An informative podcast from your elected UNLV Student Government Officials.
Unknown Speaker 0:02
Okay, so hi rebels. My name is Isaac Hernandez. I'm the current student body president, y'all.
Unknown Speaker 0:08
My name is Diana amonkar. I'm the current student body vice president. We are yours in Unity. Hey, y'all. This is Diana again, welcome back to another week. We have a lot of exciting little updates and conversations are waiting for y'all. And actually, we do have two special guests joining us on today's show. I'll go ahead and let you guys introduce yourself.
Unknown Speaker 0:34
Hi, my name is Janelle And I am the president of UNLV psi chi and we work in tandem with Psychology Club.
Unknown Speaker 0:42
Hi, my name is Julissa. I am the president of Nami on campus. Nami stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness here at UNLV.
Unknown Speaker 0:50
Yeah, so for those of y'all that didn't know this week is actually mental illness Awareness Week. And I do know that Nami at least nationally like they do do a lot of work during this week. But real quick, you both tell me a little bit more about your organization's and what you what type of events you do on campus and what like what is that like?
Unknown Speaker 1:13
Yeah, so for sci fi, we're really big on providing a loss of resources to psychology students and making sure that they have a lot of professional development events, social events. For example, this year or this semester, so far, we did a fall mixer. We also did a collab event with NAMI on campus, which is our suicide awareness and prevention event where we had a few guest speakers from Nami Southern Nevada. Yeah, and
Unknown Speaker 1:39
Nami on campus. We are sort of our club. We are a fairly new club here at UNLV. But we sort of strive to destigmatize mental illness, and sort of trying our best to create a safe and positive environment for all students. And yeah, we also host or are planning to host events on mental awareness and stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 2:08
Yeah, I know, you know, mental illness, illness overall. It really affects everyone, either directly or indirectly. So either like everyone individually, or somebody individually, or they have some type of experience with it with their like friends or family. So I think that this week is definitely important when it comes to D stigmatizing, but also in a way educating, educating like, people about what exactly like mental illness what what exactly mental illness can look like, because I don't really think or my experience, at least, it doesn't look the same from person to person. But I also think that at the same time, you know, it's just important, it's just important when it comes to empathizing with a lot of people, especially in the workplace, and I feel like a lot of us really struggle with like this perfectionist standard
Unknown Speaker 3:04
imposter syndrome. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 3:06
I feel like, Are you are you both first gen to?
Unknown Speaker 3:09
Yeah, I know. My mom is. She's in a getting her doctorate right now.
Unknown Speaker 3:14
Oh, nice. her doctorate and what I may ask. Nursing Nice. Yeah, so at least I don't know, for me being first gen. I struggled with that one big time, at least impostor syndrome. So,
Unknown Speaker 3:28
I mean, even just, I know, a lot of the times people will cover, like the fact that first gen students, there's a difficulty that first gen students face in college in general. And with issues with mental health, it's just harder to have an additional stressor on top of that. But being a college student, just as a whole is not an easy thing. If anyone were to say it, were easy there, you're probably lying. It's it's difficult. But there are a few weeks ago, there was a very, very awesome group of students that came together. And they are now known as Project wellness here at UNLV. They hosted a really nice student led mental health Townhall. And I remember one of the conversations that was being talked about about mental health was that, you know, for a really long period of time, it was very generalized. You talk about a certain illness and any, anyone really would think like, oh, yeah, that's that's exactly what it is. But I think there was someone in the crowd that kind of mentioned that, you know, when it comes down to mental health and mental illness, it's a spectrum. Depression for one person is not the same. All across the board anxiety and their experiences are not the same. All across the board. And I find it very interesting. Looking into, you know, psychology majors in general. And with psychology majors, I think that is actually the number one major in terms of the amount of students that are enrolled in that major here at UNLV. In our major on campus, I came to you and Alvie in 2018. And I was once a psychology major and a lot of people get into my head about why I was majoring in that at first.
