TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

270 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 for social and emotional reflection in an inner-city urban high school. Specifically, this study drew on HHSWT and the CAS model as a culturally sensitive counseling intervention designed to increase understanding of the value of the co-creation of a hip-hop studio as an environment conducive to social and emotional development. The research question that guided the study was: What do students report experiencing while co-creating the school studio? Reponses from student focus group interviews were used to assess answers to this question, with an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) framework guiding interview development, data collection procedures, and data analysis. Method Sample This study was conducted in an inner-city urban high school in a densely populated city in the northeastern United States. The pseudonym for the high school is Liberty High School (LHS). A teacher at LHS 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 HHSWT and the studio creation process. Specifically, the teacher was interested in integrating interventions into a hip-hop lyric writing elective class that could support students’ social and emotional development. The teacher felt the lack of school counselors at LHS created a gap in social and emotional supports and saw students in their classroom struggle academically as a result of unprocessed emotional experiences. After an initial planning meeting, the PI and the teacher agreed to guide students through a collaborative hip-hop studio construction process as a space to supplement social and emotional support. To garner additional support for this classroom-based intervention, the PI and the teacher attempted to collaborate with LHS’ only school counselor, who declined to participate given their large caseload and being understandably inundated. The school counselor’s inability to participate further justified the need for the PI to support the teacher and their students. In this sense, a collaborative and indirect approach was explored in which the PI/counselor educator supported a classroom teacher in the implementation of a classroom-based school counseling intervention. Participants were recruited from a hip-hop lyric writing class where they worked with their course instructor on the co-creation of a school studio following approval from the school district’s Institutional Review Board. Students had selected this course from a range of options to fulfill an elective music course credit, a graduation requirement in the northeastern state where this study took place. There were 15 high school students ranging between 14–18 years of age who participated in this study. Neither the course instructor nor the PI had any influence on student enrollment in the class. Prior to their enrollment in this course, the teacher collected all informed consent and/or assent forms from students and parents/ guardians. All 15 students agreed to participate in a post-course focus group regarding their experiences co-creating the school studio. The racial demographic of students at LHS is: 66% Hispanic, 32% Black, 1%Asian, 1% White, and 1% Other. Like many urban high schools in this particular school district, LHS is one of three schools within a larger school’s campus. This setup inherently limits the amount of physical space and resources available to students in each school and in many instances forces them to share. LHS is a Title 1 school, and all students qualify for free or reduced lunch. LHS has 700 students and one school counselor. Measures Data collection measures in the present study consisted of two post-intervention focus groups, with seven to eight students in each. The PI facilitated each focus group with the aim of exploring participant