Welcome to Elise Spintzyk’s ePortfolio! Here, I have described the experiences that I have gained as a student at the Ohio State University and my future goals. Some of my pieces of work are displayed here and demonstrate what I have learned in the past two years. I have also explained the ways that Ohio State has allowed me to explore the GOALS and develop as an Honors & Scholars student.
Vision for Ohio State
In the next two years, I hope to continue working towards my goal of applying to graduate school to pursue my hopes of becoming of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. I want to continue working in the Cardiopulmonary Behavioral Medicine lab in the Psychology Department, so I can continue to learn more about the research process and the importance of Health Psychology. I hope to continue to involve service in my time at Ohio State, both during the semester and during time away from school. I will continue building leadership skills in my new role as the co-president of the Psychology Club, and I hope to find new ways to be a leader in my community at Ohio State. I will continue my professional development as a student assistant in the Psychology department, and I want to continue building a stronger network in the Psychology department.
Literature Review of Mental Illness Stigma
The Impact of Stigma on Psychological Well-Being and Treatment Seeking
As an assignment for my Abnormal Psychology Analysis course, which I completed in the spring of 2019, I wrote a literature review regarding the impact of mental illness stigma on patients’ treatment-seeking behaviors and well-being. Understanding the impact of stigma is important, as I hope to be a mental illness clinician in the future. This project helped me to fully understand the wide-reaching effects that mental illness stigma has for individuals with mental illness, and the ways that the community of mental illness clinicians can work to lessen the negative effects.
Year in Review
My time at Ohio State, although this is only my second year, has helped me to pursue many of the G.O.A.L.S both in my role as a scholars and honors student.
Global Awareness: Through my study of German as my foreign language, I learned a great deal about not only the language but German culture. My father was born and raised in Germany, so I am always excited to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for my heritage. I continued this study in my literature course, which discussed the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Although the focus of the course was stories intended for children, the class explored the evolution of fairy tale stories through time and many cultures. The cultural and historical significance of these stories is complex and it was a fun and engaging way to discuss challenging historical issues in German and European culture. I’m not sure that I will be able to make studying abroad a part of my time at Ohio State, I intend to travel and explore more places and cultures during and after my time at Ohio State, and the knowledge that I gained through my studies and experiences in diverse environment will no doubt serve me in those adventures.
Original Inquiry: Starting in the Spring 2020 semester, I have been working as a Research Assistant in the Cardiopulmonary Behavioral Medicine Lab in the Psychology Department with principle investigator Dr. Charles Emery and graduate student Jake Landers. I have been involved in the Pain and Acetaminophen in Women Study (PAWS), which is investigating the effects of acetaminophen on inflammation and pain response with a specific focus on emotional pain. I have been trained to run participants, and I have been luck enough to be very hands on with this research. In my courses, I have learned about experimental design statistics in behavioral science, research methods in behavioral science, and I have been exposed to a wide variety of scientific literature. Some of the most exciting research that I have been exposed to has been in the Biological Psychiatry course that I am taking this semester. There are so many frontiers in the understanding of psychiatric illness and in developing new and more effective treatments. This course has exposed me to the newest ideas and paradigms of psychiatric research, and it has affirmed the career path that I intend to pursue.
Academic Excellence: Through all of my course work, but especially my honors courses, I feel that I have grown tremendously as a student while I have been at Ohio State. This semester is the first that I have taken almost exclusively honors course work, and I feel challenged and inspired by the content that I learning. Biological Psychiatry is a cross-listed course that both undergraduates and graduate students are able to take, which has exposed me to new levels of rigor. Graduate students give presentations throughout the course, and I have really enjoyed learning from my peers who are more advanced in their academic careers. Because I intend to pursue a graduate degree, the increased rigor of my honors course work makes me feel secure and know that I am preparing myself for the next phase of my education. The ability to work in smaller groups with faculty members has allowed for valuable and deeper intellectual engagement in my courses, which has been motivating and allowed for my connection to my studies.
