My spring semester of 2020 I took by far my favorite class so far, Primate Cognition with Dr. Anna Yoacom. Besides the fact that Dr. Yocoam is an amazing professor who really cares about her students and is passionate about what she is teaching, the content was really fascinating to me. We studied everything from basic language and counting capabilities in a range of non-human primates to meta-cognition and morality. We began the class with a brief overview of primate species and learned about not only apes but also old world monkeys, new world monkeys and prosimians. This is the first class I have left wanting to tell more people about what I have learned. There were a lot of research articles that we had to read, which is not a strength of mine, but we always discussed them in class and had fair good online discussions through a website called Perusal. I think this is what sparked my interest in moving away from veterinary medicine and towards psychology. It was not just that I liked learning about primates, I liked the concepts behind the theories and learning about how they think in comparison to humans. A lot of primate cognition is understanding how humans think and comparing that to primates. I would love to go more in-depth into primate cognition specifically, but I realize this is very specialized, so learning more about general psychology and the career paths I can take within the field is how I would like to continue with my newfound interest.

My first two years have taught me more than I thought they would about myself. I have gained invaluable experience working at the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, changed my major from Zoology to Psychology and Biology,  joined new clubs, and stopped attending others, and overall I have grown as a person. For the next two years, I hope to continue many of my activities such as peer mentoring through the Biological Sciences Scholars program, continue to work towards a Dual Degree in both Psych and Bio and work hard to save for my post-undergraduate education. I have made invaluable friends that I hope to continue my friendship with and I want to continue to make connections in the next two years.

As my new course of action, I would like to start working towards obtaining a Masters or Doctorate in Psychology. I have recently thought more about becoming a clinical psychologist and helping my community in this way, rather than through veterinary medicine. I am going to continue taking the necessary classes for vet school, but I feel as if my career trajectory has shifted some since coming to college. I recently took my first few psychology classes and have found a love for them. I do not want to completely discard my goal of obtaining a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, but I do want to shift my focus to learning more about careers in Psychology. Therefore, my new goals for these upcoming semesters is to look into careers with psychology, join new (maybe non-career related or psychology-related) clubs, talk with people in the field of psychology, and overall broaden my horizons as I mentioned in my “About Me” section earlier in my portfolio. I just want to open myself up to new experiences and opportunities to ensure that I am making the best ones for myself, while also enjoying my time at OSU to the best of my abilities.

Here is a link to my college resume

This resume demonstrates my skills and experience I have learned thus far in college and summarized main accomplishments from my last few years of High School

The careers section is reserved for my academic and career experiences. This section contains my resume and a collection of any other skills or experiences I have acquired.