Teaching is one of my favorite opportunities that I have as a doctoral student. This summer I taught a course Social Psychology for the first time. I really enjoyed the experience as Social Psych is one of my favorite areas of Psychology, and there are so many fun activities than can be incorporated into the discussion. It was also nice having a smaller class than I usually teach during the regular year. Now, I’m making preparations to teach two sections of Developmental Psychology in the fall. I’m thrilled to be able to gain valuable experience in such a wide variety of courses while doing something that I love.

We recently published an article in Educational Studies entitled “The Role of Parent Expectations on Adolescent Educational Aspirations.” This paper explores how the expectations of parents predict aspirations for future education in their adolescent children. Comparisons are also made between parents with high expectations and those with lower expectations. You can find the article here.

For the past two years, I have worked on the evaluation team for Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP, a state-wide, federally funded program with the mission of helping prepare youth in foster care and other low-income youth prepare for college. Last week, we presented at data from this program at the NCCEP/GEAR UP Conference in Washington D.C. Here is a copy of our presentation.