Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
Finding What You Want by Emily Lund

By virtue of scheduling difficulties, I had two sections of my seminar one semester, and one section had only one student. Because my seminar was technically for students in psychology and human services internships, my discussions of graduate school and careers with students typically revolved around psychology, social work, counseling, and related fields. However, upon talking to this student, it quickly become apparent that her initial interest was more deeply grounded in medicine than psychology. Luckily, I had some background in biomedicine, including a position in a biomedical research lab, and some general knowledge of medical school admissions. The flexibility inherent in having only one student allowed me to complete change the seminar curriculum to fit her needs, so I did just that. I had my biomedical research mentor come in to talk about his background, as a psychology major who became a psychopharmaceutical researcher. Later, I arranged a tour of his lab and also had an emergency room physician come in to discuss has career. I researched the MCAT and MD/PhD programs, and we discussed those as we also went through the timeline of the medical school application process and ways to prepare. However, as the seminar went on, it became apparent that as strong the student's interest in medicine and biology was, her interest in psychology was far from insignificant. Accordingly, as the semester drew to a close, we begin to discuss the more "biological" sides of psychology, including clinical neuropsychology (the study of treatment of brain injuries, epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and other related conditions), and I told her about opportunities for neuropsychology research in the department. When I saw the student a few semesters later, she was happily involved in neuropsychology research, having seemingly found her "niche."

Overall, this experience greatly impressed upon my the importance of being flexible and attentive to students' individual interests and goals. It also demonstrated the importance of having a broad knowledge base and varied connections as well as the ability to build on and creatively utilize that knowledge as needed in order to help guide students told their own personal area of "best fit."

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