Western Regional Spring Letter (2005)
March 23, 2005
Fellow Psi Chi Members,
Thank you for your continued active involvement in the organization throughout this academic year. I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming meeting of the Western Psychological Association (WPA), which will be held at the Portland Marriott Downtown Hotel in Portland, Oregon from April 14-17, 2005. For registration and hotel information, see the WPA website at www.westernpsych.org. The schedule for this year's upcoming meeting of the Western Psychological Association reflects extensive contributions from students, as well as faculty, involved in Psi Chi. Psi Chi's portion of the program is full of career-related information for students and some program-related information for faculty. This message is intended to highlight some of those contributions in the hopes of maximizing our collective involvement at the sessions.
The program will begin on Thursday morning, April 14 from 10:15-11:15 a.m. (Salon E, Oregon Ballroom) with this year's Invited Address. Recognized expert in intelligence and creativity research, Robert Sternberg, will deliver this year's address, entitled Culture and Intelligence. At the beginning of the session, Psi Chi is expecting to publicly award both Robert Sternberg and Elizabeth Loftus Distinguished Member status for career contributions to the field and to Psi Chi as a society. The newly recognized Distinguished Members also are expecting to be on hand immediately following the address to meet and greet students and faculty during a brief reception in the hospitality suite. Distinguished Member status is the highest honor that can be bestowed by Psi Chi, and historically, very few members have been recognized with this honor. Thus, it is a rare treat that we will be able to grant two Distinguished Members at WPA. These sessions represent a great opportunity to support the organization while simultaneously affording an opportunity to interact with recognized experts in the field. As a result, student members are strongly encouraged to attend.
On Thursday afternoon (2:45-4:15 p.m., Salon AB, Oregon Ballroom), there will be a jointly sponsored symposium with the Council for Undergraduate Psychology Programs (CUPP) entitled Learning Beyond the Classroom. This session will discuss the various ways that out-of-classroom experiences (e.g., research involvement, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities, as well as organizational membership) can be used to maximize student preparation for a career in psychology. The symposium will be chaired by Ayesha Shaikh of CUPP/Psi Chi, and will include presentations from your Regional Vice-President and the current President of Psi Chi. Here is a list of presenters and presentation titles:
- Integrating Learning Experiences In and Out of the Classroom. Michael D. Hall, Kenneth E. Barron, and Jeffrey T. Andre, James Madison University
- Undergraduate Research: Student and Faculty Perspectives. Lorinda Camparo, Ayesha Shaikh, Hana Ibrahimovic, and Harpreet Kaur, Whittier College
- Experiential Learning: Undergraduate Internships. Kenneth L. Beauchamp, University of the Pacific
- The Impact of Organizational Membership on Student Development. Christopher Koch, George Fox University
Collective thanks go to all the student presenters and coauthors who will be participating in the conference. Thanks to all of you, we have received almost double the number of student submissions for the program compared to last year's totals. As a result, WPA had no choice but to offer two Psi Chi Poster Sessions. The first poster session will be held on Friday morning at 8:00-9:30 a.m. (Salon FGHI, Oregon Ballroom). The second poster session will kick off a busy Psi Chi schedule on Saturday (at the same time and place as the first poster session). Please be sure to congratulate the various graduate and undergraduate research award winners that will be presenting in these and other sessions at the conference.
Other events planned for Saturday include a Psi Chi symposium entitled Tackling Graduate School Applications and Training: Recipes for Success (12:30-2:00 p.m., Salon AB, Oregon Ballroom). This variation of a traditional Psi Chi symposium intends to use specific anecdotes and personal examples as a means of demonstrating what students should (and should not) do to maximize the chances of successful admission to, and completion of, a graduate program. While the session promises to be primarily of interest to undergraduate students, faculty members also are likely to acquire some specific examples that will help with future advising. The symposium features a panel composed of members of the Psi Chi Western Regional Steering Committee, the Psi Chi National Council, and the Graduate Student Representative for WPA. Presentations will include:
- Paths to Admission Into Graduate School. Christopher Koch, George Fox University
- Making and Managing Contacts During the Application Process. Michael D. Hall, James Madison University
- Frequently Asked Questions About Clinical Admissions and Training. Lori Barker-Hackett, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- Do's and Don'ts in Undergraduate and Graduate Research. Deana L. Julka, University of Portland
- Managing Priorities for Optimal Advancement. George M. Slavich, University of Oregon
A Psi Chi-sponsored Graduate School Exchange session will follow the graduate school symposium on Saturday from 2:45-4:15 p.m. (Salon ABC, Oregon Ballroom). During this session, faculty representatives from graduate programs in the region will be on hand to share application and program information with interested students.
The Psi Chi program will conclude Saturday evening with the Psi Chi Chapter Exchange and Social Hour from 5:30-7:00 p.m. (Mt. Hood room). As part of the session, we would like a representative from your chapter to present (within about 5 minutes) information about this year's chapter activities and events. We also would like to use this time for chapters to raise questions or concerns that they might have either for their group or the organization at large. I ask that either an officer or faculty advisor from your chapter notify me by April 8 if the chapter intends to participate in the session, along with a description of any potential (audio-visual) equipment needs.
Thanks to your involvement, Psi Chi will be well represented at WPA again this year. Please share this program information with others in your chapter so that we can maximize Psi Chi's presence at the meeting, and please do not hesitate to contact me if questions arise about the program schedule or regional activities. I look forward to hearing more from you and your chapter in the near future, and hope to see you at WPA next month.
Sincerely,
Michael Hall
Psi Chi Western Regional Vice-President
Department of Psychology MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
Phone: (540) 568-7877
Fax: (540) 568-3322
E-mail: hallmd@jmu.edu