{"id":28026,"date":"2023-09-28T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T19:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=28026"},"modified":"2023-10-06T10:11:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T14:11:27","slug":"professional-development-series-illuminates-pathways-in-psychology-and-neuroscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/professional-development-series-illuminates-pathways-in-psychology-and-neuroscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Professional development series illuminates pathways in psychology and neuroscience"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been easy to find the path to the second floor of Johns Hall on several Fridays this fall: Just follow the aroma of food being served in Farmer Commons at about half past noon. The more complex navigation comes after lunch, when students convene in a classroom to discover the many directions they can take as psychology<\/a> or neuroscience<\/a> majors.<\/p>\n

Presented by Furman\u2019s psychology department and neuroscience program, Find Your Path Fridays is a professional development series designed to help students interested in those two fields start thinking forward about next steps but also equip them with the tools to take those next steps, according to Grace Binion, an assistant professor of psychology. \u201cA lot of people have general ideas about internships or grad school but don\u2019t know how to get there,” she said. ” This is designed to connect the dots and help people find something that inspires them and have the know-how to take that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exploring and encouraging interests<\/h3>\n
\"A

Andy Coe, associate director of Furman\u2019s internship program, speaks to students during a Find Your Path Fridays professional development event presented by the psychology department and neuroscience program in Fall 2023.<\/p><\/div>\n

This year\u2019s series launched in September with sessions on graduate school, covering psychology-related program options, timelines and application processes.<\/p>\n

Elija Hicks \u201926, who has declared a psychology major and is considering a double major in health sciences, attended those first two sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very unsure about what opportunities were available to individuals who were pursuing a psychology degree,\u201d said Hicks, recipient of a Bell Tower Scholarship<\/a>, who hopes to apply to a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology or health psychology. \u201cI was surprised at the length of time involved with getting a doctoral degree, (but) my interest in these fields was encouraged due to the enthusiasm I shared with the presenters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those sessions also gave psychology major Thomas Demetre \u201925 a few things to consider as he prepares for a doctoral program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that some psychology programs are harder to get into based on the subfield,\u201d said Demetre, who is also a Bell Tower Scholarship recipient. \u201cI definitely learned things about pursuing a career and Ph.D. in social or organizational psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serendipitous discovery<\/h3>\n

Demetre returned on a later Friday as a panel of psychology and neuroscience majors discussed their summer internship experiences on and off campus. Internships and academic credit were the topic of another session led by Binion and Andy Coe \u201991, associate director of Furman\u2019s internship<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany employers want to see a demonstrated interest or commitment to the field that you want to work in,\u201d Binion told the class. \u201cThat\u2019s something that an internship can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a lot of the most successful internship experiences come from people who have a reasonable degree of confidence in what they want to do, and then while they\u2019re there they meet another professional doing something that turns out to be way more interesting,\u201d said Coe, who had majored in psychology at Furman. \u00a0\u201cSo, the best part of it was the serendipitous discovery about a new professional field or niche.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paths less traveled<\/h3>\n

Binion and Coe also outlined the process of earning academic credit through PSY 505, the structured internship course, and pointed students to Furman\u2019s extensive internship database<\/a> and one-on-one counseling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will almost certainly never be another time in your life when you have somebody so willing to sit down and say, \u2018What are you interested in? We\u2019ll try to make it happen,\u2019\u201d Binion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a competitive, application-based system,\u201d added Coe, \u201cbut you are competitive applicants because you go to Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Find Your Path Friday sessions were planned to share majors\u2019 experiences with summer research fellowships, provide academic advising and explore careers with a psychology degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of good feedback from students,\u201d said Binion. \u201cThey\u2019ve said, \u2018I had no idea you could be a therapist and not get your Ph.D.,\u2019 or \u2018I had no idea you could pursue doing data analysis as a career in mental health.\u2019 We\u2019re trying to elucidate and illuminate those pathways, not just the ones that are most obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Find Your Path Fridays, a professional development series presented by Furman\u2019s psychology department and neuroscience program, illuminates graduate school, internship and career options for interested students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":28028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,79,48,61,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internships","category-neuroscience","category-psychology","category-the-furman-advantage","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}