Written by: Kennedy Julian
Mary Price’s psychology class is a gem when it comes to the Governor’s Scholars Program. Whether they are discussing the history of psychological treatments, diving into patient profiles or working on their immersive final project, this class is extremely unique and makes you think like a psychologist.
On Friday, July 18th Mary’s psychology class began as most classes do with Mary reading the RACER report and silencing side chatter with those three special words, “Lock In Guys.” The focus for the class that day was creating patient profiles and working on their final project. For the class’s final project they will be doing an immersive museum where there are 6 rooms and each room represents a different time period of psychological treatment. The unique thing about this museum is that volunteers get to act as the patients while the psychology scholars act as the psychologists diagnosing the patients.
In class the scholars along with Mary created four patient profiles. Each patient had a specific diagnosis and the scholars were in charge of deciding everything else about them including, gender, age, social status and the symptoms that led to the final diagnosis. Whether the scholars were doing hands-on activities or social experiments on unsuspecting visitors, the scholars really are enjoying themselves.
Psychology may not have been everyone’s first pick for focus areas, it wasn’t for Scholar Micah Wyatt. Wyatt mentions how healthcare was his top pick but when he was assigned into psychology he was not upset. “Learning about psychology has helped me a lot because I want to go into trauma care and this class has taught me how to better understand the patients and what they are going through.”
In an interview with teacher Mary Price when asked about her major in college she says, “I started out in pre med and bio physics but when I decided not to go to medical school I switched to a psychology major and now work at a behavioral treatment center.” Mary has a knack for working with kids. Whether its helping kids at her job or teaching scholars at GSP, she is truly an inspiration.