And thank you everybody, tonight's, you know, webinar on the master's degree of psychology.
I have a, one of our graduates Go ahead.
She is from Canada, and we have, there's a school a little bit north of, Toronto called Our Lady Seed of Wisdom.
And she is the, director of student services, and she's also a professor of psychology now.
So she'll be teaching, you know, classes for that.
And, anyway, you know, she has been through the program, you know, remotely in, you know, in Canada.
She came to graduation.
We met her and, just, you know, wonderful person.
So, anyway, welcome, Karen.
And, so, I'm gonna ask Karen, you know, a few questions.
And, so so so, Karen, you know, like I said, there's a lot of schools that you could have gone to.
Why did you choose Divine Mercy University for the master of psychology degree online?
Well, I I first of all, I wanted I needed to continue to work full time, in in my job as director of student services.
So I needed to find an online program.
And then I was looking through online programs, and the main reason is that I didn't want to have to study psychology from a secular perspective.
And Divine Mercy when I came across Divine Mercy, it was everything I was looking for.
So I was thrilled that I could actually study psychology online and work full time and not have to spout nonsense and be able to learn the material from a Catholic perspective.
It was extremely important to me.
Yeah.
That's great.
So but, so how did you manage your time, being working full time and going to school?
Well, I it did take a lot of evenings and weekends.
But because the program is 99% of the time, you're working independently, you can manage it in your at your own time, which is very important.
So I didn't have to attend classes at any particular time, so So that made a big difference.
Mhmm.
And the material, there's a, you know, there's a fair bit of reading and there's a fair bit of writing, but it wasn't onerous.
It was entirely possible to do it evenings and weekends while I worked full time and still managed to do quite well.
So yeah.
Oh, very good.
So and, you know, every every student has to write with a capstone paper.
And, Karen, what was your capstone paper title?
My capstone was, are for students at Our Lady Seat at Wisdom College.
It was I created a, mental health training seminar Mhmm.
For the student leaders at Our Lady Seed of Wisdom College.
So that was my title.
Basically, it was a program where during the summer, during their training during the summer, the students learn how they can handle mental health issues that may arise in their households when they are RAs and proctors in the in the different households.
Okay.
And you you you know, in in the program, you know, I call you do a lot of what I call researching.
You know, you find different articles through the library.
You know, you read them.
Yes.
Then you write about them and then reflect on them.
So, I mean, how did you find your your topics for that interesting capstone?
Well, the database that we have access to through Divine Mercy University is amazing.
And I was able to research questions like, our resident assistant training and, mental health in college, problems among college students and things like that.
I could actually just search my topics in the database, and all kinds of articles would come up.
So I was able to find an awful lot.
And using that, Divine Mercy database, it was amazing.
Okay.
So, I mean, you you know, Our Lady Seed of Wisdom, you know, it's a, you know, one entity of a college.
I mean, is is this something more of a, like, a group issue among all the universities in Canada and The US?
Our Lady Seed of Wisdom College is very tiny.
We're a very small school, and so we don't have the same amount of access to the databases that I could I could access through Divine Mercy, so I was grateful for that.
Mhmm.
I mean, we have some, but not not to the extent that Divine Mercy has.
I see.
So, you know, when when you went through the program, did you did you have a favorite class?
Oh, gosh.
I loved a lot of them.
Developmental psychology.
And in fact, the course that I'm teaching at the college in January will be, developmental psychology two, which is development from adolescence through old age.
Oh, that's a that's a big life that's a big span.
It's a big span.
But there's an but the the development from prenatal to the beginning of adolescence is also actually very packed.
That's a course of itself.
And then from adolescence through old age is another course.
So that's what I'm gonna be teaching.
But it touches on all kinds of current hot button topics, which will be very interesting to address.
Okay.
Because, you know, you know, many time well, many times a lot of times when you you're immersed into the program, you you you have many different instructors for your courses and that.
But, how did your instructors help you individually, Karen?
Some of them had, times when we would agree as a class, which might what time might be a good time to have a Zoom meeting as a group.
Those were very helpful, especially because also when we had those Zoom meetings, we were able to interact more face to face with the other students in the program.
Oh, okay.
And, actually, I became very close with an quite a number of the students in my cohort, and that was really lovely.
So Yeah.
So you had had Zoom meetings with your your your fellow students then too?
Yes.
With the professor and the fellow students.
Oh, okay.
