Well, hello, everybody.
I am Joe Drennan, and I'm with Feimers University.
And thank you for, you know, attending our master in psychology online webinar.
And we we're very so fortunate to have a great guest tonight.
And we have her name is Emily Hishorn.
You know, she graduated last year from the master of psychology online program.
And, you know, Emily offers both creative and practical approaches given to her background in the financial services.
That's, you know, that is where she works.
She doesn't necessarily do, you know, psychology and counseling.
But, but the, she did get a recent certification at inspiring comfort.
These are workshops to help and skill on connection and care, you know, which should bring, you know, a lot of joy to people.
And, you know, Emily was, you know, very happy with the time she spent at DMU.
He has a master in psychology.
Yeah.
But, you know, she was also working full time in the the financial services industry.
So but she's located in New York, and she hopes to continue the university's mission by sharing its unique Catholic Christian methodology and approach to healing, which is needed, oh, so much in a clinical and nonclinical way.
And, you know, she believes her age.
You know, she's been out of college five years.
Yeah.
But it enables her, broad perspective to help, you know, folks of different ages from different new universities and different, you know, whatever you graduated, whatever subject matter.
And, and but she did graduate from University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
It was pretty high honors too, and she was also a residential assistant while attending University of Notre Dame.
So what I could do is I wanna ask Emily some questions.
And, you know, please listen.
If you have questions, you know, put them in the chat.
But, well, first of all, Emily, what attracted what attracted you to Divine Mercy University?
Thanks, Joe, for your intro.
I'm honored to be here.
Thanks everybody for joining.
So I first learned about Divine Mercy when I was an undergrad at Notre Dame.
I attended one of those focused seek conferences or Catholic conferences for university students, and Divine Mercy had a table set up.
So that was kinda my first exposure.
And one of the speakers at the conference said, you know what the world needs more of, is Catholic psychologists.
So that really stuck with me.
I walked away with that little seed in my, you know, mind starting to bloom.
I was like, okay.
Maybe I'm gonna explore this more.
And what exactly is Catholic psychology?
I didn't know there could be a uniquely Catholic lens to it, but that excited me.
So it took a couple more years, after that, after, you know, graduating and starting my full time job in finance.
The idea kept coming back to me, and I wanted to pursue it further.
So, yeah, I was definitely drawn to DMU because of that kind of mission statement, but also out of curiosity for about how psychology as a science could also be theological and kind of bringing that together since theology was also another one of my pursuits, undergrad and in love.
That's a great answer.
So but, you know, when when you graduate from college with your bachelor's degree, and you know the next step is, well, maybe I'm gonna get a master's degree someday.
But, you know, what motivated you to, start and complete your your your your master's in psychology with divine mercy?
Yeah.
Definitely.
Right?
Because, you know, you undergrad can have a very academic approach.
Like, you know what you're doing.
And then once you start a job, it can kind of feel a little distance from academia.
And, but I didn't wanna forget it.
Right?
It's like, I will go back, and I will do that.
So I guess what actually motivated me to enroll when I did, was actually during the pandemic.
I think it was May 2021.
So I had already had over a year, more than that, of working fully remotely, being at home with all of my siblings also working.
My then boyfriend, now husband, was also, you know, working in our little cohort.
And, actually, it was him, Andre, who challenged me.
He's like, oh, like, you've mentioned this, you know, psychology thing.
What if you actually do it?
And I was like, okay.
I guess maybe now is a good time.
But I kept on thinking, oh, maybe I'll just catch the next cohort.
But he was like, no.
Let's like, you're interested in this.
Let's let's get it going.
So after some discussions with the admissions rep at that point and also talking to current students, I was more convinced, okay.
I can still keep, you know, two tracks going at once.
I can still work and also pursue this dream, which has been on my heart for several years, and kind of honor God with that because I felt like he had, you know, kept bringing it to mind.
And so I enrolled.
Selfishly, I think Andre is he's an investment banker, so he works a lot.
So I think he also wanted me, you know, to not be too lonely after hour.
You'll you'll have my work, and then I'll have some nighttime work that I get to do, you know, to be in in the in the trenches, you know, while he's in the trenches.
So yeah.
Well, it it seemed like it worked out pretty well.
So for you and Andre.
So but, but, you know, I mean, we have a lot of students who I mean, they have a job.
They're working full time.
