Majoring in Psychology

I have been planning on transferring to Granite State College since Spring 2012. I was accepted into the Bachelor in Behavioral Sciences Program. I did not graduate when I expected to and had to postpone my transfer until Winter 2012. When I graduated with my associates, I faced many difficult situations. The school I was transferring from was not cooperating and did not send my transcripts quick enough. Throughout the financial aid process I faced many issues and then found out it was not going to cover my tuition. Classes were scheduled to start within days of my receiving this information. I was even dropped from my classes. My GSC advisor, Becky, (who is absolutely amazing) worked with me daily on these issues. She supported me the entire way and ensured me it would work out and not to stress during the holidays. In the end, it worked out - I have started my classes as a Psychology Major and couldn't be happier! I am so grateful for my advisor as well as the staff in the Financial Aid department for helping me and guiding me through this extremely stressful time!

- Michelle

My teen daughter says that she "hates" science. She won't believe me when I tell her that, as Kurt Vonnegut said, "Science is magic that works."

I didn't like science that much when I was in high school either. I think it was because of all the memorizing and rules. It seemed so disjointed and unconnected to my life. It wasn't until I was older that I could appreciate the field better. It's all about the context really and it's too bad more teachers don't present it that way.

Because science is really just a way of figuring out the world, the universe, and life itself-- the mysteries of everything we know. It's like science is Sherlock Holmes and we're the less capable Dr. Watson who serve as simultaneous bystanders and assistants. When you think about it that way, it sounds so much more fun! This is how I started to try to make science more interesting for my daughter, and it does help that Robert Downey, Jr. has made Holmes more current, but she still didn't really buy it.

She is a huge fan of the Harry Potter series though, so I tried to draw a correlation between wizardry and science. Potions class is like Chemistry, Herbology is Botany, Quiddich employs physics, broomstick-flying involves understanding gravity, genetics can be explored to create three-headed dogs and giant spiders, inventing flying cars involves engineering, learning about space took place in Hogwarts' Astronomy Tower, and you can't study the Care of Magical Creatures without Zoology.

Photo credit: http://memoirmode.com

She's starting to come around a little, but I still have some convincing to do. It doesn't help that as a teen, she's naturally inclined to doubt most of what I say.

Eventually though, I hope to foster her curiosity about the world so she continues to want to learn beyond high school and into college. I want her to be personally invested in taking college classes, not just because it's the next step in her life, but because higher education, whether it's through taking weekend college classes in science or online college English classes, connects everything around us and enriches our life experiences. In addition to career advancement education, I want her to be inspired by the joy of learning itself.

Who knows? Maybe she'll eventually find the value in learning science and find herself majoring in psychology or astrophysics. Or maybe she'll find her passion by pursuing a Masters degree in Project Management or English Literature. Whatever path she decides to take, hopefully she'll see it as magical.

I recently had the audacity to make claim that Granite State College was my baby, and that I would never do anything to hurt it. But in all honesty, Granite State College gave birth to me. To the strong, independent, and intelligent person I have become. Before attending to get my undergraduate degree in psychology I was very timid. I was shy and did not voice my opinions much because I had no confidence in myself and my abilities. I never thought in a million years I would be able to jungle the life that I have now: full time worker, full time student, and full time mother. Granite State College ignited the spark inside me that was always there, waiting for it to be proven worthy. The feelings I went through I can only describe as when someone is so exhausted and freezing cold water is splashed on their face. The excitement you get when you are confident enough to voice your opinions and know that you are worthy. To stand up and declare for all that it is my time! The best thing about it is that no one ever held my hand. I did not take baby steps throughout my journey here. I was able to take control of my own college career. I chose the classes that interested me and fit my degree of my choosing. I chose whether I took them online or face to face. Not only can I say “I did it!” when I hold my degree in my hand, but I can also say proudly, “I made it happen!”. This has to be the best college for a psychology major, and all other majors because you are in control of your destiny- you are given the power to make it happen!

One of the most valuable things I got out of attending classes at Granite State College was from my fellow class mates. They ranged widely in age and background from me and each other. At both my night college classes and my weekend college classes, I was surrounded by a plethora of experience, knowledge, and unique perspectives in addition to what the instructor also offered.

I was able to give peer feedback to a lively, aspiring writer in his 60's who extended his own constructive feedback to me with grace, compassion, and wisdom attained from his life's journey as a middle school teacher, father, husband, and grandfather. I was given the opportunity to support a recent high school graduate majoring in Psychology who was even more scared and unsure about college life than I was. And I found support, myself, from others like me-- tired, single moms working hard all day long before attending part time evening college classes.

I remember sitting in the classrooms and looking around me and being very grateful for this exposure to people from all these different walks of life. And these people were still basically aiming for the same goal I was-- a quality education to fulfill my love for lifelong learning and the golden bonus of a continuing education degree at the end of it all as a New Hampshire graduate. Even though we were vastly different from each other we also had at least that one fundamental dream in common. And I stopped regretting not being able to go to college straight out of high school as I once envisioned, because I wouldn't have been able to experience all of those wonderful voices, young and old, that were only available to me through adult education courses at Granite State College.