Unknown Speaker 5:16
Wait, your psychology? Hold on? Yeah, so
Unknown Speaker 5:19
I, I did this thing. In my senior year in high school, elective courses, psychology was one of those things that everyone kind of took. And it was just one of those things that kind of wanted to carry on because we finished the Gen Ed's, and I took Psych 101, my freshman year, and I just decided to go with a psychology major at first, I learned, it wasn't necessarily kind of what I thought it was. But there was even a stigma behind the psychology major. Because a lot of people think that, Oh, that's not going to get you to where you want to be, or you're not going to make that much money. And I always look back at it. And, you know, being in a position that we're in now. I'm older, I'm a little bit wiser, not the wisest, I'll tell you that I'm still learning but it's more every single major across the board. There's an appreciation to it. But I think what we seen during the pandemic is, if there is any major that's going to excel, it's going to be psychology, because it's in demand. We're seeing a lot of mental health professionals here specifically in Nevada, I think we rank 51st or behind DC, which is kind of interesting, just based on the population. But yes, we have the least amount of mental health professionals here in Nevada, and it's in demand psychology majors, if you're, you know, listening to this, keep doing what you're doing. If you're planning on going to graduate school, this is where psyche and Psychology Club come into the picture and they try and help guide you, guide you through, you know, the process and trying to, you know, build up the resume, but also to really learn more about the major itself, potential career paths, and, you know, a lot of that stuff down the journey. But I do have a question for you, Janelle. In terms of the operations of the organization that you are with, with sai Kai, how would you say the organization best prepares psychology students, or just anyone in general that's interested in psychology to enter the workforce?
Unknown Speaker 7:17
Yeah, so, um, we do a lot of professional development events. So our upcoming event is called the research matching event where we hope to have representatives from all the psychology labs on campus and so that students can walk around get to meet the lab reps and be like, hey, what do you guys study? How can I get involved? Cuz to get into grad school, you really have to have research experience. And and so we also have our getting into grad school event and CV workshop where we bring in Dr. David Copeland shout out to you to Dr. copelan. Where he walks us through the process building a CV and also Dr. Dave Beasley. So they're super helpful and like telling students like, yeah, you got to have a personal statement letters of rec apply for the schools. All That Jazz.
Unknown Speaker 8:06
So, um, just out of out of curiosity, are you involved with the research lab at all at the moment? Yeah, whatever research you do, like what, because I feel like research differs a lot within like just major to major at least, like specification to specification. So what does your research look like? And what is what are the research labs in psychology really look like?
Unknown Speaker 8:27
Yeah, so right now, I am in the game lab with Dr. Wong. Badung. Pat is the gambling addiction and marginalized experience lab and so I research racial microaggressions. I'm also in the charisma lab with Dr. Kearney, and then it's I'm studying a lot about like child anxiety, depression and and I even get to help conduct assessments at child Haven. And and so you get a lot of clinical experience, which is super rare to get as an undergrad. And then I'm also doing an honors thesis right now where I'm doing the evolution of racial representation in remade movies. Wow. Wow. Are you in any research?
Unknown Speaker 9:05
Yeah, I'm in the IMG Lab, which is the interactive measurement group with Dr. bartered. She focuses right now on climate change and like climate change, anxiety, climate change hope and it's more like structural equation modeling. So it's more like data out as interesting as that. But
Unknown Speaker 9:23
as a political science major, I will say that's kind of scary. I don't like math.
Unknown Speaker 9:28
As an econ major, the fan girl inside of me. I love it.
Unknown Speaker 9:33
I am I am jealous of IMG though because you guys work with like SPSS and are a lot more which is something that I don't even touch. But that's something you do a lot in grad school. A little
Unknown Speaker 9:42
PTSD from my research methods.
Unknown Speaker 9:47
Yeah, psychology has to do with a lot of with research. A lot of people don't realize that. But yeah, it's a lot. We learned a lot about coding. So like our SPSS jam movie. It's a great it's a great Research Lab to start with skills like that for grad school?
Unknown Speaker 10:04
Yeah. I think, again, as a political science major, like I feel like when it comes to research methods and like using programs like are we I think a good majority of the Political Science Department also uses Stata. So it's just, I feel like it's all the same, it's just a different way to use it. But a lot of students coming into undergrad, I feel like a lot of them don't understand how important like those programs are when it comes to research and understanding. And understanding how to apply that research for future theories or anything like that. I don't know, this is this is my little research methods, part of me kind of popping off. This is where Isaac, Isaac likes to really pop into that conversation. But
Unknown Speaker 10:50
yeah, I data is just very fascinating to me, there's certain things in this world that just can't be explained without numbers. And I think I was once told, I think my sophomore year, it's like math is the universal language, it just tells the story for what it is. And I mean, it depends on how the data is compiled and collected. I just find it interesting, because talking to a lot of, you know, student government representatives in different states, some other universities and colleges, they are not very research intensive. And then here at UNLV, I mean, anyone you might come across, there's probably some research that they've done. And I think I mean, I'm sure we've all heard that UNLV is a Carnegie are one institution, we have that classification. And what that basically means is that we're a tier one institution, when it comes down to research, we receive funding, because we do so much research. And I think a lot of it has to do with preparing undergraduate students to go into graduate programs that would be very difficult to have undergraduate students have a desire and interest to go to graduate school, and not have any research experience. That's why there's a lot of grants available for any research. And when it comes down to, you know, the specific topics. I think one thing that's really cool here at UNLV, is that most of the time it's not, here's the topic, good luck working on it, it's more, what are you interested in? Let's pair you with someone that has some kind of like specialization within that field. And then you really get to understand a lot more into the interests you already have. But
Unknown Speaker 12:35
yeah, just out of curiosity, does psych psychology majors do you guys also have to go through like a capstone process? Your last your last semester? Yeah, we have a capstone. So I know for like political science majors, like we depending on the course at least that you take in the in the professor, but a lot of the professors in our department try to make the Capstone or at least make the capstone class and the entire process based off of your interests. And I know right now, like I'm taking a professor shout out to Dr. mopey. Love her class, I'm taking a racial and ethnic minorities class. So she's already getting us talking about what what we could possibly be interested in researching for our 499 class. So what does that capstone class like, look like out of curiosity for psychology majors is a similar different at all.
