Brian Leung, Ph.D., professor and director of the LMU School Psychology program, was awarded a Fulbright Specialist grant at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy in Vietnam. This is the first Fulbright grant awarded to an SOE faculty member.
“Earning the SOE’s first Fulbright is a significant accomplishment and I am proud of Brian for being awarded such a prestigious opportunity to collaborate internationally in the area of school psychology,” said Shane P. Martin, Ph.D., dean and professor of the School of Education.
This fall Leung traveled to Vietnam to collaborate with the faculty at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy on their school psychology training program. He led workshops and worked with the faculty to revise their training program so that it includes a specific focus on educating psychologists with expertise in working in schools to support students, teachers and parents with school-related issues.
Currently, there is limited attention in Vietnam focused on how the training of psychologists with specific expertise to support students, teachers and schools differs from the training of clinical psychologists.
Leung’s Fulbright gave him an opportunity to engage not only with other faculty on this issue but also with school practitioners about the impact of well-trained school psychologists in support of learning and student success. The advances in school psychology training at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy can serve as a model for other Vietnamese universities.
Leung’s work in Vietnam this fall is a continuation of his work with the Consortium to Advance School Psychology in Vietnam. CASP-V is a group of mostly Pacific Rim universities and individuals committed to improving the quality of student psychological services in Vietnamese schools.
