Alumni Travel Back in Time
It was in 1994 that I graduated from SDSU with a degree in Spanish and a minor in psychology. My life was already about half over by then, since I was 43 at the time! I am Canadian, but I have lived all over the world, having put down roots in San Diego in 1990. I can say with some confidence that this is the best place on earth to live and work.
When I was 18, I studied classical dance in Paris, intending to become a member of the Ballets du Vingtieme Siecle. However, life took a different turn, and I ended up, at age 20, in Bangalore, India, studying the ancient classical dance of South India with a scholarship from the Indian government. By the age of 21, I had entered the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, where for 19 years I served the poorest of the poor in India, the U.K., Italy, Mexico and the US. Poor health eventually forced me out of that work; I was sent to San Diego to recuperate from my last assignment in Tijuana. In my new home city, I started volunteering with Mexican migrant farm workers in North County, work in which I am still very much involved. The migrants are the poorest of the poor in San Diego and very much the target of injustice and discrimination, though they are the ones putting food on our tables.
I enrolled at SDSU in 1993 (having completed general education units at community colleges), and graduated in December of 1994. I was honored to receive the Outstanding Student Award of both the College of Arts and Letters and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. SDSU was a great introduction to academic life and to the education I had been thirsting for . I was able to take all the classes I needed, meet excellent professors (some of whom are still my friends) and complete my degree quickly so as to get on with the rest of my life! I loved the campus,, the walks between classes, the lively atmosphere, and the broadness of the education I received. I even audited a few courses that I didn’t need to graduate, fascinating stuff like Maya anthropology and an Italian class featuring Dante’s Inferno! These classes have served me well during my frequent visits to the Mayan ruins and my infrequent visits to Italy.
In 1995, I went on the California School of Professional Psychology, where I graduated with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) with specialization in families and children. My dissertation was a study of Latino men who had been violent to their partners, an area of interest for many years, since I worked with poor families in Mexico City. In my experience there, domestic violence was widespread and ruined the lives of many women and children, as well as the men who perpetrated it. Since obtaining my California license as a clinical psychologist in 2001, I have published three books -- two in Spanish (Violencia Doméstica 2000 (2003) & Sin Golpes: Como Transformar la Respuesta Violenta del Hombre en la Pareja y la Familia (2007)) and one in English, Healing from Violence: Latino Men’s Journey to a New Masculinity (Springer, 2007). In addition to keeping up a private and a hospital practice, I teach a graduate course on domestic violence at Alliant International University in San Diego. I also instruct Latino parents in parenting skills and preventing family violence.
I began teaching internationally almost immediately after receiving my doctorate. So far, I have taught workshops at seven Mexican universities, and have presented at many more conferences. I have also been privileged to teach at five universities in Peru and to volunteer my clinical services (with a Quechua translator) at a municipal clinic near Cusco. In 2006, I taught 350 high school students in Kerala, India, on resilience and on partner violence prevention, and in 2007, I donated 16 teaching hours to NGOs and universities in Kampala, Uganda, training the students in the topic and discussing how to adapt the material to their local circumstances and culture. In October 2007, I was placed on the candidate roster of the Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant, which will enable me to teach at two universities in Mexico City this fall for a three-week period. This year I am also heading to Washington, DC, to be an invited mentor for the Minority Fellowship Program’s annual Psychology Summer Institute. By year’s end, I hope to be back in India, this time training Catholic priests and seminarians on the topic of appropriate pastoral responses to domestic violence in their congregations, including prevention strategies.
I am extremely grateful to SDSU for launching me on my current professional journey and for opening doors for me! I congratulate all my fellow SDSU alumni on their continuing efforts to make the world a better place for all of us to live.
Christauria Welland
