Becoming an Advocate

By: Maisie O'Brien

“What would the fish version of you do in this situation?” Jailyn Brown, AG25, asks an elementary school student she is counseling. The student places his face behind a tank of water, puckers his lips, and explains his predicament in an animated, underwater voice.

Brown is meeting with the student as part of her third and final fieldwork placement in the Tufts MA/EdS in School Psychology Program. “Playing games and being silly is one of the best ways to establish a rapport and build trust with kids,” Brown says. “I’ll use puppets to enact scenarios or bring out a board game and discuss the week. Finding ways to make kids comfortable opening up is so important as a school psychologist.”

She was introduced to the field while studying at Rutgers University and interning at a child development center. “I always knew I wanted to work with kids, but I didn’t know in what capacity,” she recalls. “There was a child at the center who was having a tough time and I asked the staff what resources were available to help him. That’s when I learned about school psychologists and their role in evaluation and counseling.”

Brown took undergraduate courses in clinical and school psychology, which solidified her interest in the field. After graduating with a BA in psychology and history, she enrolled directly at Tufts.

“I was drawn to Tufts because of its student-centered approach and investment in diversity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice,” she says. “As a person of color, I wanted to make sure that the program I joined was aware of different identities and how students have different experiences and needs from each other.”

At Tufts, Brown participated in fieldwork placements every semester. She counseled individual students, ran groups, conducted evaluations, and shadowed licensed school psychologists in a variety of educational settings, including a suburban elementary school, an urban school district, and a migrant shelter. Her site supervisors and faculty mentors helped her thrive in her placements.

“All of the faculty are super encouraging and knowledgeable,” she says. “They care about us as students and whole people. I have so many great mentors and I appreciate how every single class had a social justice component woven into it.”  She particularly loved her courses taught by Senior Lecturer Erin Seaton and Lecturer Scott Greenspan.

Brown also made friends with many of her classmates and participated in a mentoring program matching first-year students with second-year students. Her mentor, Amanda Plaza, AG24, has been a steady source of inspiration and support.  “The Tufts network is wonderful,” she says. “I know I can reach out to Amanda, my professors, and my peers with any issues I have after graduation.”

Last spring, Brown attended the Black School Psychology Network Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and returned with information and resources she felt the Tufts program could benefit from. She met with Tufts faculty members who implemented several of her suggestions. “It was awesome that I was able to make these connections and that my professors were open to ideas about how the program could be even better,” she says.

Tufts, Brown says, gave her a strong foundation to support children amid today’s  tumultuous political environment. “I’ve really found my voice in advocating for children from marginalized backgrounds,” she says. “Even with everything that’s going on in the world, school psychologists aren’t going to stop talking about inclusion and making sure all students are supported and cared for.”

Brown is graduating this month after completing the fieldwork hours necessary to become a licensed school psychologist. She is hoping to work with an elementary school population in a comprehensive role that includes both evaluation and counseling.

“Elementary school is my jam,” she says. “I love to have silly fun with kids and work with them individually and in groups. It’s super important to have at least one person who sees and understands you, especially if your home life is difficult. I hope to be a trusted person for the kids I work with.”