Incoming Cohort Truly Diverse
In September 2014, the Psychology Department welcomed 14 new students to its PhD program. For the first time, each of the new class members was admitted by a different faculty member. This makes for a cohort with research interests that truly reflect the diversity of the scholarship for which our faculty is known. Our new students hail from all corners of the United States and abroad. Most of our new students earned their previous degrees from schools in California (UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, San Diego State), while a handful studied on the east coast (Duke, Harvard, Amherst, University of Pittsburgh, and Bucknell). There are a couple who were students close to Seattle or from our neighbor to the south (University of Oregon), while others arrived from the oft forgotten middle of the US having studies at Ripon and Arkansas. Our furthest-traveling new student completed studies in the United Kingdom!
The group is already amassing the types of honors typical of our graduate trainees. Ashley Ruba (Developmental with Betty Repacholi) was awarded a $1500 travel grant from the International Society on Infant Studies to attend their biennial summer conference in Berlin, Germany where she received an award for "Most Outstanding Undergraduate Submission." In addition, several students received recruitment awards from our department and college such as the Top Scholar, Natural Science Fellowship, and GO-MAP Diversity fellowships.
Incoming students are treated to a weeklong orientation before the official start of the quarter. Orientation is organized by an advanced graduate student who has been selected as the department’s Lead TA. This year's Lead TA is Karen Pang (Child Clinical with Elizabeth McCauley (Seattle Children's Hospital) and Lynn Fainsilber Katz), who did an excellent job collaborating and coordinating the many schedules of staff, faculty, and graduate students. Karen has also written another article which appears in this newsletter on her experience attending a summer school in the Netherlands. Please check it out!
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