Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Student Highlight: Congrats to Landhing!

Landhing Moran, a 6th year student in the experimental psychology doctoral program, was awarded one of ten 2012-2013 dissertation fellowships that are given by USC’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), a huge accomplishment. The fellowship fully funds her stipend and provides a little extra to complete research for her dissertation… congrats Landhing! The fellowship is awarded annually: http://www.artsandsciences.sc.edu/handbook/sites/default/files/pdf/fellowship_diss_memo_8-21-12.pdf
I sat down with Landhing at Immaculate Consumption to have coffee/lunch and she told me a bit about her work and the paths she’s taken before and during graduate school to end up doing what she’s doing today. Before talking with her, the research world within the experimental program was largely a mystery to me. Well, really a complete mystery. Where are these animals being kept that must be used in the animal research?For that matter, where are the students and faculty working with them? [Answer: the basement of Barnwell is apparently home to a truly diverse array of life forms.]

Landhing studies the cognitive abilities of HIV-infected rats, including what they can they learn and remember, and whether phytoestrogens protect neurological cells against the harmful effects of the HIV virus. [From Wikipedia: phytoestrogens are plant-derived xenoestrogens functioning as the primary femalesex hormone not generated within the endocrine system but consumed by eating phytoestrogenic plants… so female sex-hormones derived from plants rather than endogenously.] Landhing’s particular interests lie in the cognitive piece of the puzzle, and her primary mentor is Dr. Charlie Mactutus.

To start more at her beginning, Landhing grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and told me that her first name is Chinese. Interesting fact: Landhing’s mother is also named “Landhing”, and Landhing’s father and brother also share the same first name. “This is particularly problematic at doctor appointments,” said Landhing with the matter-of-fact tone that you’d expect from a training scientist who spends her days controlling, observing, and quantifying. Landhing said she always liked science and enjoyed biology in high school. When she learned that her undergraduate alma mater, the College of Notre Dame in Maryland, had a biopsychology program, she majored in it and then began working for NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). She interviewed people about drug use as part of a methadone treatment study; she ended up wanting to work with animals after accepting that human confounds could not be well-enough controlled to meet the needs of her substantive interests (e.g. humans can lie about drug use, lab animals can’t).

Landhing started the experimental psychology doctoral program at USC during the fall season of 2007; she has been building a strong foundation for her research ever since, which made her competitive in winning the CAS dissertation fellowship. So, what does she do day-to-day now that she has this great award and the increased how-you-choose-to-spend-your-graduate-time freedom that can come with it? Well, you might have guessed that she works really really hard and is therefore on track to finish her dissertation work in the spring of 2013, and will start applying for postdocs in the meantime . Down in the basement for her dissertation work, she has 24 operant chambers that she uses for experimentation with her sample of 84 rattusnorvegicus subjects. [If you recently took Learning and Motivation with Steven Harrod, this should be easier to visualize.] She’s on her feet a lot and does nearly all of the work herself, sometimes all day, 7 days a week for weeks on end. She sorts through the data and listens to music while she waits for the animals to learn and react, with Band of Horses being one of her staples over the last few months.In her free time she also likes to draw, particularly drawing people; the last thing she attempted was an anatomically accurate hand [Landhing let’s see it when you’re happy with it!]. She is also a fan of http://whatshouldwecallgradschool.tumblr.com/… sincerest thanks for adding this to my life.

In terms of the Dissertation Fellowship logistics, Landhing applied in April 2012 and was notified that she’d been chosen for the award in May 2012. This is an amazingly quick turnaround by any standards. Students within each department typically talk to their primary mentors and program director or department chair about their desire to apply. There is no limit on how many students can be nominated from a department or program, but nominations are ranked if there is more than one. Students basically apply to the department first, the department then ranks nominations, and those students’ applications are then forwarded to CAS. “It was less work than I thought it would be,” said Landhing. She said it was only a few pages that needed to be submitted. After winning the fellowship she quickly received a lump sum for the year to fund her stipend. In terms of getting the award, “it’s important that you show that you will be working on your dissertation during the period that you’re going to be awarded,” she said. Within the past year, she’s also gotten to travel to Honolulu and New Orleans for conferences. Those neuroscientists sure know how to pick em’.

Landhing is happy to talk to any students who are considering applying for the award- do not hesitate to contact her at moranl[at]email[dot]sc[dot]edu.