You know, forty or maybe more hours a week in that.
So, I mean, how did you fit your study time into Divine Mercy University for your master's degree studies?
Yeah.
So I think, you know, when you begin any journey, it's easy to kinda minimize the effort that you perceive.
Like, okay.
I I love this idea.
It'll totally be fine.
You know?
Okay.
Just, you know, a couple hours a day.
I'll just do it after work.
But, you know, once you actually start, you kinda realize, okay.
Like, these are the demands.
You're learning a new language of, you know, APA citations, kinda getting in a new mindset.
I think also my timing, I had had a couple years out of college, so getting back into the academic mindset, writing, which I did miss, but still, you know, you gotta flex the muscle again.
So, you know, were there Friday nights?
So it's customary that we had discussion posts, you know, due on a weekly basis.
At that point, it was Friday night.
I think it got moved to Saturday, but for me, it was Friday evening, midnight.
So were there Friday evenings when I was, you know, kind of scrambling, getting things together after work, doing my readings, getting my post in, or even traveling in the back of cars, you know, going away for the weekend.
I'm like, sorry, guys.
Like, can you get my hot spot?
I I just need to get this post in.
Or landing, you know, from airplanes, being what time is it?
Okay.
Still gotta get my post in.
So, you know, part of that was definitely me.
I think I like the adrenaline of doing things, you know, and a little bit of more tight turnaround.
But, you know, on the syllabus, everything is laid out for the whole term, so you can make your plans.
You know what's due.
You could trip away at it every day, or you could find, you know, different evenings where you wanna spend more time.
It's really up to you.
That's what's great about it being mainly asynchronous.
So for working, you kind of know when would work best with your schedule.
But because of, like, the discussion, you know, post component and needing to respond to people, there have to be strict deadlines.
So, I added them to my calendars and alerts, you know, getting back into the, oh, I have this weekly deadline.
Was Netflix less part of my life then?
Definitely, you make some sacrifices.
You cut some things out.
I also rarely made plans with friends on Friday nights just because I knew I have had these, you know, standing deadlines.
But I am so grateful I did it, and I think now I'm kind of feeling like, oh, I wish I had some tangible thing I was chipping away at.
It felt so great every term to complete a course and have a new, you know, depth of knowledge and, yeah, also kind of work towards that graduation one one course at a time.
Wow.
That kinda worked really well.
So, you know, so, Emily, you know, when you're going full go, you know, for that twenty six months or so, and then you're finished.
Mhmm.
Then you're finished.
I mean, what did you do with that extra fifteen hours a week that you're not studying?
I was like, you don't wanna know.
I mean, I guess maybe I have more time for just, like, reading for fun instead of reading for school.
Maybe a little bit more regimented with getting to, like, work out or try different hobbies, see family, but I feel like it it kind of ends up being the same.
Maybe it was it's just time wasted instead of time spent.
But I do enjoy I do enjoy the free moments, and I do enjoy taking vacations without you know, you can take work off, but then you didn't couldn't take school off.
So I think it's nice to have vacations where I'm off from both.
But like I said, I I do kinda miss it sometimes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because it's a routine.
And Yeah.
It's a routine.
Sometimes when you, you know, not doing a routine, you you feel not lonely, but, like, what am I gonna do?
So oh, great.
That's a great answer.
So, like, you know, when you look at through the 11 courses that you took or thirty three credit hours in that, What did you learn most?
I learned learned a lot.
I think it's so great with the masters getting to really focus on one discipline, of your own, you know, choice.
Like, you you've chosen this.
You get to focus on it.
So after work, I was mostly always excited to to delve into the topics.
So, I mean, maybe this is a non answer, but I really learned more of what I do not know.
I think the mental health space, can kinda be almost boxed in or minimized, but I think I was opened up, to be more curious, definitely less judgmental in receiving people and understanding their complexity as a person, you know, as created by God and also with, you know, different layers, culture, family upbringing, vocation, genetics, like, all these all these factors.
And, yeah, so I I learned a lot as a person.
I know it's definitely I've applied principles in in my marriage and my family life.
I've brought ideas to work.
So yeah.
And I learned that, you know, I had basic skills as a, you know, person with empathy and person who connects to others.
But I was so excited to grow those more and be challenged, in the different coursework, and develop my writing and learn a whole, yeah, whole new language.
Mhmm.
So, yeah, I feel like I just learned a lot of different things.
