Please describe your path from SUNY Brockport to your current position.
For me, the most impactful element of my time at Brockport was the faculty. I started at Brockport in my junior year, after two years of community college. I was curious about human nature and liked science, so psychology was a good fit, and I thought I’d go for a Ph.D. in clinical psychology eventually. While at Brockport I had fantastic professors and advisors, a few of which had a huge effect on my career path. I did an honor’s thesis with Dr. Brown, where I found a fondness for research, and through Dr. McNall gained an appreciation for industrial-organizational (IO) psychology. I also took classes in assessment and measurement with Dr. Abwender and advanced statistics with Dr. Witnauer and fell in love with both subjects.
After getting my bachelor’s I considered going into clinical psychology, but a few weeks into a clinical psych program decided that wasn’t for me. I was still in touch with Dr. McNall and decided to go for a degree in IO psychology, where I continued a focus in psychometrics and measurement. Without the care, professionalism, and guidance of my undergraduate professors, I don’t think I would have found this path, which is basically a perfect fit for me.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned while at SUNY Brockport?
How to make lemonade out of life’s lemons. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease the summer before starting at SUNY Brockport, and the first year was incredibly difficult. However, with the support of faculty and Brockport’s medical services, and with a ton of grit and perseverance through physical and mental pain, I was able to thrive and succeed beyond all my expectations. In a less supportive environment, there’s a good chance that I would have done much more poorly.
What is your favorite memory from your time at SUNY Brockport?
Man, this one is hard! Probably two separate memories: The first was preparing to present the results of my Honor’s thesis at Scholar’s Day. I had the honor of leading a fantastic student research team of seven, and the experience was an adventure. The few weeks preparing for the Scholar’s Day presentation were a wonderful blur, because two semesters of hard work finally came to fruition and we were able to enjoy it as a team.
The second was making some lifelong friends at Brockport, both in and outside of the Psychology department. I met most of them through participating in the clubs at Brockport, particularly the Psychology Club and the Board Games Club.
What advice would you give to current SUNY Brockport students? Any special advice for our psychology majors?
My general advice would be to always keep one eye on your future and keep a goal in mind for how you’re going to turn your education into a career that you want. In today’s labor market, a college degree means little by itself, so if you’re going to spend the time to go to college, commit yourself the entire way and put in as much work as you can. Get internships, network as much as possible, take the hard classes, and make the most of your time. Before you know it, college will be over, and what matters won’t be the diploma, but how hard you worked while getting it.
For psychology majors specifically, I’d say the same, but also remind them that there are so many more paths than clinical psychology! Even with the wonderful breadth of experience that the professors have, so many psych students seem focused on clinical psychology to the point of not seriously considering other career paths. For psych students specifically, getting dual majors or minors is a great way to round out your educational experience to prepare you to go into the field you want.
What learned skills and/or experiences from your time at SUNY Brockport were the most transferable or useful in your current position?
I went into assessment and measurement, and “scientist” is my job title, so those hours spent memorizing the intricacies of research methods and statistical models paid off for me! Outside of academic knowledge, though, my experiences in the Brockport Psychology Club and the Leadership Development Program helped a lot. Soft skills are incredibly important in the business world, even in a research environment!
Please describe any challenge/obstacle you faced while at or since leaving SUNY Brockport and how you overcame/dealt with it.
The COVID-19 pandemic is what immediately comes to mind. I graduated in May 2019 and, as we all remember, COVID hit less than a year later. I wasn’t prepared for the radical shift in life that the lockdowns caused, but I was able to find ways through it. Like a lot of other people, I developed a new hobby during the pandemic; I learned to code in Python and R, and this helped immensely in grad school and in getting a job. (I also tried to take up juggling, but I didn’t stick with that one!)
I started grad school in the first all-remote semester in the SUNY district, and that was quite an experience. Remote learning was difficult when there was little infrastructure or experience in the practice, and my saving grace was the capacity I developed at Brockport to really focus on schoolwork and go the extra mile: Turn every project into a learning experience, and don’t coast by or rest on previous laurels. When it came to job hunting, I had done so much extra work in the areas that interested me that I was a fantastic fit for my current role, even though it’s a bit outside of the focus of my grad program.