“I think that part was the most painful for her. When I think about it, it’s really painful for me to think that something had happened to somebody I love, and nobody would stand up,” said Park-Taylor, an associate professor of counseling psychology and a director of training in the Graduate School of Education.

Park-Taylor shared this story as a part of a virtual community convening on anti-Asian violence and racism on March 24, which brought together more than 200 members of the Fordham community. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian bias, attacks, and harassment have been on the rise. Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit, documented almost 3,800 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from March 2020 to February 2021. Most recently, six Asian American women were murdered in Atlanta.

Members of the Fordham community, including Park-Taylor; Mary Balingit, associate director for diversity initiatives in the Office of Admissions; Arthur Liu, a Fordham College at Rose Hill sophomore and president of Fordham’s Asian Cultural Exchange; and Stephen Hong Sohn, Ph.D., professor and Thomas F.X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair in Literature, along with moderator Rafael Zapata, chief diversity officer and special assistant to the president for diversity, reflected on the impact of anti-Asian violence. They discussed ways to build community and heal, and talked about possibilities for interracial solidarity.

“I think what’s a little bit different about this moment is just the level of fear that I’ve heard communicated,” Sohn said. “It’s been higher than I’ve ever anecdotally seen before, and the circumstances coming out of COVID make the experience slightly unique as well.. But I think it’s important for us to realize this is part of a longer historical genealogy of anti-Asian sentiments that has reemerged in light of these circumstances.”

Liu, who is originally from Hong Kong, said that he “thinks fondly of the United States,” but that he had to convince his friends back home that many Americans weren’t like the political leaders who were making anti-Asian remarks.

“The political rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 and what Donald Trump has said—what he said was incredibly hurtful,” Liu said.

He also said he had friends ask him if he was considering taking martial arts classes to learn how to defend himself in case he was attacked.

“You shouldn’t have to feel the need to know how to defend yourself in a civil society,” he said. “And so I was taken aback by that initially, but honestly, I’m kind of buying into the idea, because I just feel a heightened sense of awareness and being scared.”

That sense of awareness is something that Park-Taylor said she has personally grappled with.

“When I think about the experiences of racism I’ve gone through throughout my life, I can think of it as this duality—sometimes I feel really invisible. I feel like I’m not seen at all, I’m not heard and silenced,” she said. “But then there are times when I feel hyper visible. There were (times when) I’m the only Asian person in a classroom. Or instances where I’m particularly targeted because I’m an Asian woman and [because of]the stereotypes about Asian women.”

Balingit said those negative stereotypes, which have been perpetuated throughout history, were on display when the Asian women were killed in Atlanta.

“That shared experience of being an Asian woman—the negative stereotypes that say that we’re docile, and that we’re quiet, we’re apolitical, and that we are weak—I think that played into that, and to what happened last week in Atlanta,” she said.

Park-Taylor said that she hoped people now have a better understanding of microaggressions and intersectionality.

“There’s a unique positionality that an Asian woman occupies in this place and space,” she said.

Balingit said that solidarity between minority communities is essential to combating these acts and other types of racism and white supremacy.

“I think what’s important is look at the history—we have to look at the history of our solidarity first, and to Rafael (Zapata’s) point is how everything is rooted mainly in white supremacy and how this perpetuates the pitting of minorities against each other,” she said. “Let’s not let this divide us even more, especially at a time like now where we’re also very isolated already.”

Zapata also stressed the importance of bystander intervention, and noted there are trainings on the topic, such as the one offered through Hollaback!, a global movement to end harassment.

“We had been working on a panel on this issue just as the murders in Atlanta took place, which was especially devastating, and made clear for all to see what far too many AAPI people in the U.S. had been experiencing at higher rates since the beginning of the pandemic,” Zapata said. “It also made participating in the panel more of a challenge, because of the emotional toll it could take on participants. I’m so grateful to the panelists for all they shared.”

For students, staff, and faculty, who might be struggling to handle anti-Asian hate and violence, Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services put together a resource sheet.

Jeffrey Ng, Psy. D, director of Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services and a licensed clinical psychologist, encouraged those in attendance to be there for their friends, families, and colleagues who might be dealing with acts of discrimination and racism.

“The immediate thought that comes to my mind is just to take the time to listen is so important, to try to be present and to be attuned to what your POC students or colleagues or peers might be sharing with you,” said Ng, who will be moderating a second community convening on March 29. “The validation and the affirmation is so critical for the healing process.”