I don't know if that's fully answering your question, Joe.
But So so what did you learn most about Emily?
About myself?
Well, I really liked, one of the later courses in the sequence, which is about leading and facilitating groups.
It's, like, kind of group work.
It's the kind of a human services course.
And I guess I learned we didn't have concentrations at at that point in time when I did the program.
They're being developed.
But if I were to do it now, I would probably lean towards the human services one because I loved all the courses that were categorized as that.
So I learned that I did have natural skills as, a leader and that I'm not really phased by, you know, complex or difficult situations.
But I kinda had a hat of I was told I had kind of had the persona of almost like a high school, leader because I did this you know, I did lead groups as a high school or in college student, but I had to adjust my approach when working with adults.
So it was, like, good to just have, like, okay.
You have these skills, but we're gonna, like, change the context or, yeah, of it.
And I learned more about, what we spent a lot of time on empathy, kind of like a no joke.
Like, what is empathy?
We got a demo through different situations.
I made, you know, my husband's now husband, Andre, be my, like, counterpart and go through different scenarios.
Kinda we still have those videos.
Kinda hilarious.
But when you review yourself on video, you kind of notice a lot of new things.
So I learned kind of practical things about how I could adjust my leadership approach and approach to people when they have different needs that come up.
But I also learned and was grateful for kinda the sandbox that we were shown where we were would exist.
So a lot of the professors have, are doctors either, like, academically or, like, you know, medically in, you know, the psychology space.
So I really appreciated when they brought in stories from their clinical experiences to to help further, like, show and illustrate to us the, you know, the theories that we were learning, but at the same time, also gratitude for their work and also how it's different from what our work would be as MSP graduates, kind of referring out in those cases when, you know, the scope is too broad for our knowledge.
So seeing the partnership there, but also really liking learning about the clinical side as well.
So I was grateful when the professors brought that in.
It's very well said.
And one more question.
And, you know, our whole, I guess, foundation and which makes Divine Mercy University unique is that, you know, the deeper understanding of the whole person, which we call the Catholic and Christian Meta Model.
So how did that help you, of course, so you could help other people first?
Yes.
So I think it's so so amazing that, you know, we call the CCMMP Catholic Christian Meta Model of Human Person is really part of every course.
And we we review different excerpts and definitely cite it a lot in our posts and also use it in our eventual capstone project that we you work on throughout the program.
So it's definitely the handbook for bringing together all these topics, psychology, philosophy, theology, coming together.
So I think it it really is illustrates the generosity of of God and the way that he heals, you know, in terms of and also other important things like evil, not being foundational, but good being foundational and, you know, humanity being created for for goodness and flourishing and created for love and community.
So being able to see the brokenness in the world, but through this lens and understanding that humans are made for more, is really positive.
And, also, we're not left alone in that.
So, like, God as being this creator and this healer as as part of the process from beginning is really great and life changing.
In terms of my own life, I think I was able to explore, prioritization better, like levels of vocation and and God.
You know, you can say, oh, God should be first, but, really, it's like, wow.
Our primary vocation is this, you know, relationship with God.
And then secondary is, you know, lay or married or priesthood.
And then the third level is work.
So I think work can sometimes feel like, oh, it's it's first, but it's not.
So I think back to that a lot.
And, also, I think the discussion of virtues is so is so positive and enlightening.
I'm really thinking through my own life, where are the struggles, what are the roadblocks, to you know, not just generally being a good person, but being a virtuous person, being, you know, a person for others, a woman of God, but also having more understanding of of the complexity of why people struggle and, I think, you know, exploration of addiction and everything, not just putting it on them, but understanding all this, you know, cycles and steps that have led them there.
And, yeah, I think just more generosity for the complexity.
So, yeah, the the model is everything.
It reminds me I should go back to it and explore it.
But I also encourage everyone on this call to watch the commencement speech from doctor Paul Vitz from 2023, my grad year.
It was amazing.
It kinda tracks out the history of psychology as he sees it since he was part of, you know, part of its history in shaping our university, and illustrating how the Catholic model really does go beyond what the secular, approach to psychology can offer and even what positive psychology can offer because that focuses on virtues and everything.
But, it's still not enough because you said you don't want to get someone from negative 10 to zero.
We wanna get them from negative 10 to 10 or something.
Like and also not just focusing on this world, but focusing on flourishing in the next.