Unknown Speaker 13:25
I actually wanted to say first, that While students may have their research interest right now, you don't necessarily have to go into a lab that researchers that interest specifically, and that's totally okay. Like, I'm interested in researching depression and anxiety and adolescents and adults, or treating those when I'm older, but I'm researching racial microaggressions right now. So I just wanted to touch note on that, but for my, you're gonna Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 13:50
just out of this is for students that may not know how to get into research labs or how to like find research labs that they might be able to get involved with. How to both of y'all get involved with them with your, like specific research labs?
Unknown Speaker 14:06
I heard of Dr. Barnard from like emails. I think it was a psych from Psych. I actually so shout out to you guys. Yeah, I heard that she was hired not hiring accepting students for her research lab. And so I emailed her, I was like, I'm interested. What are you guys about whatever. And she sort of said stuff, like, our labs sort of focuses on preparing students to get into graduate school. I mean, like, that's exactly what I need. Yeah, I just got in. I did the interview process, and it was very easy, and anyone can do
Unknown Speaker 14:41
it. And then for my research lab, I learned about it through my research methods class with Dr. Wong. A few of my friends were in the lab too. And they were like, Hey, you should join you should join and I was like, You got it. I mean, and then so for all the students who want to get involved in research, specifically psychology. labs Oh, we have our research matching event on Tuesday, October 18, from 5pm to 6:30pm. In the Student Union ballroom A. So be there meet a lot of lab representatives. And then if your lab that you want to join, isn't there, just email your professors email your class professors to be like, hey, I want to get involved in research. And then they'll I do
Unknown Speaker 15:21
yeah, they're always looking for new people too late
Unknown Speaker 15:23
always. Yeah. Always. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 15:25
this university is. It's, it's very fascinating to me, because I think there's a lot of students that at least one time in their, in their life here at UNLV, we'll probably mention, like, there's not enough opportunity here. There's not enough, you know, positions available to get myself into this window. And I always tell people, because, at least with CSUN, people always reach out. And they kind of ask us just for guidance in terms of where to look who to reach out to. And when they ask us this, it gets like, we get really excited, because we're like, I'm really glad you asked, this person just reached out to us last week or yesterday. And we like connecting them to, you know, whoever they're looking for. But it there's always something available here. And I will always recommend people to student organizations, because I think student organizations if there is anyone extremely involved with faculty, staff, and any UNLV affiliate, even upper administration, it's usually student organizations, student organizations are kind of like the lifeblood of just the engagement that we have here. But also for opportunity for social development. Just bonding, leadership skills, professional development, anything you can possibly think of, definitely get involved. And a reason why, you know, we really wanted Nami and psychiatr to really be spotlighted here is because they've done a lot of great work. And we really wanted to shine the light on, you know, just the opportunity for students to really want to get involved. I think that's kind of always the key goal here. But I do have questions for both of you. It's gonna be the same question. And I'm just kind of curious to pick your brain on this. But in terms of engagement, compared to maybe a year ago to now are there any specific trends that you have seen in terms of how many people have been attending meetings, or how many people show up to events or maybe even during like tabling sessions,
Unknown Speaker 17:22
I think it's different this year, since last year was kind of like the first full year post pandemic. And now we're in second year. And so there is definitely more engagement. I'm really still trying to like keep it balanced, though. Like we're having a mix of in person and online events, like our suicide awareness event, it was online. So we do are we are able to reach more members that way. But then like with in person, like the research, matching has to be in person, like, there's something about that face to face, that has like a different vibe. But other than that, I think that there's there's a lot more potential this year. Now that like, everyone's a little bit more comfortable, we can be in person, go to classes, meet new people. But something that, like my personal goal for my senior year is to like go to as many events as possible, because I think that's something that pandemic taught us was like, time is short. So get involved, experience everything. So that's also why I'm super involved to awesome.
