Elizabeth Graham double majored in Psychology and Public Health, and minored in Women’s Studies at Douglass College. She opted to apply to Project L/EARN to “acquire technical and analytical skills in public health and in research in a small setting that offered personal assistance with mentors and program directors”.
Elizabeth had been a member of the Track and Field team at Rutgers, and she has also enjoyed playing the drums and singing. She has spent previous summer vacations interning with “Youth for Christ” as being a full-time youth missionary. She has also gained other research experience in a Microbacteriology laboratory at Wadsworth Laboratories. At the time, Liz had plans to further her education in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in either Psychology or Women’s Studies. She had said that her experience in Project L/EARN has afforded her insight into the impact research can make in either of these fields, particularly in relation to minority communities.
Liz had worked with Dr. Sarah Rosenfield the summer of her internship, exploring the interaction of race and age in the depression scores of females. Her interest in doing research pertaining to a psychological issue affecting women coincided well with Dr. Rosenfield’s own interests, which focuses on gender inequality and its consequences for externalizing and internalizing mental disorders. Liz expresses that the best part of Project L/EARN had been, “Realizing the need for this research… and the need for women in research fields”. In addition, she recommends the program for, “Students who have a strong desire to answer complicated questions”.