Like, we're not just healing for a limited number of years.
We're trying to heal someone to then be, with God forever.
So that is very different, than secular psychology.
Oh, yes, Jennifer.
We will post Cool.
What's the name?
Or I can even post the link for you.
Let me look it up.
So, it was a question from Jennifer, and she says, what was his name?
Is she referring to maybe doctor Vitz?
Yes.
And I can also post the commencement clip as well after we conclude.
I mean, I I met doctor Vitz.
He is just the I'm not gonna say a bigger than life person, but pretty much.
And, he's just very on it and he has great sense of humor and, but, you know, he wrote that 900 page book on the Catholic Christian.
So that was pretty good.
So, you know, any other any other questions for Emily?
Well, you put the YouTube.
Is that did you do that, Emily?
Okay.
Great.
Thank you.
Of course.
I might watch it again.
It was so good.
Because, I wonder.
Oh, we well, all I could say is this, Emily and Nathan, is that, not everybody in the program's Catholic, but the Christian or, you know, they have some type of faith, which is they believe that there is something higher, you know, than us that guides us.
Yes.
Thank you for your question, Nathan.
It's a good one.
So I think the great thing is that the framework, while it is Catholic Christian, is still for every human person.
So, you know, what is desired for humanity in terms of flourishing, is for every person regardless of their faith.
And, definitely, this comes up as a topic in several of the courses in terms of cultural awareness and, like, you know, other faiths and, like, how to be sensitive to the specific needs of the person.
And, really, where they open a door, you can open the door to.
Again, we're not becoming counselors, but in conversations, like, other people will lead the way and even recognizing a creator or another factor in life, has been shown to, like, aid with healing.
But even if they don't have any belief, still being groundwork in the framework in terms of its goals for the person, is different than just a secular perspective.
And approaches offered would also be different as well.
Like marriage counseling offered by, you know, the secular side can, you know, suggest, you know, immoral approaches like, oh, like, this has happened.
No.
I've heard it from others.
Oh, just watch pornography together.
Like, that'll help with their intimacy.
So, like, that's an example of when something, you know, not positive, negative for marriage is introduced, but would not be introduced from a Catholic background.
That's kind of an extreme example, but, hopefully, it answers what you're saying.
But, yes, sensitivity and awareness is definitely there, but not in terms of minimizing what we think, is essential in terms of the framework that has been, you know, developed and put forth by Divine Mercy.
Right.
And, again, you know, Emily refers to secular psychology.
And, you know, secular psychology is psychology that you learn from usually from a public university and many private universities.
And it's just it's just psychology.
And, you know, in our program, you know, we do of course, we teach psychology.
We have some philosophy, but we also infuse psychology to where we don't have, like, a religion one zero one course, but we may make references to the saints and the Bible to help you flourish so you can help other people flourish if you're working with.
Definitely.
And it's not like actually, the research literature written by Catholics is more minimal.
You know?
So we're you're reading research literature that's, you know, you know, been written by all kinds of authors.
So it's not like you always have the, the content isn't always specifically Catholic, but you always have this lens with which to review everything and the studies and how they're conducted and everything.
So, yeah, you really get the best of both worlds, like, scientific rigor.
Like, there's a statistics course that you have to take, very helpful, little tricky, but helpful.
And there's philosophy and, you know, basically yeah.
As Joe has mentioned, it all fits together.
So it's a framework, but in terms of the materials itself, you get to really review and and come to your your conclusions from them.
Right.
Because it's, you know, we it's you're trying to find that deeper understanding of the people because, you know, sometimes you you ask a question, to someone and how's it going or whatever, and they give you this.
But then you ask another question.
What about this or that?
And they tell you more.
And then, you know, it then you ask another question on, well, you know, how does that affect you or or what have you on that?
And but, you know, a lot of what we do is it's psychology is not telling people what to do.
It's asking people.
And, you know, and with their answers, you use your skills to give them the best direction possible.
But, you know, when you ask a lot of questions, many people, they'll figure out their own path because, oh, I get it.
It's a a eureka moment.
And, they can go from, you know, they can go from there and, you know, figure it out themselves.
But they need you to help them, you know, with that part of their journey.
So so Emily, another question here is, well, I mean, so the question is, sounds great.
I'm Catholic but interested in helping those in background.
Okay.
You answered them, Lisa.
