There were workshops, food, a competition, an alumni panel and a keynote speaker during Psychology Day on Friday, April 11.
According to Laura Duvall, a psychology professor at Cerritos College, “The goal is to give students here at Cerritos a chance to see what (it) is like to attend a professional conference and to show students that have done research to talk (about the) work that they’ve done.”
Students at this conference got a chance to present some of the research that they conducted to the audience. There were a total of eight groups each composed of Cerritos College students. Only three of these groups were chosen to win a scholarship award. First place won $350, second place $250 and third place won $150.
Ronquillo applied and received another grant from the Cerritos College Foundation, which was worth a total of $3,250. Both of these grants helped cover the cost for Psychology Day.
Other groups that helped in the event were the Psychology Club and Active Minds Club.
According to Alexandra Gomez, Psychology Club president, “We split up into different groups as psych club and we all handled a specific thing.”
“The workshops at the conference were helpful and interesting to the students that attended them,” Jorge Prado, psychology major said.
According to Laura Duvall, a psychology professor at Cerritos College, “The goal is to give students here at Cerritos a chance to see what (it) is like to attend a professional conference and to show students that have done research to talk (about the) work that they’ve done.”
Students at this conference got a chance to present some of the research that they conducted to the audience. There were a total of eight groups each composed of Cerritos College students. Only three of these groups were chosen to win a scholarship award. First place won $350, second place $250 and third place won $150.
Marilu Perez, psychology major, attended two workshops; Mental Health and Succeeding in Psychology workshop. “The Mental Health (workshop) wasn’t in my interest, so I didn’t really think much about that one, but I really liked the Succeeding in Psychology (major). Especially since I’m transferring, so it helped,” said Garcia.
Vanessa Perez, psychology major, also attended the Succeeding in Psychology workshop and said, “It was very informative, so it let me know there was different degrees you can go into the field.”
During the event there was a competition between the Cerritos College students that conducted research. They presented their research to students and judges through different poster boards and one of the groups had a demonstration.
Students were fascinated about the research conducted by each group. Bryan Toledo, nursing major said, “Pretty unique theories, it’s a great way to get into new stuff that you haven’t heard of in books.”
On of the poster presentation was about tattoos. Nataly Ortiz, psychology major said, “I found them pretty interesting. The one I really liked the most was the tattoo one.”
Ortiz liked the tattoo presentation because she has tattoos. “I just thought I was just like all perceptions, you are not promiscuous, I mean it proved a point,” she added.
During the workshops there was a panel of Cerritos College alumni that have gone off to universities and received college degrees in psychology. Howard Lee, a Cerritos College graduate who now attends UC Irvine, was one of the members from the panel. Lee said that the purpose of the panel was to help motivate and inform students about what to do after Cerritos College and what to expect at the university level.
The keynote speaker was, William Pedersen Jr, a psychology professor from Cal State Long Beach.
During his speech Pedersen shared information on an experiment that he and his colleagues conducted. The experiment was about the correlation between alcohol and aggression.
Jose Orejel, spanish major said, “It’s very interesting, I’m not a psychology major but it was still information that I can grasp and understand and it was pretty fascinating.”
Psychology day ended with a short raffle where psychology books and Starbucks goodies were handed out.
Kimberly Duff, a psychology professor at Cerritos College, said “Psychology Day, this is a celebration of our students’ successes… and it’s also a day of opportunities because we have presenters from Cerritos College, Cal State Long Beach (and) from UCI talking about their work.”
Gomez, the Psychology Club president, said that Psychology Day was “definitely a success, it’s exciting and definitely something fun to do on a Friday for psychology majors.”
According to Duff, a couple of Cerritos College students will be presenting their research at a professional conference in Portland, Oregon on April 25.
The Western Psychological Association (WPA) conference is an annual professional conference where usually undergraduates do not attend, but six Cerritos College undergraduates will be presenting their research.
