Dr. Jill Van Horne, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling and program director of the professional school counseling program, received a grant to incorporate global learning in her course.
Launched by Appalachian State University’s Office of International Education and Development in fall 2021, the App State Virtual International Program Award is a small grant opportunity designed to support faculty in incorporating a global virtual exchange into their course or to develop new courses.
Van Horne received $1,000 for her project entitled Multicultural Encounters: Understanding the Profession of Counseling in Two Different Cultures. Her project incorporated the global virtual exchange into her current course, HPC 6290 Child and Adolescent Counseling.
Helping Professions Across the Globe
“While attending a professional counseling conference in Europe, Dr. Alessandra Sax-Lane, a professor at the Hellenic-American University in Athens, Greece, and I discussed our professional areas of interest and began to consider the options for students to learn more on a global level about how our professions can impact students and clients with more cultural and global awareness,” said Van Horne.
“We realized there were many cultural gaps that could be discussed and cultural experiences to be had simply through having ‘Zoom Pals’ that could impact our students' professional practice,” she noted. “Experiences such as these are simply not transposable through textbooks.”
Van Horne’s project created a series of global virtual exchanges, providing opportunities for understanding the differences in the terminology of counseling, counseling culture, and how psychology and counseling differ in both cultures as it pertains to the helping professions. Students also explored identified populations and areas of need among students/clients and counselor competency/training.
Van Horne plans to continue to offer this virtual exchange in her courses going forward. “This has been an exciting project and opportunity as it allows students to participate in an international experience who may not otherwise have the time, funding, or access to participate in such a program to experience another culture.”
Zoom Screenshot of international exchange
