Nephtaly Joel Botor, Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies Ph.D. student expresses gratitude toward CFAS faculty.
Nephtaly Joel Botor is pursuing a Ph.D. in Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies (ADRS) within the Community, Faculty, and Addiction Sciences department. As an international student, he has focused his research efforts on minority stress processes. His research mainly focuses on microaggressions that people within the LGBT community experience daily.
Throughout his time at Texas Tech, he has developed a minority stress model to explain the factors that affect mental health and substance use issues within the LGBT community. Before his educational career in the United States, Botor taught human development and family studies at the undergraduate level in the College of Human Ecology at the University of the Philippines Los Banos.
"As someone with training in psychology and counseling, and who works in the realm of human ecology and family studies, CFAS meaningfully supports whatever prior training I have and augments this training with a new way of looking at behavioral phenomena," Botor said.
After coming to Texas Tech, Botor found that the CFAS department encourages students to be methodologically versatile. The department and ADRS program aims to open doors for students to learn and develop new research methods. As an international student, Botor hoped to join a program supportive of their students' career goals and comprised of people genuinely concerned with their student's well-being and aspirations.
"I will forever be grateful for the mentorship I receive from my advisor, Dr. Antover Tuliao, and the department faculty with whom I have the privilege of working with," Botor said. "Studying away from home is challenging, but I can truly say that the relationships I built within the ADRS program and the things I am learning from here are all worth it!"
Botor aims to promote cross-cultural research in addiction and recovery by forging collaborations between experts back home and at Texas Tech University. Combining his previous knowledge with his education from the CFAS department here at Texas Tech, he plans to return to the Philippines after graduation to focus on cross-cultural research. Beyond graduation and national borders, College of Human Sciences students continue the college's efforts to improve and enhance the human condition.