That's good.
Supporting.
Supporting Nathan.
Renathan.
Oh, there's Therese.
You know this person.
So Yes.
Therese and I were in the same cohort.
Yeah.
From the I made their statistics.
It wasn't that bad.
Statistics is not that bad.
It's all good.
Okay.
But it's great when you That's fine.
Well, I mean, these are awesome.
Really, really great questions.
And, I mean, I guess my question to everybody here is, you know, do you want to step up into that next level in getting a master's degree in psychology?
That's gonna take time.
And I'm not gonna say money.
You know, you can always recoup money.
But, you know, you it's tough to recoup time so you can help other people help people.
And that's what this is about.
And we we wanna help people.
There's so many problems out there today.
And, you know, a lot of it, people they they just need someone to listen to them.
But with your skills and what they tell you, you can direct them in the right ways.
Absolutely.
So, anyway, we have Charice.
And Charice was, Emily's, you know, classmate.
And, you know, so she's a graduate, but she is an admissions adviser.
And she she does she and she enrolls for the master of psychology and the master's of counseling.
So what Charisse was gonna do, she was gonna go through the we we call it our little presentation about the master's degree of psychology online.
So it's all yours, Therese.
Great.
I'll just do a quick introduction of myself.
Yes.
I my name is Therese.
I joined DMU here as an admissions adviser just last year last October, But I am actually a student at CMU since summer twenty twenty one.
We were a great cohort.
So Emily was in my cohort.
We've been we were working together for two two years to complete it, and we graduated.
We were able to walk.
You'll actually see it's very funny.
It'll be on this deck, this little presentation that we give.
So I'll just do a brief overview of the master's in psychology program.
Emily, I'll just ask you random questions in between.
K?
So the Weimer University, we started out with the psychological sciences in 1999, as a school as just a school for psychology.
And in 2015, we expanded with the school of counseling, which is so now we are expanded to university status, Divine Mercy University.
And we are accredited through SAC, which is an association of colleges and schools, to award masters and doctorate degrees.
And this is doctor Julia Clousely, who is the program director for the MSP program.
She is so kind.
You can she is always able to reach out to students, and you're always able to reach out to her.
You can even reach out to her now as a prospective student, and she would love to walk with you through what the MSE program entails.
So, the classes are a 100% online.
It's absolutely true, and classes really mainly are on your schedule.
There are a few synchronous times where you get to meet with professors, but that's usually scheduled out the beginning of each class, and it's usually recorded as well, and you can watch it again later.
We're built on the intuitive approach to psychology, which is we we read this textbook almost cover to cover.
It's called the Catholic Christian mental model of the person.
It's amazing.
You get to learn, to view each person philosophically, theologically, and psychologically.
We are made in image and likeness of but we have rational thought and emotions.
But yet we have vocation.
We have virtues to live out.
How do we incorporate all of that into our lives?
K?
And we also have two completion tracks, which are sixteen and twenty six months.
So just over a year versus, about two years.
There's individualized feedback every week from the professors, and this was true.
I'm very surprised how often they responded to every single thing that I that I, submitted, which I thought was really neat.
Small student to faculty ratio.
There's different kinds of learning modalities such as video, reading, interactions with students, and we also have very experienced and supportive faculty.
So, honestly, the there are so many benefits in the MSE program.
Honestly, for me, the the main benefit I got was really number one.
You there was a lot of self reflection and a lot of, understanding about yourself.
Because in order to help others, you should also be able to understand yourself so that you can help other people.
And, my background actually before, while I was doing my MSP was I was in ministry.
I was a sacraments coordinator, so I encountered families.
I encountered kids, teenagers, and a lot of different kinds of situations.
So I actually need to understand that I needed to be able to be a better leader, to be a better, minister to them.
So for me, that was the best understanding I can get from this from this program.
And you'll get this whole idea of concern called flourishing.
Not only are you personally flourishing, but you're also learning how to help others flourish.
Emily, what do you what was your the best benefit?
I don't know if you already answered this.
I apologize.
The best benefit you got out of the MSP program?
Oh, no.
No.
I didn't get that one.
Yeah.
I really like this right up here, actually.
I would say definitely several of them stick out.
Personal and professional flourishing, resilient and welcoming environments of mental health care.
Absolutely.
That one.
Yes.
Effect evaluating factors of programs.
Yeah.
