From proposal to action: Supporting student advocacy during graduate counseling training

Training future clinicians to engage in advocacy is an important element of fostering multicultural competence. We describe the use of an advocacy proposal assignment integrated into a required multicultural counseling course to teach students about advocacy work. We offer data from a study that examined the impact of the assignment on students' perceptions of advocacy/activism. Participants included 74 counseling psychology graduate students. Students in the advocacy compared to the comparison group endorsed greater importance placed on advocacy and greater intentions to engage in advocacy. We also offer four examples of students who moved from the proposal stage to action stage, documenting their projects. Finally, we offer suggestions and recommendations for supporting students' engagement in advocacy.