And then professors would also whenever we would write something, professors would give feedback.
Some professors would create a video that we could watch where they discussed the topic that we were writing about on a particular week or more of their expectations for the the topic we had to write on.
And so there were a variety of ways that the professors were very helpful.
And how did you I mean, I don't know if you knew your your your capstone title from day one or before you started classes, but how did you arrive at your capstone title?
Well, because I work in the department of student services, I would be getting RAs and proctors coming to me very stressed because of having to deal with mental health issues in their houses, and they felt very unprepared for this.
So I suddenly realized what a need there was to prepare them, and so that's what inspired me to choose my capstone topic.
So Yeah.
Because I was seeing burnout in the RAs and proctors Oh, mhmm.
Because of the stress of dealing with mental health issues in their in their households.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a problem to do.
And, also, not even necessarily only mental health issues, but even just ordinary issues of, things like relationship problems or discipline areas, having to discipline their fellow students.
Some of those were challenging things for them as well.
So my my topic was quite like, we covered quite a few things.
It was it's a two day seminar two well, two half day seminars.
Eight hours of seminar Mhmm.
On dealing with issues in their households.
Okay.
So now you said that now you're just you're to be teaching develop mental or, Yes.
Developmental psychology?
Yes.
Okay.
So I'm sure you have to have a good lesson plan and syllabus and all that.
Now you have to develop that yourself or I do.
Okay.
I do.
And thanks to Divine Mercy, I am actually incorporating some aspects of what I learned at Divine Mercy, particularly the Catholic model of the human person, which we talk about quite a bit.
I'm going to be incorporating some of that into the beginning of that course to give us a a framework within which to discuss human development.
And, you know, and one thing I know in in our first class psychology five fifty, which is we call it the the I call it the flourishing class.
Yes.
And, how do you help people flourish, Erin?
My goal my job, really, I would say, at Our Lady's Seat of Wisdom is to allow the students to succeed.
I my student success is my my big project, my big job at the college, and it's helping them basically overcome obstacles to success for so whether they are, you know, stress, anxiety, sometimes some of them are dealing with mental health issues, depression, various things.
Some of them are dealing with, household relationship problems.
The amount of things I learned doing the program at Divine Mercy that have helped me do my job better.
It's it's incredible.
I mean, it's night and day, the amount how much I'm more able to help the students at the college given what I learned at Divine Mercy.
I'm much, much more effective as a helping professional.
Oh, great.
Great.
Because, you know, it looks like there some of the participants of future students may have some questions for you.
And I don't know if we wanna do these by chat or if you can ask them because, Sheree, looks like you had to add some questions.
I do.
I don't mind.
It doesn't have to be chat.
I'm I'm happy to have them Okay.
Ask.
Yes.
Oh, awesome.
Thank you.
First of all, do you have to be Catholic to go there?
You don't.
You don't have to.
But you do have to practicing.
Okay.
You do have to realize that the program is taught from a Catholic perspective.
Yes.
And you do have to read church documents as well.
I love well, I'm a Christian.
I just I'm not a practicing Catholic.
It's not a church that I've gone to since I was a little girl.
My my grandfather was a knight of Columbus.
Okay.
So yes.
You it don't have to be Catholic.
You just have to the the Catholic meta model is called actually called the Catholic Christian meta model of the it's really the way Christians see.
Yes.
And it's not it's you know, you're not gonna find things that conflict with your Christian beliefs.
You it you know?
Yeah.
I know.
Realize it's from a Catholic perspective, but it's it's from a Christian perspective.
Yeah.
It's just I like you like you.
I'm I wanted I want to go somewhere where I'm not gonna get a secular education.
Exactly.
And that that's what I'm looking for, and that's why I wanted to come to this webinar, divine Yes.
And, I'm also curious.
I was thinking you've been you've been teaching.
Have you always taught where you are?
No.
I'm just starting teaching where I am.
I need because we at a college level, you have to have a master's degree to teach.
So until I've been working in the department of student services, and when I became the director of student services, when the director retired and I took over her position, that's when I needed to find a master's program because in order to really do that job, I needed a master's degree.
So, really, originally, I was just getting the letters after my name, but this program has made me much more effective in that job and now also is allowing me to teach at the college.
And that's what I wanna do is teach university.
Mhmm.
I've been in a middle school and high school classroom for ten years.
Okay.
Perfect.
And and, and secular classrooms.
Okay.
