I am a senior at UW-Madison and am majoring in Human Development & Family Studies as well as Gender & Women’s Studies. Over the past few years I have really honed in on what I am passionate about through working with a variety of nonprofits. I have interned for the RAINN's Online Hotline, providing direct counseling, crisis intervention measures and a variety of mental health care resource recommendations. Through RAINN, I discovered my passion for activism and supporting survivors, so I joined PAVE UW, a student organization dedicated to the prevention and education against sexual violence. There, I was the Peer Education Coordinator and utilized my content knowledge in order to create educational content and workshops that would later be presented to UW students. I also had the opportunity to work as a research assistant within UW’s Sexual Violence Research Lab (PIVOT), wherein I helped pilot research surveys, performed literature reviews and any other tasks that the researchers needed completed. Feeling invigorated by the research, I embarked on my own research within my senior thesis, exploring the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult fatness. Through my experience with those organizations I noticed that I feel particularly passionate about helping child survivors of sexual violence. Though I did not major in Psychology, my course work reflects a deep interest and passion for the field. I value my two majors because they provide me with invaluable perspective and depth of knowledge that a degree in Psychology alone could have not provided. I hope to pursue an internship working in the community of Madison, WI in order to gain experience serving families and children, and grasping an understanding of the state of the community and the needs that I can fulfill through working with them. I am passionate about being a warm and kind presence in a child's life, and doing all that I can to facilitate opportunity and development in my community and among the children I would serve. I believe that pursuing a PsyD in clinical child psychology would give me the necessary tools to be an advocate, a resource, and a kind face for the children going through the worst times of their lives. Following the experience that I would like to gain, I hope to apply to programs across the country who specialize in child psychology or trauma-informed therapy.