 Remember that children's song?  Well, if you live in Somerville, Massachusetts, you don't have to clap your hands to show that you're happy.  Somerville (for those who aren't from New England, it sounds like "Summerville") officials, led by its major, Joseph A. Curtatone, thought it would be a good idea because they wanted to see whether projects like parks and bike paths have an effect on the happiness of people in the town.  

This is the kind of project that's perfect for a social psychology class.  (We have them online for adult education here at Granite State College.)  

Even learning how to put together a survey is an important skill.  We read all the time about how "surveys show" and "statistics show," but it helps to know that how you phrase a question can influence the answer you get.  

Oh, and did you know that Somerville is where Marshmallow Fluff was invented???

A colleague of mine, Dr. Claudia Stanny, who's a psychology professor at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida, was telling how, when she was in college, she didn't really know what to do when she "grew up."  At that college, she was required to take one psychology course for her general education requirements.  So she bought a little booklet with comments from students about the professors.  (These days, those lists are all online!)  

She was looking through the booklet and found this comment about one of the courses:  "...if you only take one psychology course here, take this one with this professor."  So she did.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  She changed her major to psychology and now is a professor.

How wonderful if every single person who ever takes a course - in high school, in college, online or in a classroom, could look back and recall that one special course!  

Inspiration is so important to human beings, and finding - sometimes stumbling across - something that changes your life...well, it might not get any better than that!

At Granite State College, we want every one of our students to have a life-changing experience.  We offer many different courses and areas of study.  You'll have an advisor who will guide you through required courses, courses in your major, and some extras.  If you're not sure what you want to do "when you grow up," your advisor can help you with looking at different areas that might interest you.

And maybe you'll be lucky enough to look back one day and say that your college experience changed your life!

Wow, summer sure did fly by! I can't believe that it's already almost time for fall semester to start. I don't know about you, but I had an eventful summer. I got married, moved into a new house, and went on a few really nice vacations.

Now that my summer off is almost over and fall is upon us it's time for me to start thinking about what classes I wanted to take for the fall semester at Granite State College. The Conway campus has some great classes to offer this fall, especially for my major: behavioral science. 

Living in the White Mountains means that during the fall, my two jobs are very busy and  it could be a challenge to also try to take classes. With the convenient evening college classes at the Conway NH college campus, I can make a schedule that really works for me. I also have a great advisor, who can help me figure out which courses will work best with my busy schedule. That's one of my favorite things about GSC: there is always someone there to help you throughout your education journey.

I'm going to take Art therapy, and Cognition and Learning this upcoming semester. Both are Psychology classes, and both seem really interesting. I'm not a great artist, but I love the challenge of taking a class that will teach me more about something I'm not the best at. I feel that's an important part of the college experience; to try to be challenged as often as possible. I think Cognition and Learning will help me build a better foundation to achieve my career in behavioral science. I can't wait to meet my new professors and new classmates. With one more month to go, I need to order my books and supplies. I love that you can order them directly from the Granite State College Website, it makes it so easy to be prepared for the first night of class.

I hope to see you on the Conway NH college campus in a few weeks :)

There must have been a time when livestock was expensive enough that it was currency unto itself, hence phrases like "bring home the bacon." I am pretty sure the term bucks came to mean dollars in the frontier days of the U.S for the same reason. There was probably an era, when prosperity and success in life in the developed world could be correlated to the amount of bacon a particular person ate, or at least had access to.

This however, is not the bacon I have in mind; instead, I am thinking of Kevin Bacon. In particular, I think that Kevin Bacon should get his own unit of measure, not shockingly called Bacons.

Let me back up: ever since 7th grade, I thought it would be the coolest thing to have my own unit of measure (after I took chemistry in 10th grade, I added that having my own chemical element would be awesome, too). The greatest names in science, as a tribute to their contributions to knowledge, were made synonymous with units of measure in their fields of endeavor. Some of the are familiar and heard every day, like Fahrenheit, or Newtons, if you've ever taken physics. There are dozens more, and they can get totally obscure, like angstroms, gauss, roentgens, farradays, etc. Since I changed my major in college from chemistry to psychology in my sophomore year, the odds of getting my own element or unit don't look good. Almost everyone else alive today won't get one either, but each of us can make a difference in the world with our Bacons.

The idea is to play off the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, so that your one-Bacons are the people immediately around you: family, friends, colleagues. The two-Bacons and beyond are somewhat harder to measure, but it could certainly be done. Focusing on the one-Bacons, I believe that the well-being of your one-Bacons is a direct measure of yourself. The best part about this is that everyone you've ever seen, spoken, or been around is one of your one-Bacons, and anyone that they've ever seen, spoken to, or been around is one of  your two-Bacons. Similarly, you could very well be a two-Bacon to two complete strangers, who turn out to be within four or five Bacons of each other....whoa, hang on... I'm dizzy.

