A vital component of The Chicago School’s International Psychology degree programs is an international field experience. In order to receive their degrees, master’s candidates must participate in an international field experience once, and Ph.D. candidates must participate twice.
Alecia Eubanks, Ph.D., assistant professor, and Megan Ross, Ph.D., adjunct professor, both in the International Psychology program at the Online Campus, co-teach “Identity in Context: Examination of South Africa,” of which the field experience component occupies 10 days of the six-week course.
Beginning in 2020, due to COVID-19, the traditionally in-person immersion piece was moved online. Dr. Eubanks recognized right away that the transition from in-person to Zoom produced some unexpected advantages. “You have to sit deeply and hear people’s stories, pay attention, and not be distracted,” she says.
“For example,” Dr. Eubanks explains, “students heard stories of sexual assault in some townships. Afterward, the students wanted to help. I said, ‘There’s nothing you’re doing today. Sometimes you have to just sit with the feelings. This is how this person feels every day.’”
It is a difficult but important message. “We can’t always fix everything,” Dr. Eubanks says. “Sometimes you just have to go into your humanity and have compassion for others and feel how they felt.”
One student in the program, Marc Johnson, who had traveled to South Africa before, acknowledged that the Zoom sessions required some adjustments, but he added, “It’s this entire virtual community that you get immersed in. It’s not the same experience; it’s a different experience but still very rich.” For example, Johnson says that as part of the virtual program, the guides livestreamed their day-to-day activities on WhatsApp, and the students saw what it was like to be a South African going about their day in Cape Town. “That was profound,” he says.
In addition, Johnson points to the work the class did virtually with the NGO Abba’s Pride. It replicated the way that most planning and coordination works with international aid groups in today’s world. “I have the emails of the director and a couple other folks from Abba’s Pride,” he says, “and they’re already asking questions about what we built out for them, and how that can be applied.” For him, this was an eye-opening part of the experience, realizing that so much of this global work is accomplished through remote technology.
The program coordinates its efforts with Kari Prince, the international liaison officer for the program, based in Cape Town. A self-described “patriotic South African,” Prince, who’s been assisting the program since 2013, says, “I love to introduce others to this land so that their eyes are opened to the friendliness and resilience of our local people, who manage to overcome daily and generational challenges with a smile.”
The hope is that students can one day travel to South Africa in person. In the meantime, Dr. Eubanks says, “It’s a really good parallel alternative. A lot of students don’t want to take the virtual course but are shocked by the impact it has.” As someone whose life was changed by her first trip to South Africa, she adds, “Years from now it’s something they will still remember.”
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