Students earn awards at psych convention
All four of the Bellevue University students presenting papers at the 32nd Annual Great Plains Psychology Convention received second-place awards. The convention was held March 9 - 10 on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO.
Noel Ramos presented his paper, Factors that Influence Christmas Celebration, in the Beliefs and Ideologies category, while Andrew Kellett presented The Effects of Media Imagery on Self-Esteem in the Media category. Richard Woznicki presented Profiling Intuition: Comparing System 1 Dominance with Vengeance and Big Five Traits in the Personality and Criminal Justice category and Kim Mackey, a 2011 graduate in Psychology and a current student in the Master of Science in Clinical Counseling program at Bellevue University, presented Negative Life Events and PTSD Symptomology: Insecure Attachment in Adulthood in the Graduate Student Session.
From left to right: Kim Mackey, Noel Ramos, Andrew Kellett and Rich Woznicki
Several other Bellevue University psychology students attended the conference, but did not present papers including Jill Davis, Leaha Estes, Josh Kaler, Bill King, Mark Pacheco and Susan Mayberry.
"I am so proud of our students," said Roxanne Sullivan, Professor of Psychology at Bellevue University. "We have never had 100-percent recognition of their research before. We tend to do well, but this year was special."
Woznicki, a 2001 graduate of Jefferson Township High School in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, enjoyed his experience despite some first-time jitters.
"This was a lot of firsts for me - first independent research project, first PowerPoint presentation, first conference, and heck, first time public speaking at all - I was quite happy with my second place result," he said. "I feel like I have a real leg up over psychology undergraduates from other schools. Dr. (Cleve) Evans and Dr. Sullivan are both knowledgeable and helpful, and are always willing to put their time and effort into helping their students succeed. I feel I will be very well prepared when I graduate this summer."
Ramos, a 2007 graduate of Omaha South High School who plans to attend medical school, said work on the papers and presentations began in the fall of 2011.
"A lot of time and hard work went into the presentations," he said. "We had to collect data, configure it into numerical answers, analyze it, interpret it, and then explain it in our own words. We also met during the break to work on our PowerPoint presentations and give a mock presentation in front of Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Evans. They gave us great feedback and were very helpful throughout the whole experience."