I think I I left with both qualitative and quantitative skills in terms of noticing noticing needs, responding, and just having more compassion and empathy for the complexity of of humanity, which I kinda touched on a little earlier.
And then personally, helps my marriage, helps me as a colleague, more empathy.
Right?
All these things.
And, yeah, just kinda feeling very I feel very felt really connected Mhmm.
Especially Divine Mercy, and I loved our our cohort of students, and just, yeah, just really unique relationships and experience.
Absolutely.
When you're talking about communication, I just remember two classes that we're going to talk I'm gonna talk about here shortly, which was relationship interventions and group counseling.
And that was those are really challenging classes for me to be able to, work with people one on one, how to attend to people, how to show empathy, not necessarily sympathy.
All of that was part of the MSP program.
So there are several focuses and tracks, in the MSP program.
As you can see, I'm right here, and Emily's right here too.
They changed this deck.
So we we we're official now.
We we've graduated, Emily.
We were there.
We're there.
So there are many there are many concentrations, marriage and family, human services, which I call sort of, like, the mini counseling track, leadership, pre PhD, self design where you can choose electives, and the bioethics track.
There are eight core courses.
So the intro to psychology here, developmental psychology, which was so impactful for me as someone who works with families always, psychopathology.
Oh, give me a sec.
I was working on something.
It's gone.
Are you doing the Yes.
I apologize.
One second.
So sorry.
The dongle psychology, psychopathology, cognition, emotion, motivation, locations and virtues, statistics class, social psychology, and research methodology.
Here is marriage truck with the three electives for marriage, human sexuality, marriage interventions, family system.
And this is really for people who want to help couples and families with flourishing.
And then This is for those who want to sort of work more on people one on one, meeting human needs, doing social services, so relationship under them, personality, individual individual differences and intelligence, and group counseling.
Then you have your three leadership courses designed for people who currently work in ministry or want to improve, their relationship with the with their coworkers and the people they work with.
K.
So transformational leadership, leading people, programs, and organizations that apply leadership skills are those electives.
And this is the one I chose, actually.
I chose self design.
I did three different electives.
I chose relationship intervention skills, transformational leadership, as well as group counseling.
Emily, can you speak on maybe one or two of these tracks if you like?
Yeah.
So I guess I mentioned earlier, we we kind of were in the program when the concentrations were forming, so I also end up with what we call self design.
If I were to do it again, I would probably do the human services, because I like the the quasi counseling, kind of practical courses.
So, like, relationship intervention and then the group counseling group work were definitely some of my favorites.
We did oh, but we did get a question from Nathan about counseling, but I see that you'll follow-up on that.
So but, yeah, I really enjoyed all the courses for for different reasons, but they do bring, you know, work different parts of your brain, I felt like.
And kind of to respond to you, Nathan, I know you'll get a further follow-up later.
The program in MSP is not to become licensed in certain states, and, the Divine Mercy does offer a full on counseling program, which you can also explore.
But for my purposes, I didn't wanna become licensed, but I wanted to just generally become more adept in identifying, responding, and leading in different situations and being more attuned to the varied mental health needs that are out there.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
I actually probably would have done the same thing because I've heard this class was amazing.
Personality, individual differences, and intelligence.
So, Nathan, I will, I will talk with you probably briefly that the master's in counseling program is with the licensure.
It is twice as long.
It's, 66, graduate hours with seven hundred hours of clinical.
And it's very different from the master's in psychology program in which you are actually wanting to become more of the one on one restorative, restorative healing.
K?
Becoming a licensed practicing therapist.
This is the pre PhD track where you actually get to finish a master's thesis.
So instead of three electives, two of those electives will turn into thesis writing, and you also get one free elective.
So if you want to do, like, PhD, this is, this is the track for you.
And then the newest track we have so far yes.
It's okay.
This is the bioethics track, the newest track that we have, which is really for those who are working in health care or constantly engaging those, like, ethical ethical situations facing life, death, maybe vaccines, gender.
So this is a great course.
We also have we have a certificate course for this where you take a few of our core classes and finish out your nine credits of electives with through the NCBC, which is the NASA cash National Catholic Bioethics Center, or you can actually complete the full program and use those bioethics courses as your elective.
This is a great new, partnership we just have we just gained just, I think, the end of last year.
So, again, the learning experience of the MSP is that you get the ability to work anywhere, anytime, and you have continuous access to online platform.
