Age: 20
Major: Psychology with a minor in business management
Hometown: Fairfield, it’s a very small town near Gettysburg.
Graduation: May 2016
3 Fun Facts:
1. I am obsessed with my cat, Kitty Minaj
2. I want to be just like my spunky, independent grandma (G-Storm) when I grow up
3. My best friend just taught me how to knit last year which just brought me one step closer to fun fact #2!
What is your favorite thing from the 90s? The Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys concerts that my younger sister and I always performed for my parents. We had serious talent.
Why did you choose your major? Well, in high school I was always interested in psychology, but for more personal reasons too. Our family joke is me being able to deal with all my crazy family problems. I just really like psychology. I love people and whatever I can do to help others is my goal.
What do you plan to do with your major or after graduation? I definitely want to get my master’s, and eventually my doctorate. I love school. I’m a nerd! I love learning. I don’t like the projects and papers, but I like to actually learn. Right now I’m in the middle of deciding between school counseling or industrial psychology. I’m not sure what path I want to take yet, but I’m hoping internships will help me out.
What are you involved in on and off campus? I’m a peer educator project lead, basically the supervisor of sexual responsibilities and healthy relationships. I’m vice president of psychology club and I also attend the yoga classes on campus. I used to be an office assistant at the Center of Health Education and Promotion. In the summer, I work as a busser/hostess at a restaurant/hotel in Gettysburg.
Can you tell me a little bit about your experience as psychology club vice president? This is my first semester as vice president. I started going to the club in freshman year. It wasn’t as organized as it is now. It was still really new. It’s something I felt like I should get involved with. As vice president this semester, it’s actually a lot of fun because I love the executive board I work with. They are all really easy to get along with and they feel very strongly about psychology and really care about the club. It’s good that we are all mutually working together and have that passion for psychcology club. We worked on getting the club name out there more this semester. Our goal was to get the word out, recruit more people and also keeping students involved because that was our biggest problem last year. People would start to go and die out as the semester went on.As part of my vice president duties, I designed our first psychology club t-shirt. Working with our advisor, Dr. Vredenburg, is awesome. She’s been so supportive helping get faculty on board too.
What has it been like being a peer educator? I love it! It can be stressful sometimes, a little crazy, but overall I love it! It’s a great experience and the reason I got into it was to get more experience towards my major and to be able to educate other students. I really love public speaking! I’m not normal when it comes to that. In high school I did something similar. I co-founded a club called RYOT (Rallying Youth Organizers Together) against abuse. Me and two other girls started a chapter just to get awareness of all types of abuse. When I heard about peer educators, it was similar, so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is perfect and right up my alley!’ I love being a student educating students. We educate on really important topics. We do it in a fun way and it kind of goes along with what I’d like to be in the future, I guess.
How do you balance studying and being involved in multiple organizations? Very carefully! (At least I try). I’m pretty good at the balance. It helps to keep a planner, which is weird because I never touched mine in high school. As soon as I came to college, I was all about it. I like to write all my class related work in it. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than the feeling of crossing something off that list! I realize that makes my life sound really boring…I promise it’s not! Anyways, I use my phone calendar to literally put every little non-class related event with an alarm on it. Otherwise, I would totally forget everything in my life and be a lost puppy.
What is your favorite thing about Millersville? This sounds bad, but one of the main reasons I came to Millersville was because of the pond. I always heard they had a good psychology program. Now that I’ve actually been here for almost three years (which is really crazy to say), I’ve really come to enjoy and appreciate all of the opportunities it gives me. I have gained so much from this campus that will always stick with me. I’m even considering working in higher education because of Millersville!
Do you have a favorite class you have taken? YES! I actually have multiple because I’m a nerd like that. Psychology wise, I absolutely love abnormal psych because of all the unique mental disorders we talk about. I also really like counseling strategies because we are actually able to “play therapist” which is fun. My favorite non-psychology class so far is Plants and People. I had so much fun in that class taking field trips and learning useful things about plants! I am now the proud owner of five different succulents thanks to that class.
If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? A super cool, super famous motivational speaker because I’m one of those weird people that actually enjoys public speaking, and I would love to travel the world that way. Not to mention, I really want to take my experiences in life and inspire others to reach their inner-awesomeness.
Image courtesy of Deanna Durbin