TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

278 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 Another notable finding of this study was students’ decisions in creating their authentic and professional school studio. For example, the students’ choice to install LED lights provided them with a professional aesthetic and a particular “mood” that also made the school studio space and experience feel authentic. The aesthetics of a counseling environment, particularly interior design choices such as dim lighting, are reported to positively impact clients in session (Miwa & Hanyu, 2006). Similarly, professional hip-hop artists report needing studios to be aesthetically pleasing, pointing to foam padding on walls and dim lighting. For many artists, entering an aesthetically pleasing studio environment was conducive to “an identity shift where they began to define themselves” (Harkness, 2014, p. 91). Student reports regarding the importance of aesthetics in establishing authentic studio spaces are in line with what counseling research suggests is necessary for effective counseling environments both inside and outside of schools (Ceylan et al., 2008; Cook & Malloy, 2014; Huffcut, 2010), as well as what the larger hip-hop community suggests is necessary for personal transformation (Harkness, 2014). Further, scholars have called for school counselors to tailor their interventions to the cultural knowledge and environments of their students (Hansen et al., 2014; L. Smith & Chambers, 2015), particularly when attempting to design multicultural counseling environments (Benton & Overtree, 2012). Evidence from students that the physical space constructed in this study felt like an authentic hip-hop studio suggests that through the use of a classroom-based school counseling intervention, students were able to channel their cultural knowledge and values into the design of a culturally responsive environment that could support their social and emotional development. An additional finding highlights that youth felt the studio space would allow them to receive peer support that could be generative of improvements in confidence and self-efficacy. Similarly, a systematic review of peer support interventions found that peer educators were particularly effective in facilitating improvements in knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes as well as subsequent behavior change (Ramchand et al., 2017). Findings in the current study aid this supposition, providing evidence of the use of school studios as spaces for peer support. When reflecting on their engagement in the studio co-construction process, youth reported feeling as if they had been given a valuable opportunity for personal advancement. This finding is particularly important to consider within the context of career counseling work in schools. Lent (2013) encourages counselors to adapt to work in the digital world by preparing individuals for a range of career opportunities. Fostering students’ career development is also an expected role of the school counselor and of school counseling interventions (ASCA, 2019b). Students’ need for opportunity and career–life preparedness requires counselors to promote students’ “alertness to resources and opportunities on which one can capitalize. Most important, preparedness can lead to the use of proactive strategies to manage barriers, build supports, and otherwise advocate for one’s own career– life future” (Lent, 2013, p. 7). Further, youth felt an opportunity for personal identity development, aiding Harkness’ (2014) argument that studios were spaces for hip-hop–identifying individuals to cultivate a deepening understanding of themselves, and Liddicoat’s (2015) position that counseling environments could allow for the positive development of a client’s self-concept. CAS Model to Support School Studio Construction The findings in this exploratory action research support the implementation of the CAS model as a guide for school counseling interventions. In the current study, with the help of the PI, the course instructor held the counselor role in the use of Levy’s (2019) HHSWT framework by facilitating a group process in which students constructed a hip-hop recording studio. Similar to research indicating that school counselors are often inundated with large caseloads and non-counseling duties that strip them of their ability to engage in direct counseling (Kim & Lambie, 2018; Mau et al., 2016),