Academics Page
Major: I'm a psychology major and have completed my foreign language minor in Spanish.
Year: I'm currently a senior. I will complete my undergraduate coursework this December, and I will walk in the commencement ceremony with the Class of 2012 in the spring.
Hometown: I’ve lived in Pittston Township, which is twenty minutes south of Scranton, for my whole life but I dorm during the semester.
Activities: In addition to my involvement in research, I'm a member of the University of Scranton Honors Program, Psi Chi International Honors Society in Psychology, the Psychology Club, and the Association for Psychological Science Student Caucus (APSSC). I am also completing my field experience in Scranton at an agency for children who are victims of trauma. I am a work study student in the Psychology Department, and I am a teaching assistant for Clinical Psychology. I also hold a part-time job off campus on weekends.
Future Plans: I am currently in the process of searching for graduate programs which complement my research interests. I am interested in behavior change as it relates to persuading people, particularly children, to purchase products. I am interested in receiving training in social psychology, and more specifically, decision making, judgment, and persuasion.
Research: During my sophomore year in 2009, I began my journey in the Conservation Psychology Lab with Dr. Nolan. My intention in beginning research earlier than most of my classmates was to get involved in the Psychology Department and to establish a personal relationship with the professors, in hopes that doing so may shed light on a career path suitable to my interests. As a result of my enthusiasm, I was employed during the summer of 2010 under the direction of Dr. Nolan as a research assistant for a tire pressure study. I have presented data from our lab at the Eastern Psychology Association meeting and at the University of Scranton Psychology Conference. Most recently, I completed data collection and analysis for the field study portion of my senior honors thesis, which married the literature of social influence and conversational analysis. I am currently conducting the follow-up lab study for this project.