Leadership Development: I have been fortunate enough to have multiple leadership opportunities in my time at Ohio State. In my role as a Psychology Student Ambassador this year, I have been able to grow as a leader and a professional. I was able to serve as a course assistant in the Transfer Student Survey course for new psychology majors this fall, serve as a representative of the department at our Career Fair, plan an event in conjunction with a faculty member, and participate in two professional development workshops. I have been and will continue to be a part of the executive board for the Psychology Club. My current position is as the Marketing Chair. In this role, I have been able to expand my communication skills and social media techniques. The leadership board works very closely together, so it has also given me a rich collaborative experience and improved my abilities to work as a cohesive team.
Service Engagement: As a Biological Sciences scholar, I have had the opportunity to give back to the Columbus community in diverse ways. I was able to prepare meals for the residents at the Huckleberry House, Faith Mission, and I have frequently participated in service at Wesley Glenn Retirement and Nursing Community. This past summer, I volunteered weekly at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. I had the privilege to visit patients receiving in-patient cancer treatment and deliver them comfort items and activities to make their stay more comfortable. I had many extremely rewarding moments being able to meet with and talk to patients, and I gained a lot of professional experience working with the hospital staff. I plan to return to this role this upcoming summer, and I look forward to being able to continue working with patients and the staff at UH.
Psychology Ambassadors
This year I had the privilege of serving as an Ambassador to the Psychology Department here at Ohio State. In this role, I worked closely with the director of Undergraduate Programming in Psychology, Dr. Alisa Paulsen, and all of the advisors in the Psychology Department. Ambassadors receive professional development training, serve as course assistants in the freshmen and transfer student survey classes, plan events for the department, help greet and recruit new students to the Psychology department, and network with the professors in our classes.
Artifacts
This photo represents my passion for psychology and why I love the subject. There are elements of the hard sciences in psychology, and I am exploring that with my current course in Behavioral Neuroscience, and I will continue to learn about research methods and data and statistical analysis in the field in future courses. There is also an element of uniqueness and fluidity in psychology because no individual is the same, and the path that I want to go down with my career with allow me to experience the diversity in human psychology. The colorful side of the image also represents to me that there is so much to be learned about the brain, and although I want to do clinical work for my career, I want to contribute to research in the field while on my path to becoming a clinician.
Photo Citation: image. https://www.emotivebrand.com/brand-loyalty-flows-from-great-products-imbued-with-emotional-significance/. Accessed 14 Oct 2018.
This is a photo from the recent Opioid Research Panel hosted by the Biological Sciences Scholars Program. The featured speakers were Dr. William Martin who is the Dean of the College of Public Health at Ohio State, Dr. Henry Xiang who is a Professor of Epidemiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Dr. Thomas Huber who is an Assitant Professor in Health Services Management and Policy Change in the College of Public Health at Ohio State, and Dr. Cecilia Mengo who is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work. This panel was so interesting and helped me to understand the importance of research in solving problems, and the different forms that it can take. Not all research has to take place in a lab, and all different types of research can be used to solve problems. Because I want to pursue a career in mental health treatment, I find the treatment of opioid addiction very interesting, and I hope that I can contribute to solving this problem as a part of my research studies or in my clinical work in the future.
G.O.A.L.S.
Global Awareness: Through my study of German as my foreign language, I learned a great deal about not only the language but German culture. My father was born and raised in Germany, so I am always excited to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for my heritage. I continued this study in my literature course, which discussed the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Although the focus of the course was stories intended for children, the class explored the evolution of fairy tale stories through time and many cultures. The cultural and historical significance of these stories is complex and it was a fun and engaging way to discuss challenging historical issues in German and European culture. I’m not sure that I will be able to make studying abroad a part of my time at Ohio State, I intend to travel and explore more places and cultures during and after my time at Ohio State, and the knowledge that I gained through my studies and experiences in diverse environment will no doubt serve me in those adventures.
