Majoring in psychology will introduce you to a wide variety of specialty areas within the field. Our faculty includes experts on sports psychology, developmental psychology, substance dependence, psychotherapy, and virtual reality. By the time you reach your junior and senior year, you’ll have opportunities to apply what you’ve learned to internships and to research projects. Our Practicum program offers a two-semester internship experience that combines classroom work with in-depth service work at a local community agency. This year, one of our students interned at Winooski High School, tutoring students and helping to supervise an alternative classroom for students with behavioral and learning differences. Another student interned at Women Helping Battered Women, answering the 24-hour hotline, participating in the one-on-one mentor program, and helping to organize and create events to promote awareness.
Grant-funded research opportunities are available to our students during the academic year or over the summer. Many of our students are invited to national academic and professional conferences to present their work. For one recent project, two students and a faculty member used virtual reality simulations to examine how people learn and remember new places. Their work was published in the prestigious journal, Computers in Human Behavior. Another project analyzed how stress may affect the immune response in occasional cigarette smokers.
Practice through Practicum
Our Practicum program is a unique internship opportunity spanning the fall and spring semesters. Practicum combines classroom work with 8-10 hours of work a week at a local community agency. The two-semester commitment affords the agencies the ability to give students greater client responsibility and a more in-depth service experience. Some of the sites our students intern at include:
- Rockpoint (an alternative high school)
- Day One (an outpatient alcohol/drug treatment program)
- The Howard Center (Comprehensive Care Program)
- Winooski School District (High School)
- Woodside (a juvenile correctional institution)
- Department of Children and Families
- Outright Vermont (support services for LGBTQA youth
- Women Helping Battered Women
Conduct Research
Research experiences are available in a variety of forms and settings. Opportunities are available to work with faculty on projects in areas such as pro-social/helping behavior, marriage and relationships, cognitive illusions and biases, psychology of religion, impulsivity, geographic navigation, and cross-cultural studies.
Work in Multiple Lab Facilities
We have three different laboratories:
- Observational Lab
- Animal Lab
- Psychophysiology/Virtual Reality Lab
Present Your Research
Saint Michael’s psychology students present their research at professional meetings and conferences such as: the American Psychological Association’s national meeting, regional meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association and the New England Psychological Association, and at a conference held at NASA.
Become Inducted as a Member of Psi Chi
Psi Chi, the national honor society for psychology, has a chapter at Saint Michael’s. Membership is open to graduate and undergraduate students who have completed at least 12 credits in psychology with a 3.4 GPA overall, and a 3.5 GPA in psychology.
Participate in the Psychology Club
Our Psychology Club was formed in 2005 to provide all students with opportunities to learn more about psychology. The club sponsors educational workshops which cover a wide variety of topics ranging from “what do school counselors do and how do you become one?” to “NGI – not guilty by reason of insanity - who determines this?” The student-run club raises money to support causes in areas such as autism research.
After graduation, our majors go on to careers like:
- College Counselor
- Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
- Front Office Manager
- Living Skills Specialist
- Police Officer
- Yoga Instructor
- Addictions Counselor
- Youth Worker
Our psychology program builds a foundation of useful knowledge and thinking skills that will prepare you to pursue a wide variety of positions, such as case managers, crisis counselors, research assistants, probation officers, resource counselors, and many more.
Our major also prepares you to enter diverse psychology graduate programs that train individuals for careers from licensed psychologists to university researchers. Many of our graduates enter into various psychology fields including:
- clinical
- cognitive or experimental
- counseling
- developmental
- educational or school
- industrial or organizational
- physiological
- social
Go for a Master's in Clinical Psychology
In addition to the undergraduate psychology program, Saint Michael's offers a master's degree in Clinical Psychology. Opportunities are available for advanced undergraduate students to take courses in the graduate program and to earn credits toward their graduate studies.
To contact the Department of Psychology:
Department of Psychology
Saint Michael's College
One Winooski Park, Box 277
Colchester, VT 05439
Fax: 802.654.2236