Sydney
As we say, research comes in many flavors at Vanderbilt. Sometimes that research may involve topics that are more difficult for people to confront, such as researching diseases like cancer or Alzheimer’s, or conducting studies of prejudice or poverty among certain population. A lot of research involving mental health issues falls into this category. Sydney, who is a senior majoring in Psychology (with honors) and Creative Writing and minoring in Sociology, knows this all too well. She spent her summer at Vanderbilt studying a very tough topic. She says, “I am doing an honor’s thesis on gender differences in non-suicidal self-injury, which includes things like cutting, scratching, or self-battery”. Though the subject may be emotionally heavy, Sydney knows that this makes her research all the more important because her research leads to better practices to help people. When asked about how her research has influenced other aspects of her Vanderbilt experiences, she says, “I cofounded an organization here on campus that is geared towards psychological outreach. Doing research has allowed me to apply that research to my work. The group (called LEAPS) is based on educating and advocating for psychological support. Being able to work simultaneously in research and with the organization, I was able to do a lot more.”
Sydney has certainly done her share of research in the field. In addition to her thesis, which studied students at Vanderbilt University, she has also been conducting research that looks at media influences on self-injury behaviors. She says, “my research colleagues and I were asking, ‘how do movies, books, and TV influence someone’s emotional behavior?’ This was something that has always been interesting to me. We found no significant trends at Vanderbilt, so we then had to ask ourselves, ‘why is this not a trend here when it has been seen to be a trend in other, generally younger, populations?” She also has been working on a study that looks at eating disorders. On that study, Sydney says, “there is a lot of comorbidity between eating disorders and self-injury behaviors. I’m interested to see if maybe there are people that engage in less self-injury itself but show more eating disorder behaviors or people who have fewer eating disorder behaviors but more self-injury behaviors, and what trends look like for those who engage in only one or the other. As far as what I’ve read in the literature, there hasn’t been a ton of research that looks at them together, but I would argue they should be looked at together.”
After graduating, Sydney plans on taking a gap year to do research in psychology and then apply to graduate school. As someone who is young for her age, Sydney is not in a rush to finish graduate school. About this topic, she says, “as much as I could get into grad school and get through and be done, if I was a faculty member at a university, and someone in my position and situation applied, I would say to them, ‘you have two extra years that most people don’t have because of your age, why aren’t you doing something interesting with it?’“ She does plan on earning her Ph.D. in clinical psychology and studying intervention strategies. If all goes according to plan, she will also be using that creative writing degree. She says, “I am interested especially in art interventions with my interest in creative writing. I am a spoken work poet and so I’ve been able to cope with a lot of things through that, so I’d like to look into whether that can help people cope with stress and stressors.”
As for advice for younger students interested in research, Sydney says, “reach out to professors and talk to them about their interests. If you’re taking a class and you want to do research in the field, go to that professor and say, ‘hey I want to do research in this field, what do you recommend and who do you recommend I talk to?’ I was taking a class and I asked my professor; she said, ‘Reach out to these people!’ I did not know my current mentor prior to emailing him and saying, “I want to work with you!” I honestly didn’t hear back from him at first, and I went to that professor teaching my class and asked, ‘what should I do, should I email him again, should I follow up’ and she said, ‘yes, follow up.’ So, I did, and then that professor responded and said, ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t respond before, I’d like to meet with you.’ Now he is my mentor. Being able to talk to my professor and asking her where to go was really helpful. Reaching out to advisers, and more importantly, professors in the field you want to do research in; that is what you should do. Also, go to a department’s website and find people who do research you’re interested in. Email them. Ask them, ‘is there any way I can work in your lab? I’m trying to get into this research. I’m trying to gain experience, I’ll totally volunteer in your lab if I have to volunteer.’ A lot of the time the faculty here are really open to that, because if you’re going to put the effort in, they’re not going to say, ‘no, I’m not going to take your free work.'”