Student Professional Development

NLPA Student Professional Development

The Miami-based Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention is offering three awards of $2,000 each to graduate students addressing violence prevention and/or treatment. The award must be used for expenses directly related to the dissertation research. Application deadline is April 1st of each year. Annual selection is May 15th. For more information contact the Melissa Institute at 786-662-5210 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              786-662-5210      end_of_the_skype_highlighting; info@melissainstitute.org -- their website is www.melissainstitute.org

Los Niños Early Childhood Training Institute

Los Niños Services proudly offers one-day training courses on early childhood topics. Our one-day training on Essentials of Early Childhood Assessment covers all areas of development and psychological evaluation under the early intervention program. Assessing autism/PDD is another popular program. Training is available at your program/University and by experienced trainers in Spanish. Los Niños Services recently published a book called: A Practical Guide to Early Childhood Assessment: Conducting Developmental and Psychological Assessment in the Early Intervention Program. This book is available though their web site (www.losninosservces.com), which also contains information about their other programs. For more information, contact Ms. Edita Diaz 212.787.9700, fax 212.787.4418. Scott Mesh, Ph.D., Executive Director, Los Niños Services, Inc., 2489 Broadway, 2nd flr., New York, NY 10025
Early Career Column

After recently being invited to guest lecture for a class, the professor then asked if I could share about the development of my ethnic idenitiy-in essence, "What was it like to be Mexican ?" Because my presentation was not even addressing Latina/o Psychology or working with the Latino population, I was caught off guard by the question. There are some things that graduate school simply does not prepare you for: this is one of them. Consider this, how likely is it that my White colleagues are asked out-of-the-blue to share about coming to grips with their racism and privilege? My gut reaction was to say that "White privilege" (ignorance?) allowed one to ask me such a pointed question. By asking me to "share", it was a jarring wake-up call to the boldness and deceptively benign nature of White privilege.
think we all know that this question rarely refers to sharing about cultural experiences as much as it refers to the experience of racial discrimination as a person of color; the prejudice, the shame, the pain, and the rage. Despite feeling blind-sided by the question, my own cultural upbringing would have made it impossible to challenge the professor in front of the class. Yet out of the need to protect myself, I felt compelled to say something, which I hope was not experienced disrespectfully. I began by lying, stating that of course I am happy to share about myself, but explained that doing so can be like a double-edged sword; when only ethnic minorities are asked to share and Whites are not, it reinforces the notion that Whites do not have a culture or a story to share. For this reason, I gently asked for the professor to also share his story.

I began by telling the story of my family's migration to the United States, buying my nerves some time. Then, I gradually shared more about my own life experiences-memories which told me that no matter how hard my family tried, or how "equal" we looked from an economic standpoint, I could quickly be called a "spic".

I sometimes feel that racism can be like that car that zooms past you in a puddle, leaving your clothes splattered and dirty. So while these memories of racist experiences were not my fault, at the end of the day, I am the one walking around with the splash stains on my clothes. As I shared these stories, I couldn't help wonder whether it would change how I was perceived by the students- students whom I will likely be supervising next year. I questioned how these disclosures would change the students 'perception of me. Would they feel pity? Embarrassment? Quickly forget it? Which is worse? Through I understand the professor's intention to educate, I do not think there was an awareness of the compromising situation in which this situation placed me.

After class, I left feeling very exposed and I was not sure what to do about that feeling. I know my vulnerability reflected the level of self-disclosure I made that day. I reminded myself that I could have decided what to say and what not to say, and that I could not blame the professor about how I felt. At the same time, who had time to think? I consider myself experienced when talking with students of color either in counseling or during outreach workshops. However, this was not something I gave much thought to with regard to White and/or professional audiences. How does one support the opportunity to educate, without being completely vulnerable?

As I struggle with deciding how much to disclose in the future, I feel woefully unprepared as new professional of color. Were my comments adequate to the professor? Is it now a matter of me dealing with the figurative splash stains on my clothes? I think I know the answer to this question. I just wish my training had prepared me for this experience.