Ashley Robin is a rising senior at Vanderbilt University where she majors in Psychology with minors in Child Development and Medicine, Health, and Society. After researching several programs Ashley was attracted to Project L/EARN because of the intensive training, guidance of faculty, and opportunity to complete her own research project. Compared to other programs Ashley felt this program would most prepare her for graduate school. Ashley says the program was a lot more rigorous than she expected and cites keeping up with workload while simultaneously completing her project as the hardest part of the program. However, she is most satisfied by completing a project that she has put so much effort into. She says “there was really not one important thing that I learned because the whole program prepared me for graduate school and for a career in research.”

During her summer Ashley had the privilege to work with two mentors Dr. Julie Phillips and Dr. Ellen Idler for her project. She appreciates how much time and help they both provided her. Her current project examines trends in suicide in the middle-aged. Based on her findings she was most interested in the differences in rates of suicide between widowed men and widowed women. Ashley’s passion is “making a difference in people’s lives,” and she sees herself helping people in a big way. She plans to go on to graduate school to earn her Ph.D. in clinical psychology and work as a researcher and clinician with vulnerable populations nationally as well as internationally.

After participating in the program Ashley is walking away with the confidence that she can do research and is excited about future research opportunities. She appreciates her training because she feels she learned more than she would have by taking any research course in school. Ashley’s other interests include playing tennis and jogging.