Archives for June 2019

A Letter from the Founding Members

As the founding Editors of OPUS, we are so pleased to see the exceptional efforts of the Applied Psychology Undergraduate Program continue to prosper. When the inaugural team came together in 2009 we aimed to foster student collaboration and create an enriching community of scholarly pursuits. We hoped to make psychology accessible to a wide range of audiences, to amplify undergraduate student perspectives in their training in the practice and application of psychology, and to bolster professional collaboration between undergraduate students and faculty mentors. These aims, of course, are continuous. Our hope for OPUS is that it will continue to represent increasingly intersectional, diverse, and global perspectives on the applications of psychology in the service of social change, to deepen friendship and fellowship amongst students, and to bolster professional development and creativity. We are proud of the OPUS team at-large for investing in this endeavor, and grateful to the faculty mentors for their steadfast support and guidance.

As the British psychoanalyst, D.W. Winnicott (1990) said, “Home is where we start from.” Indeed, APUG provided OPUS—and us—a home from which we started. We have since made our way across the globe, carrying our passion for applied psychology in tow. We are certain the OPUS staff and readership for years to come will carry on in our footsteps and create new pathways for others to follow. Read on for an update on our journeys over the past decade.

After graduation, Vanessa attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 2016. She is an applied developmental health psychologist with a focus on the reduction of racial/ethnic health disparities through critical psychological and social justice lenses. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Ursinus College. In August 2019, she will begin an Assistant Professorship at North Carolina State University as a member of their Applied Social and Community Psychology program.

Following completing the APUG Honors program, Jackson went on tocomplete a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University in 2016. As a first-year doctoral student, he was selected for the Health Professions Scholarship Program and commissioned as an officer in the US Navy. He is currently stationed at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD where he serves as a staff psychologist at the Midshipmen Development Center. He also instructs a graduate course in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Learning at George Washington University, and serves as a consultant for Little Bee Books, a children’s book company based in NYC.

After APUG, Sibyl went on to pursue a graduate degree in Guidance Counseling and remained in the NYU Applied Psychology Department. During her graduate program, she worked as guidance counseling intern with high school students in the South Bronx and at an Alternate Learning Center for middle school students in East Harlem. At the same time, she worked on several research projects, both in the Applied Psychology department and at the

NYU Child Study Center. After completing her graduate degree, Sibyl moved to Boston to work on research projects at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has had the pleasure and privilege of contributing to multiple longitudinal studies that have looked at multi-tiered reading interventions for students in elementary and middle school (Catalyzing Comprehension through Discussion and Debate) as well as understanding the long-term benefits of pre-k in BPS students (Expanding Children’s Early Learning).

 

Click here to return to the Spring 2019 Issue Contents page.

Rachel Lim – Editor-In-Chief (r.lim@nyu.edu)

Rachel Lim is a senior in the Applied Psychology undergraduate program. She is a member of the Latino Family Engagement and Language Development (L-FELD) research team, where she has the opportunity to work with teachers and children in early childhood classrooms in New York City. In her time at NYU, Rachel has gained various research experiences. As a past extern at NYU FTRG, she coded videos of teen relationship interactions to examine patterns of dominance and coercion. Rachel was also an intern at the NYU Child Study Center where she was involved in the development of research protocols for gaining normative and clinical data through Internet-based research methods. Rachel’s research interests primarily lie in early childhood education and developmental psychology. Currently, she is pursuing an Honors thesis on teachers’ instructional support in early childhood classrooms and its implications for children’s learning.  