“She was able to uncover so many things—not just about playing tennis, not just my identity and retiring, but also coping with my performance as a broadcaster, helping my relationships with my family, my partner, and friends,” Siripipat said. “She was able to open up my world and transform so many aspects of my life.”  

Nearly a decade after this therapist inspired her to focus on mental health, Siripipat—a one-time junior tennis star, former ESPN reporter, and current sports anchor—is a counseling psychology student at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education who wants to help athletes, coaches, and parents experiencing social and emotional struggles. 

“As mental health continued to [gain in]awareness and athletes became more outspoken about it, I saw a tremendous need for there to be somebody that could tap into different realms,” said Siripipat. “My goal is to blend my broadcasting experience, athletic experience, and my eventual counseling psychology training to be the Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil of sports.”

A Tennis Star from Missouri 

Siripipat began playing tennis at age 7. A decade later, she became one of the top 10 junior players in the United States. Her dream of becoming a professional tennis player was slowly becoming a reality, but in her junior year at Duke University, where she played on the women’s tennis team and amassed a 44-15 overall singles record and a 17-2 Atlantic Coast Conference singles record, her knees and right shoulder became worn from years of overuse. Three surgeries later, Siripipat realized her childhood dream was no longer possible. But she stayed close to the world of sports, which she had come to know and love.

“If I couldn’t be an athlete, at least I could continue to be around and cover athletes,” said Siripipat, who turned to sports journalism. “[Broadcasting] reminded me and felt so much like sports. There’s light and there’s just that live element and adrenaline rush and pressure.” 

From the Court to the Studio

For 17 years, Siripipat has worked as a sports anchor, reporter, and news producer at TV stations across the East Coast. She spent six years at ESPN, where she anchored televised shows like Sports Center and covered the Super Bowl, NBA playoffs, and Wimbledon; she also co-hosted “Spain and Prim,” with Sarah Spain; it was one of the first national sports radio shows to be hosted and produced by women. Siripipat also hosted “The Next Chapter” podcast at The Athletic, a subscription-based sports website, where she interviewed athletes about their retirement experience. 

In recent years, she has been nurturing another dream. Siripipat, who has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Duke and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, has always been passionate about psychology. It started with her personal struggles and expanded as she witnessed other athletes face mental health challenges. At ESPN, she helped launch a podcast called “Inside Out,” where athletes reflect on the psychological and social impact of sports. After receiving her master’s in 2018, she realized that if she wanted to reach the same level as her role model—Dr. William D. Parham, the first-ever director of mental health and wellness for the National Basketball Players Association—she needed to earn her doctorate. 

Encouraging Athletes to Speak Out and Seek Help

A year ago, she set her sights on Fordham’s doctoral program in counseling psychology at the Graduate School of Education. 

“The program and a few of the faculty members were in the space of what I was interested in—career transitioning, identity loss, retirement. The faculty themselves are very competent, but they also seem to have similar personalities to mine. And the diversity—just being embedded in Manhattan, I think is huge,” said Siripipat. “It was the perfect place.” 

On May 15, she shared the good news of her Fordham acceptance on her Twitter account that has nearly 30,000 followers: “Fordham was my No. 1 choice for a host of reasons … I’m excited for The Next Chapter & to share it with all of u!” 

This semester, Siripipat says she’s been learning about “group counseling, psychohistory, multiculturalism in Dr. Ponterotto’s class, racial issues, social justice issues, [and]hidden biases,” and she plans to bring those lessons to today’s sports landscape and athletes past, present, and future. She also works with Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor and director of training for the counseling psychology doctoral program, as her graduate assistant. 

Decades from now, she hopes those efforts will pay off. 

“That would be my goal: to connect the dots and meld the two worlds of sports and psychology,” said Siripipat, who wants to be a good role model for her two-year-old son. “I [hope I]would’ve transformed or helped change the landscape where athletes can not only feel comfortable about coming out and talking about their issues without being judged, but also created a space where coaches and parents are more educated about how to raise not just a youth athlete, but a happy, healthy kid.” 

“The burden shouldn’t be placed on the child to always have to explain to the class how their family is related and why they belong together—they shouldn’t have to validate their family all the time. The school counselors and teachers should be there to create that open dialogue and sense of acceptance and community so nobody feels stigmatized, isolated or othered,” said Park-Taylor, who teaches counseling psychology and directs training for Fordham’s counseling psychology doctoral program. 

