Senior Synthesis
The culmination of experience, volunteer work, and classwork that have brought me to the pinnacle of my undergraduate education have propelled me forward to continue to pursue a career in Clinical Psychology.
The classes I took in the Community Engagement Scholars course of study inspired me to start small, to start locally. When I first started my journey as a Community Engagement Scholar, I wrote in my Intro to Civic Engagement final reflection about helping those who could not afford mental healthcare to gain access to it, and I further resolved to get involved in a mental health initiative outside of UD, as I am a fervent advocate for mental health awareness. I also identified a passion for helping bridge the connection between Spanish language learners and English language learners. These motivated me to pursue my degree in Psychology with minors in Neuroscience and Spanish. I was inspired by people all around my community: my psychology professors, the volunteers at the campus mental health safe haven, Sean’s House, and wondered how I could leave my own indelible mark on the campus community in my four years.
Having identified my immense passion for supporting underprivileged communities to gain access to mental health resources and provide mental health support to people who needed it in general, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, a non-profit that works together with children to treat emotional and behavioral disorders. My time at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health has, and continues to highlight the behind the scenes work of clinicians, physicians, and social workers alike to help children who come from underserved backgrounds with behavioral and emotional disorders. This work has spurred me to inquire about what changes could be made to improve the mental healthcare system, especially as it pertains to treatments for children in underprivileged communities both at home and at school. One of my best friends works at a middle school and even brought to my attention that there are several barriers that make it difficult for children with developmental or intellectual disabilities to gain access to a diagnosis that would allow them to have specialized support in the educational setting. Helping children, who like me, experienced learning barriers in early education due to ADHD or other intellectual disabilities is another area of interest I am motivated to address with a degree in clinical psychology. I would highly consider a career working as a school psychologist to help disseminate knowledge to educators to help them better address the needs of their students.
My time in Nemours Children’s Hospital taught me even more about my local community. As someone who grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, I still consider Wilmington, Delaware part of my local community. I was blessed to help comfort young children who were afraid of the doctor’s office, be it for routine checkups or injections. Similar to Devereux, I had the unique privilege of being exposed to a lot of the behind-the-scenes in a healthcare hospital setting. Working alongside a compassionate, hardworking team of healthcare workers who are each devoting 110% everyday taught me the true meaning of dedication and the profound impact that genuine empathy and passion for your field of work can have on patients. I know that when I realize my long-term career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist, I do not want to work any less hard than the awe-inspiring professionals I worked together with at Nemours.
Research has played another major role in shaping my community engagement and professional interests. Through my continued work at the Close Relationships and Health (CRH) Lab, I have developed key research skills such as observation, data input, data analysis, and more that will give me a head-start in graduate school with research. The University of Delaware is an institution that heavily prides itself on its research opportunities, and this has become something so meaningful to me that it is something I am searching for in the graduate programs I am applying to. I maintain that research is just as important in helping local communities as the hands-on volunteers who help underserved communities every day. Research skills allow clinicians and future clinicians to help determine how effectively (in what populations and contexts) and efficiently treatments can work on a larger scale. It helps us determine if certain treatments are even proven to be effective. In my professional career, it is my goal to be a clinician who is well-read on current literature and participates in research experiments to help discover new treatments or improve existing ones.
The Community Engagement Scholars Program at UD has helped me to truly branch out and explore every facet of my passions. It has helped me to find a way to turn a psychology degree into something you can use for community service, when I was convinced you had to have a policy degree for community service. I cannot express my gratitude enough times to this incredible, enriching program for helping me explore my passions, and for urging me to play a more active role in serving my community, be it in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Wilmington Delaware, or in the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. I have learned so much from each of these communities in what feels like a short period of four years. My community engagement interests have not changed for the most part, but I am excited to see how they evolve as I dive further into my career specialty, discovering what else I can do within my community as I achieve a higher degree. In the next four or five years of my education, I hope to attend an institution in my local Pennsylvania community so that I can continue to engage with and work within my community and help meet the needs of those seeking mental health support. Then, I will hopefully work as a full-fledged psychologist, involving myself with initiatives to help improve mental health accessibility in the Delaware and Chester County areas in PA. I am extremely grateful for the Community Engagement Scholars for helping me grow into the ambitious and community-oriented woman I have become. The bounds of how far community engagement can extend are nothing less than ceaseless.