I've taught public school my whole career, and I I have, like, two possibilities of capstones I'm already thinking about, and I haven't even signed up.
So and you take funding from the federal government.
Student loans would be the only way I'd be able to, possibly go.
And we give scholarships too, but not a 100% sure.
Oh my gosh.
That'd be amazing.
Depending upon this or that, but, you know, that's something we, you know, we can discuss.
Yeah.
Sure.
Also, the reason I also wanna do a master of science besides being able to, you know, eventually teach, and be a doctor is, I was just diagnosed with bipolar this last year.
I've had it all my life.
I was diagnosed with depression as a young child, but in fact, as an infant.
Mhmm.
Yeah.
My parents.
Long story.
But I wanna help people like me.
Yep.
And so that's another reason why I would love to come to Divine Mercy is because I wanna do it from a Christian perspective, and I love God, and I want them I I want to share God's love with anybody that I encounter besides possibly, you know, words of encouragement Right.
And teaching still.
And that is something we discuss a lot at Divine Mercy.
And, you know, it sounds like you're you're you're you're flourishing already, Sheree.
Yeah.
And Well, right now, I'm not teaching, but I'm I'm not doing anything right now.
I'm trying to get my cocktail of medication correct so that I can participate in in life again.
That's great.
So so, Delia.
Yes.
Oh, please please tell us your question.
Oh, of course.
My question is, so does the master's degree in counseling, does it prepare you to take the LPC?
And are you okay?
I can answer that one, but you you had part two of the question, though, too.
And are you yet, have you been paid prep accredited?
Well, you know, our master in psychology, you know, it's a 100% online.
You know?
You can do it in as little as sixteen months or twenty six months Mhmm.
By either taking two classes or one class at a time.
Now what state do you live in, Delia?
I live in Virginia.
Okay.
So, you know, in Virginia, we we we have a it is a master's in counseling Mhmm.
Towards licensure, but it's a five year program.
Right.
And Yeah.
And it's different programs.
The master of science the master of science is a stand alone program, and it's it is not licensable.
Then there's the the master of counseling, and it is licensable.
Oh, okay.
So there's two programs.
Yeah.
I do have a master's degree, and, I'm an art therapist.
And I've been an art therapist since the mid nineties, and I'm also working on my substance abuse licensure.
But I've I've I wanted to go for a a license in a LPC.
But I I I I need, totally online because of work and that I could, work at my pace.
And I do like the Catholic or, you know, aspect of it, which you don't see very much.
Right.
The counseling degree is not entirely online.
There is some component that is on campus.
The master of science is completely online.
Hello, Karen Hammond?
It's our director of alumni relations there, Karen.
Karen Hammond master's in psychology admissions person.
I'm gonna interject because, gosh, you guys have such a dynamic webinar tonight.
But, you know, one thing, Marie, that I asked when I first started, as I said, why doc back then, it was doctor Duhemaine, who was the director of the program.
I said, tell me how to tell because we wanna put people in the right profession.
What's the difference the big difference between the master's in counseling and the master's in psychology?
She says pretty simple, Michelle.
A master's in counseling, you basically were working all the time with very broken people.
She says, masters in psychology, you have the skills and the traits and the abilities to help people not get broken.
So we do have people in everything from, oh gosh, anything from behavioral count it's not counseling, but it's in a hospital environment where they need people who have a master's in psychology.
We have individuals who are life coaches.
We have people in a lot of areas of leadership.
So I think the being in the alumni association, I help place people.
I put them in positions.
There's three things.
Look at what you know you're gonna enjoy.
Feed upon the talents you already have.
And I remember when I talked with Karen a long time ago, you know, we talked very in-depth because it was a huge decision for her.
Being in Canada and already in another institution of higher learning, we were always so proud that she made that decision and meet her at a graduation and getting to see her and hug her in person was even better.
But one of the things that you can always do as any of our students, you can connect with me and alumni relations, and I always help you direct you to where maybe you need to go.
So I'll hush up, but I'm just upstairs listening to this very dynamic, webinar.
And thank you again, Karen, for your gift of time.
You're welcome, Michelle.
Nice to see you.
Okay.
So so so, Dale, yeah, I mean, those are great questions, and sometimes, you know, it everybody wants to be president of The United States.
Okay.
And sometimes, you gotta you you just kinda have to start out as a senator.
So When I'm like, in the in the classes that I had, in my cohort, there were a wide variety of people doing a wide variety of things.