Unknown Speaker 18:23
Yeah, I totally agree with that. I've definitely gotten a lot of more emails about, like being interested in the club and stuff like that, rather than like, in the beginning of, was it last semester? I believe? We I definitely do think it's because of the pandemic and like, people are more comfortable. You know, there's no masks, I mean, yeah. Yeah, still some yeah, there's still some, which is we respect that. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:53
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I guess the reason I do ask the question is because just generally, like, I'm sure you guys all get a lot of questions in terms of like, what do you do? How do I get involved? And I'm sure you usually have this on say, script, but it's usually like, you know, there's something you usually repeat every single time someone does ask, but if there ever was someone that you know, did have a question, or maybe some hesitancy to get involved, what would you what would you tell them to convince them to join your organization? Just try it. YOLO There you go. You'll be yellow in my life. You'll never know until you try it. So yeah, I think that's awesome. It's the pandemic really did a number on I think people's confidence levels. I always mentioned it but think the interpersonal skills at the individual level. It was it didn't it didn't go away, didn't diminish. It was just really There is this wall that was built up during the pandemic. And it was usually a self built wall that, you know, really hid the confidence and even getting back out into the first few days of, you know, in person classes, or some events, I'm sure there was hesitancy for a lot of people. But I will tell you, one thing I've noticed, in my experience coming back to in person is that there are a lot more people that are willing to show empathy, they understand that there are struggles, yeah, they understand, because they probably dealt with the same struggles. And I know a lot of people, you know, they feel very isolated, alone. And really stuff that we really wanted to highlight was that, you know, you're not alone. And we're always here to support and this is why we always try and touch base on ourselves. Because a lot of the times when we talk to RSO leadership, we always ask them kind of how close their leadership got during the pandemic. And most of the time that that bond still stuck, sometimes it didn't, because some leadership, officers would end up graduating and some of the transitionary periods got a little bit rough. And for those that had to come into the new positions, is a little hard to build up. But for those for some that already were in leadership positions, and still maintain the leadership positions, they, you know, still found necessity to, you know, still engage, but there was always that hesitant that hesitancy to want to reach out just to check in on people. Because I know, even pre pandemic, there is this weird thing where you would constantly check, check up on people and they just didn't like the, you know, that reassurance like are you okay? Some people don't like to be asked that. But, you know, post pandemic, it's, it's necessary, the way I see it, some people need to be checked up on, and it's not a pity, it's just simply because, you know, we want to show that we're there that we care, and that you really never know what people are going through. So it's just the empathy is what we're really trying to show. But
Unknown Speaker 21:59
yeah, I think just going back to like, the whole empathy thing, I think one of the things that I also noticed is that on top of everybody really being empathetic towards one another there, there's also this, for lack of better way to put it, kind of this fear of conflict, a lot of times like, people start like I've seen it, and a lot of like, people that are now juniors and seniors are like, third and fourth year, like they forgot what conflict look like within those times that we were virtual. Because it was super easy to work from home unless you know, you were an essential worker, like actually going out and like dealing with the conflict firsthand. But because it was a lot easier for us to work from home and for us to, like deal with a lot of stuff over email, and in a way that, you know, kind of numbed us to any, like any way to really work through emotions and like in a way that we would have otherwise been exposed to, I feel like that. Like that. Also, you see it a lot. But one of the big things with ourselves, which I love it, it's that not just even during the pandemic, but just overall, I think that this has been an overall community, like community feeling within students, it's that you join ourselves to find like minded people and you find are supposed to find your support group. And a lot of times, you know, that support group also gives you access to professional development, you know, opportunities, it gives you access to people to just vent to about the professors that they probably once had, or like, the assignment that you're up at 3am working on, you know, and I think that it's something really special when you find an RSO, that's able to give you all of the above and that you're able to bond with students and with members and you as an eboard, you're also able to bond and work through, you know, your friendship, while also working with each other as colleagues in a way that call it like in a in a very unique way that College gives you the opportunity to do i don't i don't think i you're ever going to find a place after college, where you're going to be able, where you're gonna have the opportunity to work through a lot of these conflicts in a way that it's both at a personal level with friendships, but also at a, like, professional level with working with like your eboard as colleagues as well.
