(Fall ’21) Internship with Professor:
One of my first instances for growth came when my professor asked me to intern with him as his teaching assistant. Before this, I was struggling with coming to a new state a few years ago, in the middle of high school with none of my good friends from high school going to the same school as me. This was a whole new experience for someone who lived the same place for nearly 16 years of their life, going to the same schools with the same people during that entire time, you never really learn how to meet and engage with new people. I did make new friends at Longwood pretty quickly as everyone is really friendly here, but in classes I do generally tend to keep to myself. One of my friends knew my professor, and asked me to say ‘hi’ to the professor for them. This is where it all started. The professor was shocked because this was the first time I was talking to the about something other than school, and he really made me come out of my shell after that, I felt really welcome and became a lot more engaged in class. Near the end of the semester, he came up to me and asked if I would intern for him, and I was really happy because I felt he thought I was dependable and responsible, and immediately agreed. From this experience, I was able to guide a few study sessions and help students if they needed anything I could provide, and the professor was happy with the work I did for him, telling me that he would be happy to be a recommendation for future applications. All in all, I am really happy I chose to step out of my comfort zone that day, it really helped me to see the opportunities that arise when we least expect it, but that action is most important to obtain them.
(Fall ’22) Psychology Seminar Research Study:
One of the most important opportunities afforded to me during my undergraduate career occured during my Seminar in Psychology class, where we had do come up with, generate, and conduct our own research project, which we would then analyze the data for, and present the findings of our research for during the Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry, as well as presenting our whole research project during an oral presentation for our final exam. This was a stressful but also thrilling process. While we did get to have a brief experience with creating a research study in Research Methods in Psychology, we never actually got to conduct that study and gather actual data from actual people. This class not only gave us experience for research, which will allow us to have experience when going into graduate school or into work, but also introduces us into the complexities of research studies in a way we would not be able to experience and understand otherwise. Before this class, I never really understood how complicated it was to get a study off the ground and get it running smoothly. We had to tweak our study many different times to ensure that it actually ran how we intended, and this is even after the first trials started, because we found out participants did not understand the directions clearly enough. It really gave me an appreciation for researchers and how much goes into getting data. More importantly, It allowed me an opportunity to have hands-on experience with collecting and analyzing data to better understand what those findings say, and more importantly what that means. This experiences has given me tools so that I can now look at published research and better comprehend what the results of those studies say, an aspect very important in the field of psychology which is focused on research which is ever changing and evolving.
(December ’22) New Job:
I was just hired for my first official job and I am so excited. I have been wanting a job for so long, not only because I believe it is important for everyone to be able to be financial independent, but also because I want to be able to gain experience out in the real world before I settle down in what I hope to be my forever job in my forever profession. While this is not that, it is the first very big stepping stone on the way to the rest of my life, and for that I could not be more excited (go me!). I am happy that it is a service oriented job, where I will be working at Swarovski selling crystal. It is quite a bit different from what I want to do in my career, but we are slowly getting there, and as a starting point it is a great job for psychology. My main tasks there are engaging with customers, and selling myself and the brand. I have to make them want to buy the product and want to come back for more, either for themselves or others, and to share it with others to bring in even more customers. To do this, you cannot just sell something when someone asks for it, but you have to talk to the customer, feel them out and see what they are looking for and how you can help them the best, and make them feel the most welcome. I’ve just started and already I’ve helped so many people and I really feel a part of the family there with my other coworkers. Because it is my first time working a job, especially service oriented, it can become overwhelming, but I think this will help me in my future career as I reflect on everyone in the situation and think about the states of people and myself at the time. We want people to keep coming back, so if there are things to change or keep doing to ensure that, we want to make sure, as employees, that we create an atmosphere that encompases welcomeness, and it is the same with psychology. In order to get people to open up, you do not want to keep talking and pushing. You want to make people want to open up, and listen rather than talk. I think through this job I can learn a lot of tools I can apply to psychology.