A transracial adoption is when a family adopts a child of a race other than their own. Park-Taylor and Wing’s article “Microfictions and Microaggressions: Counselors’ Work With Transracial Adoptees in Schools,” published online in the Professional School Counseling journal on June 15, identifies what microaggressions and microfictions—false narratives about an adoption—might look like for transracial adoptees and their families. The article also advises school counselors on how they can work with K-12 educators to help transracial adoptees and their families. 

School counselors are important because they can connect their clients with resources and families who are facing similar situations, Park-Taylor and Wing said. They can also speak directly with educators and administrators about how to make curricula more inclusive and sensitive, especially when adoption-related topics come up in class.

“When you are part of a biological family, there’s a little bit of a privilege or power associated with that because you don’t recognize what it’s like for somebody who’s not. It’s good to have school counselors and teachers become more aware of some assignments that might be triggering, hurtful, or emotionally difficult for transracial adoptees or adoptees [in general],” said Park-Taylor. 

Dealing With Microaggressions and Microfictions 

Park-Taylor and Wing’s article is divided into three sections: an overview of transracial adoptee population trends, a case illustration about a fictional transracial adoptee student whose experiences are informed by real-life narratives, and recommendations for school counselors working with transracial adoptees. 

The last section focuses on how common school assignments could hurt transracial adoptees, especially those who are adopted outside of the U.S. 

“At the elementary level, family trees, developmental timelines, and bringing in your baby photo are all very triggering assignments. In middle school and high school, genetics projects serve as reminders to adoptees that their biological history is often unknown, and for assignments where students are asked to learn about other countries, transracial adoptees may feel pressured to pick their birth country as the only option, which can further heighten their sense of racial difference and othering,” Wing said in a Fordham News interview. 

Students also face microaggressions from their peers, including the phrase “Go back to your country.” Their article can help school counselors identify microaggressions and intervene in situations at school, said Park-Taylor and Wing.

“It’s not just the sole responsibility of the adoptee to educate other people, especially if they don’t have the language at that time of their age or development, or the awareness themselves,” said Wing. 

Another microaggression is a “microfiction” in the family home—when adoption stories are intentionally altered or replaced with fictional ones that “sugarcoat everything to this beautiful, picture-perfect experience,” Park-Taylor said. 

“That can neglect the complexity and oversimplify the experiences adoptees might have. They may feel like there isn’t really space for them to talk about the more negative aspects in conjunction with the positive ones, so they feel more isolated,” Wing added. “If they can’t talk about that in their families, where can they talk about it?” 

A Personal Connection 

For Wing, a transracial adoptee from China, the topic hits close to home. 

When she was a child, people asked her intrusive questions. One of them was, “Who are your real parents?”

“Having to, as a child, validate your connection with people who you’re connected to and have raised you most of your life, if not all of it … It’s a lot of weight to put on a child’s shoulders,” Wing said.  

Today, she is a young adult. But those microaggressions haven’t stopped—especially when people learn that Wing is an adoptee. 

“Usually, the first response I get is, have you searched for your birth parents? Do you have connections with them? There’s an automatic assumption that A, I have a desire to. B—” 

“—that you’re supposed to, somehow,” Park-Taylor chimed in. 

“Yeah. Or even that I have access to that. For a lot of international adoptees, in particular, that isn’t a possibility,” Wing said. 

Her research on this article over the past year has helped her understand how useful these recommendations might have been when she was younger, she said. 

“School counselors weren’t really a force or presence in my life. The suggestions that we give are ones that I might’ve wished for myself or other people who are currently at younger stages of development, when it’s more difficult to process these feelings of confusion or stigmatization,” said Wing, a group facilitator for Families with Children from China and recently appointed Student Representative for the Adoption Research and Practice Special Interest Group in the American Psychological Association. But things are starting to change. 

“There’s been a larger push for multiculturalism and more socially just interventions and approaches in counseling psychology and larger fields of psychology, but somehow, I feel like transracial adoption is missed in that pool,” said Wing, who is now planning a project with Park-Taylor that focuses on supporting transracial adoptive parents, particularly amid the current pandemic and recent rise in xenophobia against Asian Americans. “I think this begins to open up the way in which we conceptualize giving that space.” 

And, on top of it all, a sense of alienation.

These are just a handful of reasons why it’s difficult for colleges and universities to retain students of color in the STEM fields, says Jennie Park-Taylor, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education.