Unknown Speaker 24:24
Yeah. I mean, I'll kind of you know, backtrack and I'm curious to learn what both of your experiences are, like, coming into leadership positions is it's a little bit of a shock to some people and I'm sure everyone had to adapt, but how was it for you too?
Unknown Speaker 24:41
It's definitely been a learning experience for me. I've never like had such a leadership role as as this one. So it's definitely been a learning experience, but it's been great. I've the people I've met and talk to just makes me very grateful to be in this position. And yeah, all I can do is just hope that we make a difference on campus, like I said, provide a positive and just a supportive environment for all students about mental health or psychology or whatever it is. But yeah, it's it has been, there has been some struggles.
Unknown Speaker 25:21
Being in leadership positions, it's a lot of trial and error. I've, I've been in leadership positions ever since high school. So I kind of think of myself as a natural leader. But it also came with learning a lot and learning to work with people and like, showing empathy, and, and just trying to be collaborative with others. And then like, also other clubs, and just also representing a whole group of people. It's like, it's a lot of pressure. But it's also a lot of fun. Because like, we get to lead all of these events for students, and they come up to you after the event and be like, thank you so much for hosting this, this was a great opportunity for me. At our full mixer, we got to students got to like play games with each other. And we also like promoted our Discord where we like to have two, or we like to have a group chat for all the psychology majors and like sci fi members, just to like, also like what you said, like chat rant. Psychology, memes. Memes, yeah, literally. And then. But yeah, being being in a leadership position is such like great training. Also, I think for like, when you become in the workforce, and then like you're working in a big, or big company, small company, just like the person, person ability skills. That's something that you can really only learn by being with other people. And being a leader is the best way to do that.
Unknown Speaker 26:48
Wow. I mean, I do have another question. I know, we're down to our last couple of minutes, a couple of minutes. But we're down to our last two minutes. But I guess the question I do have for you to again, is if you could, you know, go back and tell yourself, once you first came into leadership position and give yourself one piece of advice, what would you tell yourself?
Unknown Speaker 27:11
That is a hard one, it's hard. Um, Be nice. Be nice, be empathetic. But still have fun and be super collaborative. There, you have a whole team behind you to help you you're not alone. And then everyone, everyone just wants what's best. So if you if you have helped take it, or people are offering help ticket by Yeah, I think that that's what I would tell myself. Awesome.
Unknown Speaker 27:38
Yeah, I would tell myself to be more open, take more opportunities, like say yes, to more things, you know, to get out of your comfort zone 100% Definitely, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 27:53
what do you wish you told yourself?
Unknown Speaker 27:55
Honestly, I wish I would tell myself to take it one step at a time. There's usually a lot of ideas that I have coming into a leadership position. And I want to put every single idea into fruition. And sometimes when I'm putting every single idea into fruition, it's like, Wait, now, where am I at? Where do I start? How do I finish this, and then most of the time, it would just, you know, I'd really like in the productivity aspect of it, but taking it one step at a time and realizing that, you know, you do have a team behind you. And that, you know, you have help. That's always the thing that I kind of run into issues with. But you know, I have a great team behind me within CSUN. And they always remind me of this stuff, but I think that would be my answer. But yeah, I mean, at this point in the segment, we always love to help you all out in promoting your social medias for your organization and your personal goals if you do wish to. But if you guys want to shout yourselves out and your organization's you can do so now.
Unknown Speaker 29:04
Follow us on Instagram at UNLV psi chi psi ch AI. We post all of our upcoming events there and also at UNLV underscore Psychology Club.
Unknown Speaker 29:14
We don't have social media right now, but you can join from the Involvement Center Nami on campus.
Unknown Speaker 29:21
Yeah. And also for anyone in general, always check out the Involvement Center Involvement Center is filled with over 400 student organizations and it is still adding more organizations to it. All you need is five members. You can create a club just based off of the most simplest things like tacos, you can make a taco club, if you just want, you know, any community to be a part of, I'd highly recommend Nami on campus. Their national chapter is amazing and I'm really glad they now have a UNLV chapter. And with psychiatry Psychology Club, they baby they are doing well and they can continue doing even better. better, and we're just glad to have you all here and you know, just have the conversation but we look forward to working with you too in the future.
Unknown Speaker 30:08
Thank you for having us. Awesome.
Unknown Speaker 30:13
Thank you all for listening to find more details do visit www.unlv.edu/ces us. And
Unknown Speaker 30:21
if you guys want to stay up to date with more events, go ahead and follow us at at UNLV CSUN.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai