calls community, Suinn calls family.

'In a sense the listserv is an electronic family made up of a very disparate group of younger researchers and elders connected not by blood relationships, but by their ability to log on,' says Suinn. 'To some extent, it?s a modern replacement for one-on-one mentoring.'

Feeding that family togetherness is the knowledge that 'they?ll always be there when you need them,' says Chinese-American student Tina Liu Hsin-tine of the University of Texas?Austin. A counseling psychology doctoral student there, Hsin-tine is writing her dissertation on the influence of acculturation on intergenerational conflicts in Asian-American immigrant families. As she started writing, Hsin-tine hit a stumbling block?should she refer to people as ethnic minorities or people of color?

She posted her query on the listserv, and the answer was a definitive 'it?s up to you.' She could use either term, people said, as long as she supplied her reasoning for it. Overwhelmingly they prompted Hsin-tine to share her own thinking with the group. Such encouragement of one another?s ideas is typical of Asian-American culture, says Tewari.

'I?m thankful that it is in our culture to reach out to others,' says Tewari. 'If it weren?t for this basic cultural value, I?m not sure our listserv would be as meaningful as it is. Its members are so warm and willing to help that I can ask them almost anything. And if they don?t have an answer for me, they will find a place or another resource I can turn to?that truly is treating each other like family.'