I am a graduate student in psychology and currently live in Ponte
Vedra Beach, Florida. I found psychology in a high school course,
and it became something more specific in a class on
child development at Flagler College, where I spent four years
studying psychology with a minor in criminology. That pulled me
into two internships in child development: one at a clinic,
assisting with IEP evaluations and observing behavioral, speech,
and language assessments, and the other working alongside a school
psychologist supporting students’ academic and emotional
needs. Development is the foundation everything else gets built on,
and when it slows or breaks down, whether because of environment,
biology, or the world a child is raised in, I want to be one of the
people working to catch it early. Right now that concern points
squarely at social media: kids are losing the everyday skill of
connecting with other people, and some are learning to type before
they learn to write. I think something similar is starting with AI,
a genuinely useful tool that, used carelessly, can quietly take the
thinking out of thinking for ourselves.
Right now I am completing a Master of Science in General Psychology
at Nova Southeastern University while interning at a counseling
practice in Saint Augustine, working alongside a diverse group of
therapists. Outside of that I volunteer across several fronts: as a
victim advocate for survivors of sexual assault, a support group
facilitator for people whose family members live with mental
illness, a crisis counselor on a text-based crisis hotline, and a
youth advisory council member working to reduce the stigma around
mental health conditions. Alongside all of that, I am building
Inner Me, a journaling and wellbeing app grounded in cognitive
behavioral therapy and positive psychology, and writing my
master’s thesis, which I hope to get published.
My long-term goal is to become a clinical psychologist working with
children, adolescents, and families. I want to go beyond talk
therapy: conducting clinical assessments and using that work to
support children’s and adolescents’ development and
mental health directly, and helping families come together and
grow along the way.