[Interview and article compiled by Sandra Coulon]

Friday, November 2, 2012

Grad Student Event Today! Promises Ice Cream & Beautiful Weather

From the President of the GSA:

Graduate and Professional Students,

Don’t forget to join us today anytime from 4:30-7:00 PM for Grad Student Outdoor Day at the Triangle Plaza at USC! There will be complimentary Marble Slab Ice Cream, good music, and the infamous USC high ropes/challenge course will be open to all students who dare to try it out (please note, the high ropes/challenge course is available to USC students only). We encourage you to bring your spouses, special guests, family, and friends for what is always a great event!

Please see the attached map for directions to the Triangle Plaza (behind the Blatt P.E. Center).

Like us on Facebook (facebook.com/uscgsa) and follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/uscgsa)!

Sincerely,
Andrew Dorsey

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Student Forum with Mark Weist

Students in the Clinical-Community program met with Program Director, Dr. Mark Weist on October 16 during a student forum. It was a well-attended event, filled with great dialouge between Mark and the present students. Mark left the forum open to any updates, recommendations or questions from the students. He also presented several updates from the faculty side. Here are a few highlights:
  • A team of faculty and clinical leaders ared focusing on enhancing the Psychological Services Center. This includes hiring a new PSC director and restructuring the PSC to include more outreach opportunities. Hiring of the PSC director should be announced within coming weeks.
  • Both Mark and present students discussed strategies for navigating what was referred to as "the fork in the road", or times when students need to make decisions about how to structure their education with their career goals in mind. Some recommendations included earlier guidance on how to structure classes depending on whether the student is more clinical or community oriented as well as whether the student is more research or practice focused.
  • It was noted that faculty were tremendously responsive to requests for class scheduling changes. Mark stated that this will continue to happen in future semesters, and that the faculty are working on ways to enhance the structure of course scheduling.
  • It is possible that developmental psych. could be extended from a 2 credit module to a 3 credit course.
  • There was a recommendation for enhanced clarity around course waivers (e.g., waivers for students who came into school with graduate training).
Questions? Comments? Feel free to post on the blog or contact your PGSA reps!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Student Athletes

On a beautiful Autumn afternoon in South Carolina, a group of psychology graduate students decided to take a break from the reading, writing, and grading that is graduate school to play some wiffle ball!!

Sandra crushes the ball to center field. 
On October 13th psychology grad students Alycia Roberts, Bryn Schiele, and Matthew Facciani ran the Ray Tanner 12K Home Run race :) Cory Tonnsen, the husband of school psychology student, Bridgette Tonnsen, also ran! Bryn and Matthew placed 2nd and 3rd respectively for their age groups!

Bryn, Matt, and Alycia sport their racing medals. 

Friday, September 7, 2012

See you tonight!

Looking forward to seeing you tonight at Jillian's, 800 Gervais Street (corner of Gervais and Gadsen, about 8 blocks from Barnwell), 6pm-til. So that means that sadly Vista Commons is no longer feasible, but maybe some other time it will work out.

Jillian's has games (pool, ping pong, air hockey, maybe others?) so bring some $1s or quarters to play. They also have $3.99 appetizers until 7pm- PGSA will be buying some to share- and happy hour specials. See the menu here: http://jillianscolumbia.com/

Parking may be a bit of pain but you can usually find something within 4 blocks or so (sometimes parking on Assembly and just walking down Gervais is easiest). Arriving earlier rather than later will make things easier too.

Please text/call your friends to tell them about the location change in case they don't check their email. So sorry for any inconvenience, maybe this will be the break you needed from having to prepare a potluck dish :). We will also put a sign up at Vista Commons re-directing people in case they don't get this message.

---- PGSA

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Back-to-School Party!

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a RELAXING stress-free summer and are ready to hit the books this Fall semester.  PGSA is hosting a “Back to School” party to welcome in the new semester before classes get too demanding!  


So, grab your calendars, planners, smart phones, or I-pads and get ready to jot down the following time: Friday, September 7th from 6:00-til.  The venue, depending on cooperating weather conditions, will be poolside at the Vista Commons (1100 Pulaski Street Columbia, SC 29201).  We plan on grilling and having a good ol’ fashioned potluck style event, so please bring a dish, chips, or dessert to share with others!  You can just park on the street outside of the gate to the complex and there will be signs guiding you in. Also, BYOB and please NO GLASS bottles.  We are looking forward to seeing y’all at the party and having a great time!



Note:  If the weather is not suitable for outdoor activities, we plan on moving the party indoors at Liberty Tap Room.


Feel free to bring your swimmies and have a great start to the semester!

- Jessi and the PGSA

Monday, August 27, 2012

Meet the new PGSA Officers!!

