UVA Psychology Alumni
2015 Graduate
Senior Consultant at IBM
Although I am working in the IT industry, I feel that I have benefited from my past training as a psychology major tremendously. Not only has it satisfied my intellectual curiosity to learn about the world, it has also trained me in a wide range of transferable skills including research, critical thinking, communication and quantitative analysis etc.I have been applying these skills every single day of my work, when I am designing user-experiences, developing digital organization strategies and well as interpreting natural language, personalities and emotions with Cognitive Data Analytics. I am always grateful to the wonderful professors like Prof.Fred Smyth and Prof.Oishi Shigehiro who made my psychology learning one of my fondest memories in UVA.
Andrew Emroch
2018 Graduate
J.D. Candidate at University of Richmond
My psychology degree directly helped me in the process leading up to law school and will help me during law school and in my career. All of my psychology classes helped with logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension for the LSAT and for law school. My “Science of Forensic Psychology” class helped to really confirm my interest in the law by showcasing the kind of philosophical questions I might face and the type of work I might do. The class also prepared me for the kind of critical analysis I will do in law school. “Research Methods and Data Analysis” I and II especially helped with my critical thinking as well. Classes such as Social Psychology, Personality Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and Child Psychology will help me engage with my clients, other law students and lawyers, and juries and could definitely help if I choose to pursue family law. My Perception and Neural Basis of Behavior classes could especially help with personal injury law. My Science of Well-Being class changed the way I viewed the concept of happiness and will definitely help me make decisions in my law career. My favorite memories were taking "Science of Forensic Psychology" and "Science of Well-Being" as they were both very engaging courses and taught me valuable life lessons.
2017 Graduate
M.Ed. Canditate in School Counseling, William and Mary
For the past two years I have worked closely with high school students as they pursue their post-secondary plans. My degree in psychology provided me with a lens through which I could understand the students' ways of thinking and addressing situations, how to best motivate and encourage them and, most importantly, how to interact and build relationships with them.
2015 Graduate
Elementary School Counselor
I provide individual and group counseling for students and also teach classroom lessons on social and emotional development. I am also an advocate for my students and their families. I work in collaboration with teachers, administrators and parents and can also provide consultation to these groups as well. As a counselor, I am trained in the prevention and detection of mental health issues in a school.
1993 Graduate
Owner/Dentist, DJ Bickers, DDS, PLC Dental Office
My psychology degree has helped me because I deal with people every day. It is very important to be able to build trust and confidence with my patients; especially since some are afraid of coming to see me. My psychology degree provided a foundation of being able to recognize certain personalities and adapt my interaction with them accordingly to make their visits as pleasant as possible.
2016 Graduate
MSN Graduate, Columbia University School of Nursing
My psychology degree has better prepared me to determine which types of interventions may increase health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness at the individual, community, and population levels. The research methods coursework has also proved immeasurable while learning how to appraise various types of research studies and reviews in order to implement evidence-based clinical practice guidelines that optimize health outcomes for all. I earned a M.S. in Nursing from Columbia University in August 2019. I have begun a Doctorate in Nursing Practice program on the way to becoming a family nurse practitioner in an outpatient, community health clinic. "I am truly loving this field, patient care, and everything I am learning!"
2016 Graduate
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, University of Connecticut
For two years, I worked in psychiatric research at Butler Hospital in Providence, RI where the I applied the knowledge I acquired in my Abnormal Psychology and Research Methods and Statistics courses to my work on a daily basis.
2017 Graduate
College Adviser with the Virginia College Advising Corps
Over the summer, I interned with the Human Rights Campaign in the Children, Youth, and Families department. There, I applied my psychology background with my understanding the most basic human need of acceptance and celebration of identity. This is an essential piece of childhood and adolescent development. This understanding fueled my passion for working towards greater fluency in LGBTQ+ issues in foster care and adoption.
2018 Graduate
Master of Public Health program, UVA School of Medicine
Even though my Masters program is in the realm of public health, having taken the Research Methods and Data Analysis classes required for the minor has definitely helped a lot in my Biostatistics class and with the research track in general. I have learned how to conduct and analyze different types of studies, which will help me greatly when it comes to working on my final research project for the program.
2017 Graduate
PhD student in Behavioral Decision Making at the UCLA Anderson School of Management
In graduate school, I am studying how contexts in the environment influence behavior. The experiences from my undergraduate psychology major, the Research Methods and Data Analysis course series, and social psychology research at UVA motivated me to pursue a career in research. I am so grateful for the fantastic training and mentorship I received through the UVA psychology major.
2017 Graduate
Doctoral student in quantitative psychology, UNC Chapel Hill
I gained interests in my current research focus - psychometrics and measurement theory - first when learning about research methodology. My first exposure to quantitative psychology research could not have happened without the research assistantship, coursework and guidance from Prof. Steve Boker, Prof. Schmidt and Prof. Tong at UVA Psychology. I also greatly appreciate the training in research skills gained from Prof. T. Wilson's lab and Prof. Clore's illuminating seminar.
2018 Graduate
M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, North Carolina State University
My psychology degree has helped tremendously with learning about theories concerning counseling! Now that I am well into the first semester, I am really appreciating the knowledge acquired from major, specifically my social psychology and child development classes
2018 Graduate
School Psychology Masters/Ed.S Student and Assessment, James Madison University
We have to take an intermediate statistics class that focuses a lot on conceptual topics rather than the actual calculations and I am finding that a lot of this is review thanks to the required research methods I and II classes. This also translates to my GA position since I am carrying out assessments for a majority of my role.
2018 Graduate
Masters of Arts in Applied Forensic Psychology Program, George Washington University
I use what I learned in Social Psychology, Personality Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Child Psychopathology, Research & Statistics, Animal Behavior, and Children, Families & the Law almost every day.