{"id":114533,"date":"2022-02-02T12:12:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T18:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=114533"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:37:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T22:37:46","slug":"virtual-voyage-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/virtual-voyage-to-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual voyage to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

A vital component of The Chicago School\u2019s International Psychology degree programs is an international field experience. In order to receive their degrees, master\u2019s candidates must participate in an international field experience once, and Ph.D. candidates must participate twice.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cIdentity in Context: Examination of South Africa,\u201d of which the field experience component occupies 10 days of the six-week course.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cYou have to sit deeply and hear people\u2019s stories, pay attention, and not be distracted,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example,\u201d Dr. Eubanks explains, \u201cstudents heard stories of sexual assault in some townships. Afterward, the students wanted to help. I said, \u2018There\u2019s nothing you\u2019re doing today. Sometimes you have to just sit with the feelings. This is how this person feels every day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a difficult but important message. \u201cWe can\u2019t always fix everything,\u201d Dr. Eubanks says. \u201cSometimes you just have to go into your humanity and have compassion for others and feel how they felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AssortedOne student in the program, Marc Johnson, who had traveled to South Africa before, acknowledged that the Zoom sessions required some adjustments, but he added, \u201cIt\u2019s this entire virtual community that you get immersed in. It\u2019s not the same experience; it\u2019s a different experience but still very rich.\u201d 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. \u201cThat was profound,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s world. \u201cI have the emails of the director and a couple other folks from Abba’s Pride,\u201d he says, \u201cand they\u2019re already asking questions about what we built out for them, and how that can be applied.\u201d For him, this was an eye-opening part of the experience, realizing that so much of this global work is accomplished through remote technology.<\/p>\n

The program coordinates its efforts with Kari Prince, the international liaison officer for the program, based in Cape Town. A self-described \u201cpatriotic South African,\u201d Prince, who\u2019s been assisting the program since 2013, says, \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope is that students can one day travel to South Africa in person. In the meantime, Dr. Eubanks says, \u201cIt\u2019s a really good parallel alternative. A lot of students don\u2019t want to take the virtual course but are shocked by the impact it has.\u201d As someone whose life was changed by her first trip to South Africa, she adds, \u201cYears from now it\u2019s something they will still remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Learn more about The Chicago School\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To learn more about academic programs at The Chicago School, fill out the information below to request more information. You can also apply today through our application portal here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When barriers to overseas travel threatened the core mission of The Chicago School\u2019s International Psychology program, faculty and staff developed creative ways to bring South Africa to their students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":114560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[1252],"coauthors":[1218],"class_list":["post-114533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-magazine","tag-winter-2022"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVirtual voyage to South Africa - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how psychology students gain global perspectives through immersive virtual learning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/virtual-voyage-to-south-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtual voyage to South Africa - 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