Interview with Danielle Goldman '09

Why did you decide to come to Clark?

Danielle: Psychology is the reason why I came to Clark. I worked at Children's Hospital in Boston, so I've known for a while that I wanted to go into psychology. When I was thinking about different colleges, a lot of the people that I worked with had heard so many good things about Clark's program, so that was definitely one of the big draws for me.

What psychology courses have you been taking here at Clark?

Danielle: For my first-year seminar I took Discourse, Self and Gender with Professor Michael Bamberg. So that kind of got me into everything, which was really great. Then I took Psychology 101, Research Methods. I'm taking Abnormal Psychology right now, which I love. It's awesome, my favorite class. I'm also taking Human Instinct, Animal Mind which focuses on developmental and evolutionary behavior patterns.

I actually have only three requirements left to fulfill for the major -- I'm like all psychology all the time! I'm signed up to be in Professor Cardemil's research lab next semester. He studies the way depression is expressed in minority and low-income populations. I'm really excited. He's teaching my Abnormal Psychology class right now. I really want to get out there and start doing stuff. I'm also signed up to be a peer-learning advisor for 101 next semester, also with Professor Cardemil. I want to do my psychology capstone course on some area of abnormal psychology and sexual abuse.

In my abnormal psychology class we did a project where we interviewed different people working in the field. I interviewed a person who works at Worcester State Hospital dealing with abnormal behavior and forensic psychology. He works closely with the court system: people get referred to him for psychological evaluation to determine if they are competent to stand trial. He determines who is and is not and for what reasons, acts as an expert witness, fills out case reports, and that sort of thing.

I really, really like all my classes. I feel like a lot of the information I learned at Clark I can relate to my internships. I can apply what I read in textbooks to real life. That makes everything so much more real and I think that's so important. If you can read about things, that's one thing, but then being able to go out there and experience everything-it's on a completely different level.

Can you also bring experiences from your internship back into your class work?

Danielle: Yes. In my internship I didn't at first have the vocabulary to describe what was going on in a specific situation. But through the courses that I've had at Clark I've been able to do that. It really helps things make a lot more sense.

I know that psychology majors are required to complete a minor or concentration in another subject. What have you chosen?

Danielle: I've designed my own, looking at criminal justice and criminal behavior. It's really cool to be able to find your interest and then create your own concentration around that.

When did you start volunteering at Children's Hospital and in what capacity did you work?

Danielle: I started volunteering there when I was 16, and I'm 19 now. I worked as an intern there last summer and then this coming summer I have a paid internship, which is so nice. So that's really exciting. I work with teenagers in the hospital. I've come up with some programs to try to make their stay at the hospital better.

So these are things you've developed yourself? Can you explain a bit more?

Danielle: When I first started volunteering I was just a regular volunteer. Then they asked me to work on two inpatient floors with teenagers. I'm actually part of the Teen Advisory Committee and we come up with ways to make the hospital better for teenagers. We came up with something called the teen cart. We take it around to different floors in the hospital and bring books, movies, games, game boys, etc, geared towards teenagers. Now I train and supervise the volunteers who work with that program, as well as some desk work. It's awesome.

What's your upcoming summer internship about?

Danielle: Actually, I'm doing two. One is at Children's Hospital, where again I'll be training and supervising the teenage volunteers with the teen cart. I'm also working on getting a brochure published for distribution at the hospital that's a guide for teenagers who have a sibling that's sick in the hospital. So it's focused on helping the healthier sibling adapt to constantly being in the hospital in a visitor capacity.

My other internship is working in Boston for the assistant district attorney for Suffolk County. He works in the sex crimes unit. We'll be working on doing a prevention program about kids and internet safety.

Have you had an other internship experiences?

Danielle: Last year I worked with a teen group started through the Community Health Link-teenagers from the Worcester community who've been court ordered to participate. Most of them are there for psychological issues. They meet every other week. Another guy and I help facilitate the group. I found it's really easy to get involved doing work in the community--whatever you want to do. It's really good that there are a lot of resources nearby like UMass Medical Center and Worcester State Hospital.

What do you eventually want to do in psychology?

Danielle: I want to go into clinical psychology and work with victims of sex abuse, primarily kids. I want to try to start an intervention program as early as possible. I always knew that I wanted to deal with the more abnormal field of psychology, and I guess I've always had some interest in working with victims of sex offenders and sex abuse, and sex offenders themselves.

I understand you're a member of the Undergraduate Psychology Committee. What does that involve?

Danielle: We meet every Wednesday for about an hour. We arrange for different speakers to come in, and we're setting up an office with pamphlets and information about graduate school. It will be a good resource. We trying to get information out to the students and really make their voices heard in the department. We actually have an undergraduate representative who goes to faculty meetings. We've done a lot of information sessions, and we provide information about the honors program, about grad schools and applications, and the difference between clinical and research psychology. We also provide information about the different psychology courses and professors, and try to help students find good matches for their interests.

We had a speaker come in two weeks ago. She's a clinical psychologist at Children's Hospital and a Clark graduate who does a lot of work with child advocacy centers. She works with violence and sex abuse prevention in families. We had a pretty good turn out. So that was really cool.

You really seem to have found your niche.

Danielle: As corny as it sounds, I honestly feel that Clark (and I know this is going to sound really scripted) has really helped me to find that niche. Yes, I did know that I wanted to go into psychology, but it's a broad field and I honestly feel like this is exactly what I want to do. All the courses I've taken and all the experiences I've had here have really helped me. I know this sounds like you wrote some propaganda for me to read, but I honestly do feel like I owe so much to Clark in that respect.