This text introduces Taking Flight, a year-long clinical psychology internship program for students of color and first-generation college-bound students. The program offers hands-on opportunities to develop skills that will propel participants to seek advanced degrees in mental health.
"Clinical Psychology Internship for Underrepresented Students: An Inclusive Approach Toward Higher Education is a much needed resource, proposing a high school pipeline program for clinical psychology, Taking Flight, based on psychological theory, social justice and equity principles and informed by the students it serves. Drs. Kim and Johal have thoughtfully and empathically developed a program that provides support, information and tools for both students and programs to foster the interest and development of a more diverse and representative pool of mental health practitioners." -Fred Millán, PhD, ABPP, NCC, director,Graduate Mental Health Counseling Program andinterim chair and professor of psychology, SUNY Old Westbury;former president, National Latinx Psychological Association
"What an absolute jewel of a resource to help recruit diverse high school students into psychology! Taking Flight can be used as a main or supplementary textbook for a variety of audiences, including in high school, undergraduate or graduate courses. Its primary aim is to cultivate aspirations to advanced degrees and careers in psychology! The curriculum was developed over years of hands-on experimentation. I strongly recommend this splendid and valuable tool!" -Melba J. T. Vasquez, PhD, ABPP, former president, American Psychological Association
"Taking Flight comes as a gift for the future of the field in responding to the psychological residuals of the nexus of COVID-19 and racial pandemics; moving us beyond the complexities of systemic structural racism toward new insights and tools for collective/individual wellness. Increasing the number of diverse or underrepresented persons in mental health fields is not enough; such scholars must bring forth cultural wisdom and science that furthers the effectiveness in servingBIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour)communities and all other communities. Clearly more is needed. Taking Flight is a blueprint for actualizing cultural accountability and humility. The American Psychological Association has reported similar demographic data for years that only 20% of all psychologists identify as people of color, which is probably an inverse relation to those being served. Taking Flight has the capacity of countering this data, as well as the potential for interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline that many underrepresented youth face; thus, serving as a professional lifeline for the field. Taking Flight should be institutionalized to ensure that the field mirrors the communities being served and increases its efficacy through such cultural encounters." -Theopia Jackson, PhD, chair, Clinical Psychology Degree Program, Saybrook University; president, the Association of Black Psychologists, Inc.
"As a faculty and administrator of color, I have often wondered about ways to promote inclusion and the advancement of interns who come from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Whereas such interns/students are often seen as factors that add to the education and training experiences of those from dominant cultural backgrounds, specific modules and frameworks to center the identity and conversations about historically underrepresented interns/students have been vastly missing. Dr. Kim and Dr. Johal's work provides us with that missing piece which puts the critical centering on experiences of the often forgotten voices." Hideko Sera, PsyD, associate dean of student services for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Morehouse College; former president, National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology
