Faculty Contact Information:
Michelle Mentzer, EdD
Quadrelle, Italy
Phone 081-825-7714
Cell Phone 340-406-1967
Email: drmentzer@mac.com
Homepage: http://homepage.mac.com/drmentzer (Password given in class) | |
Consultation:
| Please feel free to contact me by email at any time during this course. If you contact me by email and I do not respond within 24 hours, please feel free to call. I generally return calls on the same day they are sent. If you have any special needs during this course, please let me know immediately. We are only meeting a few times, and it is important that we are all on the same page. | |
Required Texts and Readings:
| Sue, D.W. & Sue, D. (2002). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. (4th Edition). New York, NY: Wiley. | |
Supplementary Readings:
| All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students’ research and writing skills. | |
Recommended Journals:
|
A variety of full-text, online, free-of-charge and pay-per-view academic journals are listed on the Counseling Webboard at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/graduate/webboards/
Okun, B.F., Fried, J., Okun, M.L. (1999). Understanding Diversity. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. | |
Course Description:
| This course is designed to develop appropriate skills, competencies, and knowledge bases and to examine the beliefs of counselors working with people across cultures. The course focuses on researching, reading, and developing an understanding of cultures, customs, languages, traditions, religions, and spiritualities of people across cultures. Emphasis is given to the understanding of counseling individuals in a very diverse world. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: GUCO 533 or EDCP 612. | |
Course Goals:
| The goal of this course is to familarize students with various theories, counseling techniques, and a wide range of issues regarding fair, ethical and effective counseling in a world of cultural differences. A broad goal is to expand cultural awareness and knowledge in order to facilitate an appreciation of diversity in lifestyle and orientation, including culture, race, ethnicity, disability, age, language, gender, and sexual preference issues. | |
Course Objectives:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Understand and discuss current theories of multi-cultural counseling.
Discuss issues of diversity as they relate to counseling practice.
Be familiar with current literature and research pertaining to the social patterns and counseling needs of various minority populations.
Develop a more culturally sensitive perspective in the role of professional counselor.
Describe the impact of the western "world-view" on American society.
Understand and discuss personal cultural heritage and its impact on the development of counseling skills. | |
Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs. | |
Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
Participate in classroom discussions 10%
Write graduate level papers or case studies 40%
Orally/visually present prepared material 10%
Complete one or more written examination(s) 40% | |
Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours of additional for every hour of a face-to-face class and approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class. Resubmission of material used in previous classes is not permitted in this course. All work must be original and prepared specifically for this course. Papers will be routinely checked for plagiarism.
Write graduate level papers or case studies: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment. Plan on committing approximately 150 hours over the duration of this course to producing professional level deliverables.
Orally/visually present prepared material: You are required to present your research in a professional manner. In a face-to-face course, this typically means an oral presentation accompanied by appropriate visual material. In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.
Complete one or more written examination(s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary to successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
Assignment sheets will be distributed online and hard copy for each assignment tasked. This course will require short reaction papers, one research paper, a minor team project, and two exams. One exam will be objective, one exam will be essay. | |
Course Schedule:
A more detailed course schedule with assignment due dates will be handed out the first day of class.
Initial meeting:
Introductions
Review of syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject
Chapter One, Sue text, The Superordinate Nature of Multicultural Counseling Therapy
Second meeting:
Chapters Two and Three, Sue text.
Third meeting:
Chapters One and Two, Okun, Fried, & Okun Text
Fourth meeting:
Chapter 4 Sue & Sue text
Fifth meeting:
Chapter 5, Sue & Sue text
Chapter 3, Okun, Fried, and Okun text
Sixth meeting:
Chapter Six, Sue & Sue text
Seventh meeting:
Chapter 7, Sue & Sue text
Midterm Exam
Eighth meeting:
Chapter Eight, Sue and Sue text
Ninth meeting:
Chapter Nine, Sue and Sue text
Chapter Four, Okun, Fried, and Okun text
Tenth meeting:
Chapter Ten, Sue and Sue text
Eleventh meeting:
Chapters 11 & 12, Sue and Sue text
Chapter Five, Okun, Fried, and Okun text
Twelfth meeting:
Chapters 13 and 14, Sue and Sue text
Thirteenth meeting:
Chapter 15, 16, 17, Sue and Sue text
Chapter 6, Okun, Fried, and Okun text
Fourteenth meeting:
Chapter 18, 19, and 20, Sue and Sue text
Chapter 7, Okun Fried and Okun text
Course Evaluations
Examination | |
Academic Policies:
Note: Any written assignment in this course may be submitted to TurnItIn.Com. This statement constitutes prior notice.
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center. | |
Faculty Bio:
| Dr. Mentzer is a counselor and instructor residing in Quadrelle, Italy with her family, books, and two cats. Her undergraduate background at the University of Kansas was in education, her MA work was in Counseling and Human Resources at Regent University, and doctoral work was in Counseling Psychology at Argosy University, Orange County. She works a great deal with the military population, both active duty training and family counseling; from Critical Stress Incident Debriefing and domestic violence training and research to family retreats and interactive parenting classes for the whole family. She thoroughly enjoys working with people and is looking forward to teaching this course in Sigonella. | |