1. Spirituality and faith are increasingly recognized as important aspects in a personʼs life. National research shows that 66% of people feel counseling should include spirituality. Research with ASU students found that students reflect this statistic, as they feel spirituality is an important part of counseling. Students also feel spirituality is appropriate to include as part of counseling services offered by centers referred to by ASU.
2. There is a need for counseling at ASU. Nationally,approximately1,100 college students commit suicide each year. At ASU, almost one-third of students reported feeling so depressed that it is difficult to function, and 0.9% report having attempted suicide within the past year.
3. Surveys of ASU students indicate that students who describe themselves as being religious are more desirous that counseling include a spiritual dimension. Surveys of campus pastors indicate that over 80% believe there is a need for faith-based counseling and would refer students to a local center.
4. Price is an issue. Indeed, a survey of campus pastors indicated that they believed cost of counseling to be one of the primary deterrents to students seeking help. One way to control costs is to use a mixture of residents and licensed counselors. As in medicine, students must complete coursework along with a period of residency or internship to obtain licensing. Both religious and secular masters programs in counseling exist in the greater Phoenix area. Thus, there is a potential supply of students who could work as residents, permitting RLCC to offer counseling services at reasonable prices.
This research was conducted through the form of interview with Belizean citizens in Belize, Central America where I invited three of Belize’s most pivotal and influential figures behind social and civil injustices. Belize is a Caribbean country in Central America that was once a colony of the British known as “British Honduras”, gaining its independence on the 21st of September, 1981, making Belize the third to last youngest Caribbean country.
This has been made into a documentary that started filming back in September of 2017 during Belize’s 36th Independence Day where the country indulges in a month full of celebrations that brings a great feeling of togetherness for everyone. The film company that shot and edited this project is a local Belizean company by the name of KnightandDay Photography, with the consideration of helping to create work in Belize, support local business, and to be fully immersed in Belize and all of its resources.
This documentary is structured into five components: (1) Introduction; (2) Interview with guest number one; (3) Interview with guest number two; (4) Interview with guest number three; (5) Interview with five randomly selected Belizean citizens on the street; (6) Outro.
The main objective of this research was to speak in depth with specific Belizeans that have spent significant time in America, whether working, or going to school in order to have the knowledge to compare the experience of the black Belizean in their home country versus that of what America offers as far as the black experience and to explain the history of other ethnic groups of peoples that inhabits Belize and how the tensions and stereotypes among Belizeans arose over time.
Even though writing this memoir is incredibly personal to myself, that does not discourage others from gaining something from reading this. I am not the first Asian American, ex-Mormon, college student or adopted individual who writes about their life and I most certainly will not be the last. If anyone is somewhat interested in any of the topics I am going to be writing about, then they can read this memoir and learn something. If not, then they can at least enjoy the stories and hopefully something I went through will put a smile on their face.
The purpose of this project was to create a platform where people could tell their stories about how their faith impacted their incarceration and their incarceration impacted their faith. There is no single path to pursuing faith in prison, and each person faces their own challenges and facilitators in doing so. There is power in stories, and we can learn so much from simply listening. Each story told through this project presents a unique experience of pursuing Christianity while incarcerated. This project interviewed three people who had pursued their faith during their time in prison. The goal of these interviews was to hear first hand the experiences of dedicating oneself to Christianity while incarcerated. Their stories were broken up into three sections, pre-incarceration, during incarceration, and post-incarceration to explore how each participant’s faith differed across the three phases. Main topics discussed include what religious services they had access to while incarcerated, what the main challenge they faced in pursuing their faith in prison, and how their faith impacted their reentry into society.