Counseling psychology honored for minority achievement

The Department of Counseling Psychology in the School of Education has received the 2005 Suinn Minority Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) in recognition of the department’s exemplary recruitment, retention and graduation of racial and ethnic minority students.

Professors Bruce E. Wampold, department chair, and Alberta M. Gloria, training director, accepted the award at a ceremony held in August during the APA’s 113th annual convention in Washington, D.C. Developed by Richard M. Suinn, past APA president, the award annually recognizes two or three graduate psychology programs nationwide.

“For more than a decade, the department has been focused on training students to be multiculturally competent counselors and psychologists,” Wampold says. “Our emphasis on valuing multiple cultures is evidenced in classroom settings, training opportunities, departmental community events, and research and writing projects.”

The nomination – coordinated by students Le Ondra Clark, Erica Y. Chu and Mariko Lin – highlighted the department’s rate of retention to graduation for racial and ethnic minority students, which stands at 97 percent. Currently, 44 percent of counseling psychology’s students are racial and ethnic minorities, including 50 percent and 40 percent of the doctoral and master’s students, respectively, in the 2005 incoming classes.

“Our department provides a setting that encourages community, self-reflection and critical inquiry in research and practice,” Gloria says. “We work to create culturally integrative experiences, both in and out of the classroom, and encourage personal and professional growth and development.”

“The faculty, staff and students never lose sight of our increasingly multicultural society as the context for their teaching and scholarship,” notes Charles Read, emeritus dean of the School of Education, in a letter supporting the nomination. “In addition, counseling psychology has been generous in sharing its experiences with the university as a whole.”

The department consistently is listed among the nation’s top counseling psychology programs in the annual U.S. News and World Report graduate program rankings. In 2005, the department was fourth. In 2002, the university recognized the department with a Chancellor’s Award for Departmental Excellence in Teaching.

In 2002, counseling psychology started its annual Social Justice Conference, which brings nationally recognized scholars to Madison to provide continued training and creates venues for social justice advocacy within personal and professional learning contexts.