 

Alexa Montemayor – Editor-In-Chief (am7129@nyu.edu)

Alexa Montemayor is a senior in the Applied Psychology undergraduate program with a minor in Sociology. She is a research assistant on the RISE (Researching Inequity in Society Ecologically) team, led by Dr. Shabnam Javdani and Dr. Sukhmani Singh. As a part of the RISE team, Alexa is also a member of the ROSES (Resilience, Opportunity, Safety, Education, Strength) data collection team, a community-based program that is being implemented and evaluated as a part of a New York University study. The goal of the ROSES study is to learn more about the needs of girls who are at-risk for involvement or are involved with the juvenile justice system and to understand how the system can better work for these individuals. Alexa recently joined the additional Phase 1 project on ROSES, where she is creating a qualitative coding scheme to identify common themes in juvenile justice system stakeholders’ perceptions of the legal system in New York City and the way that girls interact with the system. Alexa is also a volunteer at Bellevue Hospital where she routinely screens children and adolescents in the psychiatry department. Alexa hopes to continue her work in social justice and is pursuing a masters degree in social work.

 

Khirad Siddiqui – Editor-In-Chief (khirad.siddiqui@nyu.edu)

Khirad Siddiqui is a senior in the Applied Psychology undergraduate program, and is currently an Editor-in-Chief of OPUS. Her primary research interests are in discrimination, criminal justice, and prison reform. She began her research with the Fair Housing Justice Center on a project about housing discrimination against Muslim-Americans, and then transitioned to a role on the NYU Publicolor/PaintClub team to research an intervention in schools around New York. She has been working as a Juvenile Justice Advocate with the R.O.S.E.S. research team for the past year, which has allowed her the privilege of working directly with girls who are involved in the juvenile justice system. Currently, she is pursuing an Honors thesis on the justifications that parents give for filing legal petitions against their children. She also serves as the President of the Applied Psychology Undergraduate Club and works on-campus as a Presidential Intern at NYU.

 

Kerry Luo – Contributing Writer (kl2563@nyu.edu)

Kerry Luo is a senior in the Applied Psychology program with a Creative Writing minor. She has been on L-FELD for one year transcribing data, conducting direct child assessments, and volunteering in lower elementary classrooms. Over the past three years, she has worked directly with youth in a variety of settings such as correctional facilities, creative writing workshops, and afterschool programs. Kerry is interested in how the school setting influences socioemotional development for multicultural populations and wants to focus her career on culturally competent mental health care and advocacy for children and adolescents.

 

Ellie Harrison – Senior Staff Writer (egh268@nyu.edu)

Ellie Harrison is a senior in the applied psychology department, minoring in education and animal studies. She currently works as a therapeutic horseback riding instructor with GallopNYC and an advocate with NYU’s ROSES advocacy program for juvenile justice involved girls. She is also president of NYU Psi Chi, the international honors society of psychology. Next year, she will be teaching special education in New York City public schools through Teach for America.

 

Shira Richards-Rachlin – Contributing Writer (srr400@nyu.edu)

Shira Richards-Rachlin is a senior in the Applied Psychology program. Her fieldwork at Kurtz Psychology as well as internships at the Child Study Center and the Child Mind Institute have exposed her to multiple clinical settings treating children with Selective Mutism, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, and more. Shira is looking forward to attending graduate school for social work in order to broaden her clinical lens, and she hopes to one day work at Bellevue Hospital assessing and diagnosing children in the emergency room.

 

Anastasia Knight – Senior Staff Writer (afk307@nyu.edu)

Anastasia Knight is a senior at NYU studying Applied Psychology. Currently, she is an advocate on NYU ROSES, advocating for system-involved girls to assist them in accessing their resources and challenging negative narratives. She has also interned with The Fortune Society, an organization based in Long Island City which provides formerly incarcerated individuals with access to job training, education, employment opportunities, meals, ATI programs, and more. In the future, she is interested in pursuing policy consulting, in hopes of making a difference in how businesses and local governments navigate inclusion and accessibility.

 

Alyce Cho – Communication Director (ac5843@nyu.edu)

Alyce Cho is a senior in the Applied Psychology program with a minor in Sociology. Her primary area of interest is in child development and special education. Currently, she is a research assistant at CRCDE, exploring spatial skills of Korean and U.S. Children, as well as child and parent interaction in play. She plans to pursue her interests in special education by furthering her education in special education law.

 

Click here to return to the Fall 2018 Issue Contents page.