It’s been an amazing first year of college on so many levels. I adjusted to living in a new state on my own and I can’t wait to go back! I made three best friends in my roommates and Kuwait is my new favorite Arabic country.

In terms of my academics, I finally figured out what I want to do with my life! I’m officially a psychology major and my goals are to study language acquisition and become a professor. I’ll end up getting at least one minor in Italian, and possibly a second in linguistics.

This year, I joined the honors program in addition to Biological Sciences Scholars. I got into the Psychology Research Mentorship Program, which provides a more structured environment through which I can complete a thesis and present at different fora over the next few years. This summer, I’m going to be doing an internship in the Language and Music Cognition Lab at UMCP to get my feet wet. Then, starting next semester, for my thesis I will have a research position in the Language Perception Lab at OSU doing my dream research on word learning!

I also got inducted into the best academic honor fraternity out there, Phi Sigma Pi! I never thought I would do Greek life before I went to college, but joining them was the best decision I could have ever made.

So, I know that was long, but a lot of amazing things have happened to me this year! All in all, life is great. I can’t wait for next year to begin!