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Outstanding Field Placement Award
This award is given to students who distinguish themselves on the basis of their commitment, use of psychological theory, and professional performance.
2009 Award Recipients
- Elizabeth Berke
- Whitney Smiley
Past Award Recipients
2008
2007
- Jessica Schudda is completing a field placement at Camp Horizons in which she works with two other students to organize and develop training materials for employability skills training. She is also participating in leading portions of a conference for Student Government Association leaders from Job Corps Centers around the country. Jess displays a high level of commitment to her placement and the projects and activities related to it, and she regularly applies previous knowledge and skills to her work. In addition to her academic work, Jess has served as an orientation program assistant, a first year orientation guide, and participated in multiple alternative spring break trips.
- Erin S. Peacock completed a two-semester field placement at Children’s Services of Virginia, Inc., a private agency that provides treatment foster care and counseling services to children and families. She has contributed to the agency in many ways. During her first semester she worked closely with a sibling group of five boys ranging in age from an infant to a 7-year-old. She was able to assist them from the intake and throughout the semester, learning about all the services offered by the agency. Erin also learned to write progress reports and assisted with documentation. This semester, Erin has concentrated upon foster parent training, designing her own training module on self-inflicted injury and how foster parents should respond. She has offered the training to foster parents in several locations. Erin has approached all tasks with enthusiasm and is described by her supervisor as “an exemplary intern.” Next year Erin will join Teach for America program in New York City and start her Master’s in Education courses at Pace University. She plans a career in social work, specializing in foster care.
2006
- Elizabeth Stranzl completed a two-semester field placement at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents, an inpatient hospital for children and youth with serious and severe emotional and behavioral difficulties. Elizabeth has made significant additions to the unit programs by creating a character-building group for children and teens. She creates activities designed to impact skills and improve relationships in the areas of fairness, citizenship, responsibility, caring, respect and trustworthiness. The group has examined current events, diversity awareness, family issues, personal goals, positive self-expression, social skills, and stress management. Each unit of activities has been preserved for CCCA staff in an activities notebook. The most impressive aspect of Ms. Stranzl, however, is not the group curricula she designs, but her relationships with the children and youth. Her on-site supervisor notes Ms. Stranzl’s exceptional interpersonal skills and her ability to handle difficult situations. Since CCCA is a short-term care facility, relating to the youth is compounded by the steady number of new children and the rapid discharge of those who are improved. Ms. Stranzl has adapted to this challenging atmosphere and provides caring, structure, support, and growth to children and youth through the groups and informal contacts. Elizabeth aspires to become a clinical psychologist.
- Carson Walker completed a two-semester field placement at Pilgram’s Pride where she produced culture reports and created a Diversity Toolkit, a set of training sessions on diversity issues. She has worked on research projects with Drs Serdikoff and Barron in Psychology and Ms Karr at the Counseling and Student Development Center . She is currently working with Dr. Barron on her honors thesis. She is a member of the Psychology Department Student Advisory Committee. Carson hopes to get a job in a consulting firm next year and then go to graduate school in I/O psychology after she completes one or two years of work experience. She is also considering psychology research positions for next year. She hopes to take her senior honors thesis overseas (hopefully to Korea, Singapore, or Japan) to collect data for comparison to the American sample.
2005
- Jessica Begley – Jessica is a Peer Advisor, Student Ambassador, and member of the Relay for Life Executive Board. She is also a trained member of Campus Assault Response (CARE), an Outrigger Peer Educator and a Eucharistic Minister for Catholic Campus Ministries at JMU. Jess has taken two independent study courses, assisting Dr. Bill Evans in studying the feasibility of an interdisciplinary leadership studies minor and creating potential courses for this minor. She also participated in an I/O Field Placement at Camp Horizons and is a Gold member of Psi Chi.
- Amy Hess – Amy is a psychology major with a minor in family studies. She is currently the Secretary of the JMU chapter of Psi Chi, and has served as a member of the Psychology Advisory Committee since the Fall 2003. In addition to being active in Psi Chi, Amy is also a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the JMU Psychology Club. She has worked with Dr. Ashton Trice, examining children’s’ perceptions of lying. She also completed a field placement and directed study at Children’s Services of Virginia, and worked at the University of North Carolina Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institution . In 2002, she completed 50 hours in the MS Walk and in 2004, she was a volunteer with Generations Crossing.
2004
- Heather Adams
- Erin Cundiff
- Mary Iampietro
- Christina Leone
2003
- M. Kathleen Holmes
- Elizabeth Ruff
- Lisa Thomasson
2002
- Kelly Bolger
- Brenna Doyle
- Melanie Hickman