Last year, Park-Taylor and her research team began conducting a pilot project on urban minority youth and young adults and their engagement in STEM education. They’re trying to pinpoint why so many underrepresented minority students drop out of STEM majors and identify possible points of intervention.

Researchers have already addressed the issue from a quantitative lens: dropout data, student enrollment numbers, retention rates. Nationwide, 71 percent of Latino students intending to earn a STEM degree fail to complete their program within six years, according to a study out of UCLA. For black students, the non-completion rate is even higher—78.2 percent. Another study in the journal Plos One says that women of any race are 1.5 times more likely to leave the STEM pipeline after taking Calculus I in college, compared to men.

But few researchers have ventured past the numbers. Park-Taylor and her team are doing something different—searching for the answers through the students’ personal narratives. They’re in the midst of interviewing middle school students, high school students, and college undergraduates in the Bronx about their personal experiences with STEM education. Their questions focus on three areas: STEM preparation; persistence—what keeps them going, what happens when they fail or succeed, who supports them; and the ways they gain access to STEM careers and opportunities.

“How prepared do they feel in math and science to go on to the next level? What kind of access do they have to the advanced science and math classes in their schools?” said Park-Taylor. “And once they’re there, how do they succeed? What makes it harder for them?”

They speak on a one-on-one basis in-person, via Skype, or by phone. Some interviews take as little as 25 minutes; others last for more than an hour and a half. So far, Park-Taylor’s team has spoken to more than 30 students. There are three young women who stand out in her memory.

The first is a woman of color attending a prestigious, predominantly white college in the Boston area. She had excelled in math and science until middle school, when she struggled with science and lost her confidence. She is now a political science major who wants to be a lawyer. Several of her friends, students of color who were in STEM majors (many of them women), recalled math and science professors who would tell their students on the first day of class, “Half of you won’t pass. Half of you are going to change your major. If you’re not serious about this class, I would leave right now.” Even after going to office hours for extra help, they were further discouraged. Professors would suggest that they change their major to, for example, English or African Studies. All of them, the student said, changed their majors by the time they were seniors.

Another interviewee was a straight-A student in her high school math and science classes. As a first-year college student engineering major in college, she took advanced calculus and chemistry. She started getting Cs.

Her professor, said Park-Taylor, told the student, “I’m not sure I want someone who’s getting a C to build my bridge in the future.” Many of her male classmates made study groups, but turned their backs toward her and the girl sitting next to her. At the beginning of her chemistry class, she said, there were other girls in the class. By the time the midterm rolled around, she was the only one left.

“Teachers that create unfriendly environments have an enormous negative impact on students,” said Park-Taylor. “And not just students’ motivation, but their sense of self-efficacy, belongingness, and eventually interest in a field that they may have been really passionate about.”

And the grading system in math and science classes doesn’t help either, she added. Many courses have two major exams: the midterm and final. On the other hand, English and literature classes have multiple papers.

“There are opportunities to improve your grade, little by little, versus these high-stakes exams that happen in the middle and the end,” said Park-Taylor. “It’s a make-or-break situation for students.”

But not all the stories were negative. Park-Taylor recalled a sixth-grade girl who felt motivated in math. She scored a “high 2” on her state exam—just short of a 3, the benchmark for achieving grade level. On the first day of school, the principal praised the students who scored 3 or higher. And he also included that sixth grader—in fact, all the students who scored a high 2.

“She did not have a 3 on her exam,” said Park-Taylor. “But she knew she could because the principal told her.”

So far, Park-Taylor’s team has found two key takeaways: The power of peer support, parents, mentors, and community-based activities on academic success should not be underestimated, and engaging teachers make a positive difference in their students’ lives (and the converse is also true).

This pilot study is currently funded by a $10,000 proof-of-concept grant from the office of Virginia Roach, Ed.D., the dean of the Graduate School of Education, but Park-Taylor also plans on applying for bigger grants to conduct research on a larger scale. For now, she’s planning on submitting some of her research for publication by this December. She hopes her team’s results will find their way into intervention practices, college student advising, and other student programs. And, perhaps most importantly, she hopes they fuel change.

“What if  [professors]  said, ‘My job is to make sure everyone in this class succeeds. I’m gonna do everything I can in my power to make sure you understand this material. I have GAs or TAs to support you. I’m gonna have office hours,” Park-Taylor said. “I want you to know you belong here. You may not feel like it because you don’t see a lot of people that look like you, but you belong here. I wonder what that would be like.”

