This year, from more than 1,400 majors and many excellent and deserving students, the Department of Psychology selected Avery Blackwell (right) as the outstanding senior and Abigail Bamber (left) as the distinguished senior.
Avery Blackwell is the Department of Psychology’s Outstanding Senior for this academic year. Avery came to Boone from Chapel Hill, and will graduate this May, summa cum laude, with a BA in Psychology, a French minor and Psychology honors. Her thesis, conducted under the direction of Dr. Andrew Smith, examines the relationship between risk-taking, maximization, which is the tendency to thoroughly evaluate numerous options in pursuit of the best possible choice, and anxiety. It is worth noting that in addition to being an outstanding student of psychology, Avery is also an entrepreneur, an artist, and craftsperson, with her work at Crafty Cat Creations at Student-Made at Appalachian. She writes, plays music, and sings, too. After graduation, Avery hopes to spend a year working in a post-baccalaureate position before applying to doctoral programs in clinical psychology. Her long-term goal, as of right now, is to become a clinical psychologist working with clients and in academia, providing therapeutic services while contributing to the psychological research field.
The Distinguished Senior is Abigail Bamber. Abigail came to Appalachian State from Swansboro, North Carolina, on the coast. She will graduate in May, summa cum laude, with a B.S. in Psychology, Human Services concentration, and Departmental and University honors. Abigail’s thesis research concerns the impact of attachment styles and self-esteem on relationship-centered obsessive-compulsive disorder, with Dr. Chris Holden as her thesis director. She is also the mental health ambassador and the research liaison for the Active Minds club. Abigail’s next steps include pursuing post-baccalaureate research opportunities while developing graduate school application materials and strategies. Abigail plans to pursue graduate training in clinical psychology with the eventual goal of a career as a scientist-practitioner who does clinical work, conducts research and mentors students in an academic setting as a university professor.
Congratulations to Avery and Abigail from the psychology department!
