Katherine Collison

Class of 2013, B.A. in Psychology with Minor in Economics

Where have you worked and/or studied since you graduated from USC?

After graduation I began working half-time at USC Keck School of Medicine in their Preventive Medicine department, and half-time at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in their Psychiatry department. I serve as a research staff member for both. In fall 2015, I will be starting a Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology at Purdue University.

What was the most beneficial thing you did as a student at USC to prepare you for post-graduation?

Talking to professors whose classes I liked was really helpful! They gave me a lot of career/school advice during office hours and helped steer me towards research opportunities, which is very important if you want a career in psychology. I also was pushed by a professor to apply for the Provost research fellowship and found that it was not only a fantastic training experience in independent research, but that graduate schools really liked seeing that kind of experience on my CV.

What course did you enjoy the most?

Developmental Psychology with Frank Manis was such a fun and informative class. That is definitely the class I remember the most from! I also really enjoyed my Abnormal Psychology class; it confirmed for me that I want to work in the clinical setting.

If you were an undergraduate again, is there anything that you would do differently?

I chose to minor in something because I thought I was slacking just having one major, so I chose a minor that wasn’t right for me purely because it didn’t require too many units. I would have been a lot better off just taking more psych classes and other courses that interested me.

Have you won any awards, accolades, etc. after you graduated from USC?

Since graduating, I’ve had the opportunity to co-author papers in Addictive Behaviors and Annals of Clinical Psychiatry on new trends in substance use among young adults. I’ve also presented work at USC Keck School of Medicine’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds and contributed to studies that were presented at two national conferences.