A program participant checks over her notes after interviewing Dahiana Lessard, a bookkeeper with HPAC who also served in the U.S. Army. Photos by Gina Vergel

Students from the Hunts Point Alliance for Children (HPAC) attended the Career Education Mentoring Program at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on Feb. 16 and April 6.

“The goal was to help them create a vision for their futures that includes education and careers,” said Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D., an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Fordham who helped stage the program with HPAC staff.

Park-Taylor had been working with HPAC for a year when the children said that they didn’t know a lot of career-minded adults who could act as mentors.

“We decided to do this program so they could learn about the high school admissions process and to introduce them to people from various fields with whom they could connect,” Park-Taylor said.

She and the HPAC staff combed their Rolodexes to bring a wide variety of successful professionals to the event. Students spent time with professionals in fashion, education, counseling, technology, accounting and the performing arts.

Students also picked the brains of doctoral student mentors, and—closer to home—high school student mentors who grew up in Hunts Point, a low-income area of the Bronx where nearly half of all households earn less than $15,000 annually, according to HPAC.

“Programs like this benefit us because we can see and get motivated by people who have succeeded,” said Joshua Santana, a senior at All Hallows High School who plans to attend SUNY Maritime Academy this fall. “For the middle school students, they can learn how important high school is, instead of finding out the hard way.”

Park-Taylor said the event planning committee chose the Lincoln Center campus to host the event so that the youngsters could have a positive experience at a university.

“They’ve responded beautifully to that. We held a focus group after the first day of the institute, and when we asked them what their experience was like, some of them said it was the most beautiful school they had ever seen,” she said. “Others said they were excited to see college students and be in a college atmosphere.”

In addition to interviewing career mentors, students also participated in workshops that focused on content areas such as stress and coping as well as interpersonal communication skills, said Deidre Schwiring, a first-year graduate student at GSE who helped throughout the program.

Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D.

“A lot of these children aren’t growing up in the easiest neighborhoods, but they are here, so obviously they have the motivation and desire to do something with their lives,” Schwiring said. “We’re really hoping we can give them tools to help them realize their potential and show them that they can be anything they want to be.”

A program participant checks over her notes after interviewing Dahiana Lessard, a bookkeeper with HPAC who also served in the U.S. Army. Photos by Gina Vergel

Students from the Hunts Point Alliance for Children (HPAC) attended the Career Education Mentoring Program at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on Feb. 16 and April 6.

“The goal was to help them create a vision for their futures that includes education and careers,” said Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D., an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Fordham who helped stage the program with HPAC staff.

Park-Taylor had been working with HPAC for a year when the children said that they didn’t know a lot of career-minded adults who could act as mentors.

“We decided to do this program so they could learn about the high school admissions process and to introduce them to people from various fields with whom they could connect,” Park-Taylor said.

She and the HPAC staff combed their Rolodexes to bring a wide variety of successful professionals to the event. Students spent time with professionals in fashion, education, counseling, technology, accounting and the performing arts.

Students also picked the brains of doctoral student mentors, and—closer to home—high school student mentors who grew up in Hunts Point, a low-income area of the Bronx where nearly half of all households earn less than $15,000 annually, according to HPAC.

“Programs like this benefit us because we can see and get motivated by people who have succeeded,” said Joshua Santana, a senior at All Hallows High School who plans to attend SUNY Maritime Academy this fall. “For the middle school students, they can learn how important high school is, instead of finding out the hard way.”

Park-Taylor said the event planning committee chose the Lincoln Center campus to host the event so that the youngsters could have a positive experience at a university.

“They’ve responded beautifully to that. We held a focus group after the first day of the institute, and when we asked them what their experience was like, some of them said it was the most beautiful school they had ever seen,” she said. “Others said they were excited to see college students and be in a college atmosphere.”

In addition to interviewing career mentors, students also participated in workshops that focused on content areas such as stress and coping as well as interpersonal communication skills, said Deidre Schwiring, a first-year graduate student at GSE who helped throughout the program.

Jennie Park-Taylor, Ph.D.

“A lot of these children aren’t growing up in the easiest neighborhoods, but they are here, so obviously they have the motivation and desire to do something with their lives,” Schwiring said. “We’re really hoping we can give them tools to help them realize their potential and show them that they can be anything they want to be.”