Supporting the Needs of International Students and International Scholars in Counselor Education

Episode

In this episode we discuss the challenges that international students and international scholars face in the current political environment, with Drs. Ching-Chen Chen and Jungnam Kim. From challenging and unclear immigration and visa policies, to issues obtaining licensure, to the overall fear that uncertainty brings, counselors and counselor educators are encouraged to engage with the population with empathy and understanding.

Guest

Dr. Ching-Chen Chen is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Originally from Taiwan, she grew up and worked as a licensed elementary school teacher and school counselor before moving to the United States for her doctoral studies. As an international counselor educator, she has supervised both American and Asian counselor trainees for over 15 years and has extensive experience working with diverse populations, including Black Americans, Latinx, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, Asians, and international students. Her interdisciplinary research spans topics such as cross-cultural measurement and evaluation, parent-child relationships, substance use counseling, multicultural counseling, mind-body connection, and developmental psychology. Dr. Chen has a strong background in advanced quantitative methods, including structural equation modeling (SEM), multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance, and item response theory (IRT). A central focus of her work is the development of cross-cultural validity for psychological measures and assessments across racially and ethnically diverse populations. Dr. Chen has received numerous awards at international, national, and regional levels. She currently serves as President of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC), an ACA division, for the 2024–2025 term.

Jungnam Kim, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education and joined the College of Education in 2020 at UNLV. She received a Ph.D. in counselor education program from University of Maryland-College Park and was formerly an Assistant Professor in school counseling program at Ball State University. Before coming to the U.S., She had 11-year experiences as an elementary school teacher in South Korea. Dr. Kim’s scholarship and research focuses on school counselors’ roles in facilitating parent’ sense of empowerment, increasing college access and opportunity through college-going culture, and reducing educational barriers for marginalized groups (e.g., Asian ethnic subgroups). She has served as the associate editor in the Asian Pacific Education Review and on the editorial boards in the Journal of Counseling and Development, Professional School Counseling Journal and Korean Journal of Parents and Guardians.