Jessica Gonzalez
Class of 2004
Banana Kelly Collaborative H.S.
Topic: Stress, Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes in Women of African Descent
About:
Just before the school year ended I applied for a summer internship with the Harlem Children Society. I really had no clue what to expect from it, but I wanted to pursue my idea of helping others. After completing my application and the interview process conducted by Dr. Sat Bhattacharya, I was finally accepted as one of the three students at Banana Kelly to become an intern for the summer. The Harlem Children's Society assigns each student to different mentors, who are professors at different colleges, which seem like a really great idea for the students to get an understanding for college life. Each student was asked to complete a research project somehow related to science. The students, with the help of their mentors, were asked to complete a full report of their project at the end of the program as well as a brief power point presentation to introduce their project to the rest of the students involved with the program.
I was assigned to work with Dr. D. DeFour, a member of the Psychology department at Hunter College. Dr. DeFour’s area of study happens to be the social science of psychology, or the behavior and attitudes of others individually, within a group or within society as a whole. After reading up on Psychology, I've become very interested on how complicated the human mind is. I’ve learned how psychology gives us the tools to open closed doors and learn about the workings of the mind. Once you master the ways of the human mind, you can make predictions as to what action a person may take next in any particular situation. After being a part of this program for about two weeks, I’ve learned valuable research techniques I would never learn in high school. This program allowed me to have the experience I needed to become better prepared for my future in college. Of course I will always be grateful for being able to have that chance, being from the Bronx, opportunities like that does not come by on any given day, and when it does, you’ve got to take advantage of it or else you might never see that chance again.
Thank you once again, Dr. Sat for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your great internship program; I've learned so much from it.