My dedication to the field of psychology is evident in the various activities in which I am involved. I am a student affiliate of the American Psychological Association, as well as a student member of the Iowa Psychological Association. I have been actively involved in the community as a volunteer working with patients, families, and staff in the emergency room of a local hospital. I have been a devoted member of the psychology club for two years and am currently serving my first year as an officer (Vice-president of Special Events). Finally, I have been a teaching assistant under the supervision of Dr. Frank Barrios, clinical psychologist, and Dr. jack Yates, cognitive psychologist, both of the University of Northern Iowa, where I have had such responsibilities as preparing and grading exams and essays, holding office hours, working with individual students, assisting students with assignments and presentations, and answering any questions students may have about the material. Not only do I feel confident about my preparation in psychology, I am also working toward a minor in sociology, acquiring knowledge of the human relations that exist between the individual and the community.

In addition to these activities, I have been involved in research under the supervision of Dr. Augustine Osman, clinical psychologist, University of Northern Iowa. Currently, I am working on three separate measures that will soon be submitted for publication. One is an attempt to validate a measure concerning pain and is entitled, "The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS): Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties." The second is an effort to differentiate between anxiety and depression in a college sample. And the third is an attempt to differentiate between anxiety and depression in a clinical sample. Given Dr. Osman's excellent record of previous publications, I fully expect for these articles to be accepted for publication and for myself to be listed as co-author on all of them. Through my experience with research, I have been involved in data entry and collection, interpretation of data using SPSS, as well as scoring of the MMPI-2.

To gain applied experience in the field of clinical psychology, I decided to obtain an internship. To accomplish this, I approached the program facilitator of the mental health unit at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo, Iowa. I spent the summer of 1996 carrying out this voluntary internship under the supervision of Dennis Feltz, LMHC, while gaining hands-on experience working with both the adolescent and the adult populations. I participated in all functions of the unit and was given sole responsibility for certain activities. Some of the things I participated in included group therapy, educational classes, psychological testing, parent interviews, and social history interviews.

The honors I have received during my undergraduate years began at North Iowa Area Community College, where I spent two years. I was a member of the Dean's list every semester and belongs to Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society of the two-year college. I received my AA degree and graduated with honors. Since then, at the university of Northern Iowa, I have been named to the Dean's List and been inducted in the Psi Chi honor society. I have been able to maintain a psychology GPA of 3.97 and fully anticipate receiving my BA and graduating with high honors in May 1997.

I intend to continue my education by pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. I am most interested in working with the adolescent population and would like to research the effects that personality characteristics such as extraversion/introversion have on the speed and completeness of recovery from mental disorders. I have already designed a proposal for this research project and hope to carry it out during my graduate education. After graduate school, I plan to continue with my research while working with adolescents in an applied setting. It is my intention to contribute empirically-based findings to the clinical psychology field through my research. I feel that Purdue University could offer me a solid education and help me to meet my goals by providing a quality atmosphere in which to learn. Also, I am interested in the research done by several of the faculty members at Purdue. Among these are Anthony Conger and his research on assessment and treatment for social skills deficits, Gerald Gruen and how adolescents cope with loneliness, and Rebecca Merritt and her research on personality. I feel that I can bring enthusiasm and individuality to your program as a result of my past experiences and my desire to excel in the clinical psychology field.

I believe that my qualifications, experience, and dedication to the filed of psychology indicate that I will be successful as a graduate student and as a clinical psychologist. I consider the knowledge, experiences, and opportunities that are associated with the earning of the Ph.D. valuable and I am prepared to invest my time and my energy toward earning this degree. I hope to be given the opportunity to accomplish this at Purdue University.