This all hit me at the Granite State College Commencement ceremony a couple weekends ago. Even though I have been to a dozen graduation ceremonies before, both as a spectator and a graduate, I just realized a couple weeks ago that an elusive concept like success can be easily measured as your one-Bacons. Each speaker at Commencement, including GSC President Dr. Karol LaCroix, Governor John Lynch, and the faculty and student speakers, more or less made this point from different perspectives. When the students thanked their husbands and wives and children and families, they spoke volumes about being the one-Bacons of their family members. The award recipients basically said the same thing - that their personal achievements were possible only because they are the one-Bacons of their families and colleagues.

I also had a great day that Sunday on account of my one-Bacons. For the first graduation since I started here, I had a number of students graduate that "came in" with me, which is to say I was their advisor from their first day, to that Sunday where they graduated. My one-Bacons are everywhere, too. Some of them had been to multiple schools in the University of New Hampshire System, but finished at GSC. Others have a career for years, even decades, before deciding to finish with online classes for criminal justice.

All of this was huge for me, although to be fair, it's sort of rigged: each of my advisees who graduated are some of my one-Bacons, and it felt really good to have helped in the success and graduation of that many folks. The families and friends assembled that afternoon must have also been proud, so that my two-Bacons also had a great day.

Please know, this is not all about me, or about any one of us, individually. Instead, I think the true measure of the success of any one of us can be measured by our Bacons. Ask yourself, just as I do everyday (wait, that's not true; it's not every day, how about a few times a week):

How did I make my organization better today?
How did I make my spouse's/child's/friend's/neighbor's life better today?

Your one-Bacons (and two-Bacons and three-Bacons, and so on) can be your most trusted friends or total strangers on the bus, and any one of them or all of them can be vastly upgraded by the simplest or silliest things. And even though it's true that we have an opportunity to better ourselves by actively bettering the lot of our one-Bacons, it always helps to have a ceremony or event that broadcasts the betterment of your one-Bacons, like when a number of my students walked across that stage when their names were called at Commencement.

 No, actually, I'm not dealing with prejudice directed at students in my classroom or even students demonstrating that they're prejudiced.  Instead, in my Social Psychology class (an adult online class at Granite State College), we've been discussing prejudice on the Discussion Board.  (That's how you communicate with other students in an adult online course.)

Whenever people talk about prejudice, and insist that they're not prejudiced, they often pull out the "I don't care if people are white, black, purple or green" argument.  I always wince at the "purple or green" thing.  WHERE did that come from?  It's so trite, and I'm tired of it.  I suspect people think it's the ultimate in demonstrating their openmindedness to any color.  Okay, but I still think it's overused and thus has become meaningless and people use it stridently to convince others that they're not prejudiced.  Sadly, it's often followed by a "but" statement, thus negating what the person just said.  

In our adult online class though, I haven't yet heard the "purple or green" statement.  (Thank goodness!)  Instead, I've seen students thoughtfully dissect what goes into making people prejudiced, how it can be overcome, and many other considerations.  That's what makes a class such a delight to teach.  In this case, since it's an adult online class, I almost feel like I'm a part-time moderator, since the students so often take the ball and run with it.  We get into the most fascinating topics.  

One recent situation we discussed was the case of a sub shop owner in Philadelphia who placed a controversial sign in his shop.  (Jackie Savard, a student in the class, found the article and posted it on the Discussion Board.)  The sign reads: "This Is America. When Ordering Please Speak English." (http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jun/14/nation/na-cheesesteak14)

What an interesting discussion has resulted!  (As I write this, it's still going on, because each week's online session ends on Sunday night, and it's Saturday night as I write this.)  One student, Christina Fitzgibbons, pointed out that there is NO official language in the USA.  That surprised a lot of students.  (Me, too!)  Another student, Donna Downes, pointed out that if the people in the shop don't speak English, they won't be able to read the sign anyhow!!  But I'm guessing that people who don't speak English got the message that they weren't welcome.

Another student, Heather Keyworth (who, coincidentally, also has a blog at Granite State College's website) discussed how she had attended a workshop in NYC, because it dealt with her major, which is a "self-design major" (you can do that at Granite State College).  The workshop was run by The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), the group that hosted the PISAB workshop she attended in New York.   http://www.antiracistalliance.com/index.html .)  

Here's the thoughtful point she made...it made me want to go to one of those workshops to speed up my consciousness about racism:

"PISAB takes into consideration that white folks may be bumbling around out there unwittingly and unknowingly feeling negatively (implicit attitudes) toward people of color, and their workshop is designed to bring that to light and deal with it directly. Racism is our legacy; we were born into a system that began with the intentional and systematic oppression and segregation of people of color (slavery, Jim Crow, zoning, etc.). Whether we mean to be or not, whites are the beneficiaries of a system of power that was created at the expense of those of color. I remember a white woman at the workshop asked why a channel like BET (Black Entertainment Television) is not considered racist. She supported her claim by saying if there was a white channel, that would be considered racist. I've heard specious claims like this before, and so had the trainers in the workshop. One of them simply replied - but you DO have white channels... ABC, NBC, CBS... see her point?"

I'll bet there have been some very interesting chats "around the water cooler" at work as a result of this week's Discussion Board.  Well, they don't have many water coolers anymore, but I hope that chats where our students work are taking place, based on this week's discussions!