DIGEST-Volume-10-Issue-2-FULL ISSUE

19 TPC Digest Read full article and references: Levy, I. P., & Adjapong, E. S. (2020). Toward culturally competent school counseling environments: Hip- h op studio construction. The Professional Counselor , 10 (2) , 266–284. doi :10.15241/ipl.10.2.266 | TPC Digest The purpose of this exploratory action research was to illuminate the experiences of urban youth of color who were part of a classroom-based school counseling intervention in which they co-created a space for social and emotional reflection in an inner- city urban high school. Specifically, a teacher at an inner-city urban high school consulted with the principal investigator (PI) of this study, given that he is a school counselor educator and a former school counselor with noted experience in the use of hip-hop– based school counseling interventions and the studio creation process. The teacher was interested in integrating interventions into a hip-hop lyric writing elective class that could support students’ social and emotional development, amidst the lack of school counselors at their school. A total of 15 high school students ranging between 14–18 years of age participated in the hip-hop lyric writing class and therefore in this study. During the class, they worked with their course instructor on the co-creation of a school studio. Focus groups on the value of the co-creation of a hip-hop studio for urban youth were employed. Results suggested that students experienced the studio as a shared space for inclusivity, comfort, and belonging; a place to make their own design choices; and a practice space to garner peer support, engage in personal self-development, and support others. Broadly, these results support the co-construction of school studios as culturally relevant environments that promote social and emotional development, addressing a need in the literature for research exploring multicultural counseling office design. Further, the current study illuminates the role of collaboration in the school counselors’ work and the activation of the teacher as a key stakeholder (under the guidance of a counselor educator) in facilitating a classroom-based counseling intervention in which youth co-created a school space to support social and emotional services. In conclusion, this article highlights the value in using hip-hop studio construction as an innovative approach to a culturally sensitive, indirect, classroom-based school counseling intervention in which students themselves engaged in the construction of an ancillary space to support their social and emotional development. Ian P. Levy, EdD, is an assistant professor at Manhattan College. Edmund S. Adjapong, PhD, is an assistant professor at Seton Hall University. Correspondence may be addressed to Ian Levy, 4513 Manhattan College Pkwy, The Bronx, NY 10471, ilevy01@manhattan.edu.