I mean, while I was on vacation, I was able to bring download audio and and video on my phone, and it was really great to have that ability.
We have five sensory learning points, different ways to learn during this program, and, again, your weekly individualized feedback from the professor.
This is the core faculty of the MSP program.
All of them are either PhDs or PsyD.
And, of course, doctor Klausley, who is our MSP program director.
I mean, I had a class from every single one of these professors.
Emily was right along here with me.
We all of them were really fantastic, and all of them have stood out to me.
And then, also, when you start the MSP, you are assigned an adviser as well.
My adviser was doctor Williamson.
And just briefly, one of one of the one of the professors that just stood out to me was doctor Cusimano when when she did group counseling with me.
I mean, my particular cohort was more introverted, and she was the extroverted professor.
I don't know how else to explain this, but she was she just made group counseling as daunting as that class was really, really fun and engaging.
So here are the general MSP acceptance requirement, bachelor's degree.
Applicants must have a 2.5 GPA, two letters of recommendation, resume, two, two a written statement, of intent indicating how your goals are aligning with the goals of the program.
Your total for I look for is if you are an international, or from a non native speaking country, and there's also a an a mandatory virtual orientation with the program.
So, of course, is grad school affordable?
Because we are accredited, we do, we do qualify for federal aid, so student loans.
The re you can also check your employer if there's any tuition reimbursement for your employer.
We have approved veteran funding through the GI Bill, and we have a lot of scholarships and grants where you can look it up on our website.
Our, our university, after you apply, does one on one meetings with financial aid so they can help you figure out and determine all the scholarships and grants that are available to you.
Alternative fund financing include private funds, any parish or diocesan support.
You can really ask your parish, or your church if you have if they can help you fund your, your grad school.
There are a lot of, Catholic nonprofits or even nonprofits in general that can help match funds.
There are possible grant programs in your area and cash plans.
So I was a full time student while I was sorry.
A full time worker while I was a part time student.
So I was able to set up monthly payment plans through DMU.
So that was really helpful for me because it's also interest free, and it didn't hit the bank as hard.
And, of and, of course, any other family assistance savings.
So this is the direct cost tuition and fees for the program.
850 per credit for 33 credit hours.
That is 11 courses.
Comes up to 28,000 with the tax fee, and the residency fee comes out to $28,008.50.
But, of course, again, that's not all upfront.
That's paid out in time, and they'll only ask for the money that you're about for the classes you're about to take.
Can I add some of that to Therese?
Sure.
You know, include your books.
And It does include your books.
Books.
I mean, today, I mean, they're very, very expensive.
I mean, you're looking 300 to $500 per book.
So times 11 books, that's what, or $300, but this is included in the tuition.
That's all I got to say about that.
Thanks, Joe.
Yes.
This is all basically all in.
There's no there's no extra there's really no extra fees outside of I think graduation had some fees.
Other than that, this is basically all inclusive.
During the sixteen month track, which is, again, is the full time student route, will give you about a 25% discount on four courses, comes down to 25,500.
And if you're doing the twenty six month course, which is the part time route, 28,050.
So, really, the main difference is for the full time route, you're taking two classes at a time, and the twenty six months, you're taking one class at a time.
Really great for our full time workers who want to keep working while gaining their degree and those who have the time to do the sixteenth the two classes at a time.
That that the sixteen month track is great for you.
Okay.
So just in general, I'd love to I would love if there are any other questions.
I mean, the MSC program was honestly really great for me.
I was one of the things I never really got I got to go, realize that I was able to do was, you create a a project called a capstone project, and you research you research and you find a need locally to you, and you research and you create a solution for the for that problem.
For example, when I was working in ministry, I was the first communion, coordinator, and I completely revamped the first communion program.
Now you didn't have to implement it, but I did.
I did a lot of research on, small group learning, developmental psychology that millennials are millennials and Gen z learn differently from, you know, gen, gen x and the baby boomers, for example.
All of that culminated into this program where I now do parent information as well as children formation because I realized the kids don't care if the parents don't care.
I created a whole new parent formation program for first communion, and it's still ongoing at my parish today.
And then I I I would just love the MSP program so much.
It taught me so much that I'm also now an admissions adviser for this program as well.
Emily, do you wanna talk a little bit about, your experience with your capstone?
Sure.