President- Sandra Coulon is a 5th year student in the clinical-community program and is happy to be serving as PGSA president. She works with Dr. Dawn Wilson doing health psych research related to stress and cardiovascular health. Her somewhat neglected hobbies are searching for vintage and odd treasures, eBay commerce, and befriending large wooden gnomes.

Vice President- Matthew Facciani is a 2nd year experimental psychology PhD student and is the vice president of PGSA. He works with Dr. Shinkareva doing neural decoding research via fMRI. He is currently working on the neural representations of affect and mental imagery. His hobbies include activism, traveling, running, sports, video games, and being a goofball.




Treasurer- Bryn Schiele is a second year School Psychology student and is the treasurer of PGSA. She works on the School Mental Health team under Dr. Mark Weist studying evidence-based practices, family involvement and quality of youth mental health services. Bryn is particularly interested in the identification and treatment of individuals with internalizing disorders in the schools. Additionally, she is interested in integration of physical and mental health services in the schools, as well as how physical health behaviors can both prevent and treat mental health difficulties. In her spare time, Bryn loves to be active, by running, dancing and swimming, as well as to travel and spend time with her puppy.



Social Chair- Jessi Scherr is a second year School Psychology student and is the social chair of PGSA. She is originally from Jamestown, North Dakota, which is home to the world’s largest buffalo (sadly not a living buffalo, but a statue of a buffalo). She is currently working in a Neurodevelopmental Disorders Lab under Dr. Roberts and learning about the many aspects of the development of children with Autism and Fragile X Disorder including attention, physiological arousal, language, behavior regulation, and social interactions. In her spare time, she loves to be active and partake in activities such as swimming, hiking, and traveling. Jessi also enjoys her attempts at cooking and painting, which both have yet to be perfected!


Secretary- Kassy Alia is a third year student in the Clinical Community program and is excited to be serving as secretary this year. She works with Dr Dawn Wilson doing research related to environmental determinants of obesity and obesity-related health behaviors. She is also very interested in community based obesity and chronic disease prevention programs. She loves spending time with her husband Greg and is a proud dog momma to Josey (a mastiff), Peaches (a hot dog mix), and Tara (a Chihuahua). She also loves cooking/eating/talking about food, being outdoors and reading when she gets a chance.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Grad student publications

Just a sampling of pubs from grad students in our department this year... great job, everyone! Keep 'em coming!

--

Decker, S. L., Englund, J. A., & Albritton, K. (2011). Integrating multi-tiered measurement outcomes for special education eligibility with sequential decision-making methodology. Psychology in the Schools

Roberts, J.E., Miranda, M., Boccia, M., Magruder, H., Tonnsen, B. L., & Hatton, D. D. (2011). Treatment effects of stimulant medication in young boys with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 3, 175-84.

Roberts, J. E., Tonnsen, B. L., Robinson, A. R., & Shrinkareva, S. (in press). Heart activity and  autistic behavior in toddlers with fragile X syndrome. American Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Decker, S. L., Englund, J. A., Carboni, J. A., & Brooks, J. H. (2011). Cognitive and developmental influences in visual-motor integration skills in young children (Brief Report). Psychological Assessment.

Palomares, M., Englund, J. A., & Ahlers, S. (2011). Patterns and trajectories in Williams Syndrome:  the case of visual orientation discrimination. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32(3), 1021-1029.

Decker, S. L., Englund, J. A., & Roberts, A. M. (2011). Intellectual and neuropsychological assessment of individuals with physical and sensory disabilities and traumatic brain injury. In Flanagan, D. P., & Harrison, P. L. (Eds.) Contemporary Intellectual Assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.

Decker, S. L., Carboni, J. A., & Englund, J. A. (2010). Assessing visual-spatial and construction skills in a pediatric population. In Davis, A. S. (Ed.) Handbook of Pediatric Neuropsychology. New York: Springer Publishing.

Kitzman-Ulrich, H., Wilson, D.K., St. George, S.M., Peterson, M.S., Schneider, E., & Kugler, K. (2011). A preliminary test of a motivational and parenting weight loss program targeting low-income and minority adolescents. Childhood Obesity, 7, 379-384.

Cooper, S.M., Brown, C.L. & Metzger, I. (in press). Racial discrimination and African American adolescents’ adjustment: Gender variation in family and community social support protective factors. Journal of Child and Family Studies.

Guthrie, B.J., Cooper, S. M., Brown, C.L., & Metzger, I. (in press). Shades of difference: Health profiles among girls of color in the juvenile justice system. Journal of Health Care  for the Poor and Underserved. 


Englund, J. A. (July, 2011). Breaking through to teens: A book review. South Carolina Association of School Psychologists: School Psych Scene, 44(6), 1-4.