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Sandra G

- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Columbia University

Expertise

Social Justice Issues, Psychology, Identity Development, Eating Disorders, Mental Health, Latin American Studies, Spanish, Developmental Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Career Psychology

Bio

Hi there! My name is Sandra Gomez, I am a doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology Program at Columbia University. I study ethnic identity development, mental health issues among Latinx populations, and social justice development. I also focus on educational trajectories of Latinx students. Specifically, what psychological factors go into students persistence and success in educational environments. I have experience working on different research teams, such as an eating disorders team, transgender qualitative research team, politics research team, and other teams focused on Latinx populations. I am a runner, love food, traveling, and film (movies and taking pictures on film)! I was an Au Pair in Spain one summer where I taught a 4 year old English while also enjoying the Spanish Culture. I am currently trying to pick up some skills around music, specifically the Bass. I am very interested in mentoring students to help them along their career and education goals like my own mentors have.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Destigmatizing Mental Health

For this project, you will be able to create a workshop that could be utilized in the community to help explain some of the most common mental health issues with certain populations or in general, like Major Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Sleep, Eating Disorders ect. You will have to find ways to help explain theses issues to the general public, to help destigmatize, to make information more accessible, and learn more about general mental health issues. This project can be in the form of a proposal where the different aspects of the workshop will be explained, a rationale would be provided, and what the long term effects could be.

Design a Research Study

For this project, you will be able to create a research study in a psychological topic are of your choosing. You will design the study from beginning to end: Defining a problem area to study, operationalizing the different variables, how to collect data, the research design, and what to control for. We will take a look at some previous research articles and analyze different approaches to help understand different methodologies.

The Ted Talk Experience

For this project, you will find a topic of interest in psychology that you would be excited to talk about to a general public. You will investigate this topic to become an "expert" in it. You will have to transform scientific knowledge/ jargon into a digestible piece for the general public that is just as exciting and relatable to them as it is to you! This project can be in the form of a proposal or an actual speech given in the form of a Ted Talk!

Languages I know

Spanish

Teaching experience

I have experience teaching in Belize as part of an educational course abroad. I also was part of Jumpstart-Americorps where I worked with elementary students on reading, writing, and social-emotional learning. I now teach at the University level, working with undergraduate and masters students. I have been a Teacher's Assistant for 4 different Columbia University courses.

Credentials

Work experience

University of Georgia (2019 - 2020)
Research Assistant
Michigan State University (2017 - 2017)
Research Assistant in Community Psychology
University of Missouri (2020 - 2020)
Research Assistant
Cornell College (2017 - 2018)
Eating Disorders Research Assistant

Education

Cornell College
BA Bachelor of Arts (2018)
Psychology
University of Missouri - Columbia
EdM Master of Education (2020)
Counseling Psychology
Columbia University
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Counseling Psychology

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