While earning my MS in HDFS, MFT I also participated in research, was the Harmon College and the UCM Outstanding Graduate Student for 2020, and gave the future leader commencement speech for the graduate graduating classes of 2020.
UCMO Awards & Other Experiences
Transcript
Hello. I wasn’t at all sure we were going to get to experience having a graduation day this year. I’m glad we are, because I know how hard we’ve worked for this. From my fellow students, who I can commiserate with about late nights studying and midnight submissions, to the staff and faculty who have been so supportive.
Five years ago today, I was 30 years old and was very nervous because I had just decided that I would be starting college for the first time the following year. Today, that feels a world away and I get to be nervous about standing here. Which is just amazing- because me-from-five-years-ago would be shocked.
Out of the last five years, this year especially has been so stressful. Both because of being a graduate student and graduating- while also being overshadowed by experiences with important social justice issues in our world and a collective trauma event in the form of the pandemic. It’s been an especially hard year.
Not that graduate school is ever easy. But this year has been an experience. For me it’s been an experience that has helped reaffirm why I chose to attend a graduate program here at the University of Central Missouri and why I’ve chosen to continue learning in a PhD program right now.
My clinical and research focus is on trauma and adverse stress experiences. There are few things that bring into clarity just how important a career focus is like personally living through a collective experience of it. Knowing first hand what that feels like and being able to look around and see the same effects in the experiences of everyone around me.
As a result, I know I am doing something very important with the education I got here in Human Development and Family Science and Marriage and Family Therapy. Because of my education here at the University of Central Missouri, I get to be another therapist who is able to help people, right now, during this collective trauma and that is an amazing feeling.
I am excited about both my present and my future as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and I am very excited that this day - the day we get to celebrate being 2020 University of Central Missouri Graduate Program Graduates - is here.
Congratulations everyone.
Hello. I wasn’t at all sure we were going to get to experience having a graduation day this year. I’m glad we are, because I know how hard we’ve worked for this. From my fellow students, who I can commiserate with about late nights studying and midnight submissions, to the staff and faculty who have been so supportive.
Five years ago today, I was 30 years old and was very nervous because I had just decided that I would be starting college for the first time the following year. Today, that feels a world away and I get to be nervous about standing here. Which is just amazing- because me-from-five-years-ago would be shocked.
Out of the last five years, this year especially has been so stressful. Both because of being a graduate student and graduating- while also being overshadowed by experiences with important social justice issues in our world and a collective trauma event in the form of the pandemic. It’s been an especially hard year.
Not that graduate school is ever easy. But this year has been an experience. For me it’s been an experience that has helped reaffirm why I chose to attend a graduate program here at the University of Central Missouri and why I’ve chosen to continue learning in a PhD program right now.
My clinical and research focus is on trauma and adverse stress experiences. There are few things that bring into clarity just how important a career focus is like personally living through a collective experience of it. Knowing first hand what that feels like and being able to look around and see the same effects in the experiences of everyone around me.
As a result, I know I am doing something very important with the education I got here in Human Development and Family Science and Marriage and Family Therapy. Because of my education here at the University of Central Missouri, I get to be another therapist who is able to help people, right now, during this collective trauma and that is an amazing feeling.
I am excited about both my present and my future as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and I am very excited that this day - the day we get to celebrate being 2020 University of Central Missouri Graduate Program Graduates - is here.
Congratulations everyone.