When Joy Bustrum, PsyD, and Charles Chege, PsyD, met in graduate school, they bonded over their shared experiences growing up in Kenya. They later found themselves teaching at Azusa Pacific University together, and they knew that sharing their culture with students could be a spiritually and professionally transformative experience. Over the past 14 years, Bustrum and Chege have led a group of graduate Clinical Psychology students on a month-long study away trip to Kenya each summer. What began as a dream to create an academic program for students to learn about global psychology and Kenyan culture has flourished into a yearly opportunity for students to grow as psychologists and Christ-followers.
This year, 20 students attended the trip, four of which returned for a second time. Past years have proved that while the experience is rewarding, it can be emotionally challenging. In preparation, the team attended roughly 20 hours of meetings on Kenyan language and culture, global psychology principles, trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and what it’s like to go on a study away trip. Students also completed a training program where they earned certifications in trauma focused CBT.
In Kenya, the team split into groups of four students with one returning student leader that worked at four different clinical sites. Each morning, students would leave where they were staying to travel to the clinical sites, and they would all regroup in the evenings to eat dinner and sleep. “Kenya doesn’t have a foster care system like ours, so many kids have experiences of living on the streets before being taken into children's homes,” Bustrum said. “We’ve had deep, long relationships with these children’s homes since we started this program in 2009, and many of them have arisen from the work of local pastors.”At the sites, students conduct one-on-one individual and group therapy sessions with the children, house moms, teachers, social workers, and parents or guardians where possible. To graduate from the psychology program, students need to meet the required number of supervised clinical hours, and they are able to earn 100 hours during their time in Kenya. In addition to earning clinical hours, students also attend a two-unit class in global psychology. “This program is so unique because it’s a global practicum,” Chege said. “It’s an extension of what students are learning to become professionals and it’s great for them to be able to do that work in a global context.”
Jordan Pomeroy ’24, PsyD ’29 is a graduate psychology student who attended the trip this past summer. She had been looking forward to this trip since she started her undergraduate studies at APU in 2020. During the trip, Pomeroy worked at the Pisgah Heights School connected to the Valley Light Children’s home. “This was my first ever clinical experience, so I learned how to work in an unfamiliar environment,” she said. “It solidified my passion for the field and my goal to become a clinician for underserved populations. I learned a lot about the influence of culture and how to be culturally informed to reflect on our differences and work in different places and contexts.”
Practicing global psychology is a transformative experience for students. It allows them to learn about and work through significant cultural differences that help them to be better professionals wherever they end up. Chege shared that on the trip, a student said she didn’t feel like her work was impacting the children because they were very quiet. “She was expecting the children to be excited and talkative like the children she has interacted with in the U.S. are, but cultural competency looks different in different places,” he said. “I told her that she was extremely effective in her work because she listened to those kids, and they were able to get the attention that they normally don’t get from adults for cultural reasons.” Allowing students to process and reflect on cultural competency on a global scale led to personal growth that translated to their professional lives.
Working in the homes can be emotionally challenging for students since they are working
with children and adults who have experienced many hardships and traumas. At the end
of each day, the team would come together for dinner and group supervision time. Students
shared their experiences with their peers and the professors. “To hear from others
how each school site was so welcoming and wanted our help stuck out to me,” Pomeroy
said.
The trip also allows students to grow in their faith. “Faith integration is really important to this program because our work is what God requires us to do with the gifts he has given us in light of our situatedness and context within the world,” Bustrum said. Many students are challenged by seeing such immense poverty and grapple with integrating this with their faith, but this struggle is important and allows them to see God’s presence in new ways. “This trip helped me see how God’s love and presence transcends location and circumstance,” Pomeroy said. “On the days when I was confused or felt like I wasn’t doing enough, the community of people I had with me in Kenya helped me remember why I wanted a program that allowed me to integrate my faith into my degree.”
Professionally, the study away experience in Kenya opens opportunities for students when they are looking for jobs. “Our students can get jobs over other candidates because when employers see their time in Kenya on their resumé, it begins a conversation about the unique experience and the global work they’ve engaged in,” Bustrum said. “Our students are courageous and dedicated to growing even when it’s challenging, and from what we’ve seen on these trips, this is a wonderful generation coming up underneath us.”
Over the past 14 years, Bustrum and Chege have witnessed students’ transformative experiences in Kenya and have seen how the trip directly impacts their futures as learners, Christ followers, and professionals. “Today I got an email from a past student who went on the trip twice and has since graduated and gotten licensed," Chege said. “She is now the director of training in a psychology program at a local state university, but she was asking about going back to Kenya with us. We have so many alumni who want to come back on the trip, and that’s a testament to the enduring impact of the program.”