05/07/03: Honors Graduate Monica Shaw on Her Way to Counseling Career

Honors Graduate Monica Shaw on Her Way to Counseling Career

CALIFORNIA, Pa. (May 7, 2003)…Monica Shaw’s curriculum vita rivals those of many older, more experienced individuals.

An exemplary Honors student from Erie, PA, Monica recently received the Honors Advisory Board Outstanding Honors Program Graduating Senior Award. She graduated in May earning a B.A., summa cum laude, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish.
Monica’s Honors Thesis was written on “Anxiety as an Intervening Variable between Parenting Style and Attachment Style.”

She has made several national presentations, including “September 11, 2001 Events: Media Coverage Influences Anxiety and Contentment” presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, and at the Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference at Washington & Jefferson College in nearby Washington.

She has also made several poster presentations at the Eastern Psychological Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Md. Last year, Monica received the State System of Higher Education Summer Honors Program scholarship. She had the opportunity to study Spanish art and culture at Lock Haven University of PA. Following two weeks of classroom preparations, she traveled to Spain for two weeks to study Spanish artwork in Madrid.
“It was a huge academic learning experience,” she says. “The classes were pretty intense plus we had all the experiences of traveling. It was invaluable for learning more about the art and culture.”

Among the many other awards she has received are the Alpha Mu Gamma Modern Language Award, the Outstanding Senior Award from the Psychology Department and the Board of Trustees Certificate of Merit.

Monica says she’s enjoyed the Honors Program and opportunities it has afforded her.
“One centerpiece course is offered each year, leading to participation in a spring trip. I’ve participated in three of them. They’re very demanding. You have the opportunity to study social science, humanities, and major works of science. One trip took us to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, where we could actually see many of the things we had studied.”
Monica chose California University because she wanted to attend a school some distance from her home in Erie, but was looking for a smaller college where she could get one-on-one individual attention.

She has returned some of that attention as she helps other students in her work as a peer mentor at Cal U. As a volunteer mentor, Monica helps students adjust to college life by talking with them about their academic and social needs.

“I heard about the mentor program from a friend and thought it was such a great idea. Being far away from home for the first time was pretty traumatic for me, so I felt I could empathize with the typical problems of incoming freshmen. It's been a very rewarding experience.” That experience is bound to help her as she continues her education. This falls she plans to enroll in the University of Akron’s Counseling Psychology program, where she hopes to earn her master’s and a Ph.D.

Monica is the daughter of George Shaw and Karen Laney.

California University of Pennsylvania
250 University Ave.,California, PA 15419
Phone: 724.938.4000
This Page Last Updated: 05/22/2003 by CMR
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