Volume_4_Issue_4_Digest

62 TPC D igest a departmental commitment to international activities? To what extent do faculty and students participate in international activities? What kinds of activities are included? The resulting data set illustrated the practices of one-third of all accredited counselor training programs. The most noteworthy findings reflected the support for and directionality of international activities. A disconnect appeared between the programs’ stated desire for such practices (large) and the resources that institutions actually dedicated to them (small). Particularly, counselor training rarely incorporated international pursuits in a structured, program-wide way; and participating students and to a lesser extent faculty bore the financial cost of these ventures. Also, the predominant form of international activity in counselor education programs was through faculty scholarship (e.g., conference presentations) and occurred in one direction: that of American professors going abroad, which corroborated the findings of Gerstein and Ægisdottir’s review of the literature. Though this research is a first attempt to quantify the extent and nature of internationalization in counselor education, it does offer data from which to continue an informed dialogue on the subject. The first author has already incorporated findings generated from this study into research on specific internationalization strategies—namely cultural immersion. With this baseline, the counseling community can further explore the important questions of why faculty and students get involved, what barriers inhibit their participation, and what outcomes result from their engagement in international activities. And equally important, now that data has corroborated the notion of one-way immersion, counselor education professionals can address how to increase reciprocal international cooperation and involvement. The Professional Counselor DIGEST Volume 4, Issue 4 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2014 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates Full article and references: Shannonhouse, L., & Myers, J. E. (2014). Global links and gaps in counselor education programs: Establishing a baseline. The Professional Counselor , 4 , 353–362. doi:10.15241/lss.4.4.353