Original Inquiry: Starting in the Spring 2020 semester, I have been working as a Research Assistant in the Cardiopulmonary Behavioral Medicine Lab in the Psychology Department with principle investigator Dr. Charles Emery and graduate student Jake Landers. I have been involved in the Pain and Acetaminophen in Women Study (PAWS), which is investigating the effects of acetaminophen on inflammation and pain response with a specific focus on emotional pain. I have been trained to run participants, and I have been luck enough to be very hands on with this research. In my courses, I have learned about experimental design statistics in behavioral science, research methods in behavioral science, and I have been exposed to a wide variety of scientific literature. Some of the most exciting research that I have been exposed to has been in the Biological Psychiatry course that I am taking this semester. There are so many frontiers in the understanding of psychiatric illness and in developing new and more effective treatments. This course has exposed me to the newest ideas and paradigms of psychiatric research, and it has affirmed the career path that I intend to pursue.
Academic Excellence: Through all of my course work, but especially my honors courses, I feel that I have grown tremendously as a student while I have been at Ohio State. This semester is the first that I have taken almost exclusively honors course work, and I feel challenged and inspired by the content that I learning. Biological Psychiatry is a cross-listed course that both undergraduates and graduate students are able to take, which has exposed me to new levels of rigor. Graduate students give presentations throughout the course, and I have really enjoyed learning from my peers who are more advanced in their academic careers. Because I intend to pursue a graduate degree, the increased rigor of my honors course work makes me feel secure and know that I am preparing myself for the next phase of my education. The ability to work in smaller groups with faculty members has allowed for valuable and deeper intellectual engagement in my courses, which has been motivating and allowed for my connection to my studies.
Leadership Development: I have been fortunate enough to have multiple leadership opportunities in my time at Ohio State. In my role as a Psychology Student Ambassador this year, I have been able to grow as a leader and a professional. I was able to serve as a course assistant in the Transfer Student Survey course for new psychology majors this fall, serve as a representative of the department at our Career Fair, plan an event in conjunction with a faculty member, and participate in two professional development workshops. I have been and will continue to be a part of the executive board for the Psychology Club. My current position is as the Marketing Chair. In this role, I have been able to expand my communication skills and social media techniques. The leadership board works very closely together, so it has also given me a rich collaborative experience and improved my abilities to work as a cohesive team.
Service Engagement: As a Biological Sciences scholar, I have had the opportunity to give back to the Columbus community in diverse ways. I was able to prepare meals for the residents at the Huckleberry House, Faith Mission, and I have frequently participated in service at Wesley Glenn Retirement and Nursing Community. This past summer, I volunteered weekly at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. I had the privilege to visit patients receiving in-patient cancer treatment and deliver them comfort items and activities to make their stay more comfortable. I had many extremely rewarding moments being able to meet with and talk to patients, and I gained a lot of professional experience working with the hospital staff. I plan to return to this role this upcoming summer, and I look forward to being able to continue working with patients and the staff at UH.
Career
My current career goal is to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practioner. I am studying psychology for my undergraduate major, and I plan to apply to graduate-entry nursing programs and specialize in psychiatric care. I have been working towards this goal by completing prerequisite course work for graduate entry nursing programs such as anatomy, physiology, and nutrition to name a few. Starting in the spring 2o20 semester, I have been working in a Health Psychology lab at Ohio State with Principle Investigator Dr. Charles Emery. Working in the Cardiopulmonary Behavioral Medicine Lab has given me valuable experiences that highlight the connection between physical well-being and psychology. I have been lucky enough to volunteer at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio in the Seidman Cancer Center. Both of these experiences have exposed me to aspects of a career in Psychiatric Nursing, and I hope to continue both of these experiences in my next two years at Ohio State.
Here is a link to my resume, which provides more details about my work and volunteer experiences: OSU Resume
About Me
My name is Elise Spintzyk and I am from Painesville, Ohio in the Cleveland Area. I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with hopes to pursue a Graduate Entry Nursing Program to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. I had the opportunity to serve as a Psychology Student Ambassador for the 2019-2020 school year. I work as a Student Assistant in the Psychology Undergraduate Advising Office, which allows me to maintain the relationships I built in the department as an ambassador. In the Spring 2020 semester, I started working as a Research Assistant in the Cardiopulmonary Behavioral Medicine Lab under Principle Investigator Dr. Charles Emery. I have been working on the Pain and Acetaminophen in Women Study (PAWS) with graduate student Jake Landers. This year I have also served on the executive board for the Psychology Club as the Marketing Chair.