So my capstone was about fertility awareness program for teenage girls, and I really enjoyed, you know, exploring this topic, because there's actually not a lot of research literature about this specific type of program for teens.
There's only about, like, one other study that seems similar, so it was kinda exciting to to see that, and also, you know, develop a program.
Again, it's in theory.
I didn't actually, implement it, but I think it was a really good, challenge, I think, to not just yeah.
I can kinda be, just an ideas person.
So I was like, no.
You have to implement this implement it.
How are you gonna track it?
How are you gonna see if it, was successful?
So yeah.
So from, like, start to finish, and you chip away at it in the program.
So it's not overwhelming because it's course by course.
Like, okay.
This is this the snippet that you're gonna do.
You get comments, and then you move along.
So, by the end, you're definitely pleased with what you've created.
But, yeah, that I don't know if that, yeah, kinda answers your question, Tracy.
Yes.
Perfectly.
Because we had, we had so many different kinds of capstones.
There was one that wanted to introduce special needs programs at at their parish.
There was one that, wanted to look more into ongoing marriage education for elderly.
There was so many kinds of Capstones out there, and it was just beautiful to actually see that.
But you got to see everybody else's project evolve as well as you go through the program, and, actually, I thought that was really beautiful to see that.
K?
So if you're thinking about the master's psychology program, think about how what your goals are.
Think about what you're looking to do in the next five years, what you what do you see yourself doing?
Does it because it's asynchronous, you know, really think about whether or not you have the time and if it if you're able to work with it around your schedule.
Think about the financial options discussed, and then think about and then we can also talk talk with you about with financial aid in that regard.
And can you commit to the successful completion of the program if accepted?
So for those that, are very interested in this program, we still have an early admission scholarship.
Please go ahead.
I will go we can go ahead and send you the application link.
If you turn if you turn in your application, just the application, not not get necessarily, you know, the documentation yet.
You could be eligible for a $1,500 scholarship, early admission scholarship.
K.
So the next start will be summer.
May '21, somewhere in there.
Mid May.
Mid May will be the next start.
The next start after that will be in August.
We have three starts every year, January, May, and August.
So you have that time to, really discern the timing that works out for you.
So if you apply for May, I mean, we we have orientations that that are gonna get you ready for online learning.
You know, some of you may have, you know, did online learning.
That's great.
Some of you have not.
But, you know, we want you to know how to do it our way.
And that's probably what Charice about, what, fifteen or twenty hours a week or, ten or fifteen hours a week on your own time.
You think that?
Emily?
About the same?
Nope.
For orientation, to get you ready for online learning.
So, I mean, we want to A few hours.
Definitely.
Every day.
Okay.
Alright.
Very good.
We got your time scales.
I mean, because we want you to succeed.
So Mhmm.
Yes.
I think the most the the most interesting part was getting to know the library, getting to know how to do AKA math.
Writing was so intense, but that was part of the orientation.
And don't worry.
Professors are generally kind until towards probably the second or third class where they really start saying you really need to get your APA style down.
But they're very they're kind.
Then you feel so cool once you do know it.
You're like, oh.
Oh, exactly.
I'm like, oh, I know how to reference everything.
Yeah.
I mean, once we got to the once we were able to figure out the library and how to know how to research, I mean, that was actually really fun to start reading through a lot of research on what's done on a particular topic.
Yes.
Really.
Mhmm.
Are there any other questions from the group?
I apologize for my for my lateness and the technical issues here.
That's you know, I always look at you know, I mean, psychology is something you gotta do from the heart to help people, but it's pretty much a superpower to to you know, you have to serve knowledge and understanding of you don't know so much.
You'll tell them what to do.
You you just ask them questions.
You know?
That is, you know, very true, and, I'll stop at that.
Yes.
Thank you so much, Joe.
Is there no other questions?
Oh my gosh.
Thank you so much, Emily.
Thank you.
It's so great to see you so it's so great to see you again.
Yay.
You guys.
Absolutely.
Must catch up.
Let's catch up with the group.
So Alright.
If there are no other questions, thank you so much.
Feel, feel free to email me or Joe or any other, if you're interested, and happy to help you out in the admissions process.
Thank you so much, Charisse.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Joe.
Thanks, Emily.
Or me.
Feel free to email me.
Bye bye.
Thanks, Emily.
Thanks.
Bye, Emily.
Bye.