There were parish priests.
There were people who were working on campus ministry and teachers, all kinds of so different people in different walks of life who wanted to have a better sense of how they could do their job better and be more effective at helping the people who came to them.
So they weren't necessarily dealing with people with a counseling situation in terms of people who already, like Michelle said, who already had problems, but how to help people just live their lives more effectively.
Right.
I I've been working with chronic, mentally ill for the past twenty five years and and behavioral health, inpatient settings.
I'd like to continue, you know, to do that because I really enjoy it.
But I I I feel like I used to live in Texas, but I moved to Virginia.
And I walk I work in Washington, DC, and I need other credentials to do what I want to do.
So that's basically what I'm looking for.
Okay.
Well, thank you, Delia.
Does anybody else have a raised hand question for for for Karen?
Not me, Karen, who has been through it.
It looks like Kristen has a hand up, but I'm not sure.
Oh, let me scroll down here.
So where is Kristen?
I could be oh, no.
That's not it's I just had my cursor, which is a hand, which is different names.
Okay.
So well, anyway, so if there's anything you could say as advice on, you know, how to make it through a program.
Because, you know, a lot of times online, it's free.
You know, you can study from your home and this and that, but you still have to study.
And there's deadlines.
And is there anything you can say that would, you know, help could help people be successful?
Do the readings.
It's very the readings.
The whole program is based on readings and videos.
So you there's a there's usually a couple of videos per per week.
So it's it it's based you get a week's worth of materials, and then you can work on that whole week's worth of materials at your own pace.
And each week, there are a number of readings, and it's important to do those readings.
What can I say?
I mean, I did work I did work pretty hard, but it was doable.
It was definitely doable even with a full time job.
I would relax in the evenings and do my readings, and there's a fair bit of writing.
I must say there is a fair bit of writing, but but I found it enjoyable.
And the professor feedback is great.
One of the things that the program's based on, and I think you would like this, the students every week, you write there's a question you have to give information.
You have to write about, and all the students read your answers to the question.
And then two of those students will well, actually, students will respond to you and you have to respond to at least two students.
So it's not just a professor reading what you've written.
The students are interacting with each other, reading each other's material, and I found that really beautiful and lovely.
And I think one of the things that helped me really want to do a good job was I was realizing that the other students were going to be reading what I wrote.
So I would try to explain things as clearly as I was able to, maybe to help somebody else who is struggling with the material.
And and so I that really gave me inspiration to do the best I could in my writing for the other students for the sake of the other students.
So so so, Karen, how did you feel when it was all over?
I mean, no more, you know, no more classes.
Well, it was both a relief, and it was sad because I really enjoyed interacting with all my friends in my cohort, and it was sad to think that that part of it was going to be over.
I mean, yes.
It was a lot of evening and weekend work.
And so to a certain extent, that was it was nice to have that over with.
But I've continued to keep in touch with some of the other Mhmm.
My cohort, and I've continued to keep in touch with people at Divine Mercy in general.
And yeah.
And it's, yeah, it was it was a beautiful program.
Everything of I I can't say enough about how beautiful the program was.
It far exceeded my hopes.
Far exceeded my hopes for what what I would learn.
I learned way more than I expected to.
I found everything just more beautiful than I expected it to.
And a couple of more raised hands.
We got a little bit of time here.
And I have Sherry had another, question.
Sherry?
Or is that or is that still up from before?
Sorry.
My bad.
That's my my teenager's talk here.
Sorry.
I was wondering how small, or large are the cohorts?
Are they nice and cozy so it's just a few students, or are they quite large?
I think my biggest was about 12 to 14.
Yeah.
And my smallest were sometimes as small as seven or eight.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
But, you know, Sherry, I'll I'll answer that.
Generally, we're gonna start with around 25 students in the first class.
Now everyone has different concentration.
So, you know, you may, you know, go off of different areas, then meet again sometime.
But, but, yeah, they're they're they're pretty small.
Yeah.
It was different.
It was the program was slightly different when I went through because I was in the cohort right before they started the concentrations.
Right.
But Oh, okay.
So you got, like, more of a comprehensive view of it rather than a a concentration?
Most of the program is the same.
Yep.
Concentration just has you you get to choose between a couple of classes Yeah.
Instead of everybody doing exactly the same thing.
Mhmm.
But, but it's still most of the courses that people do are are the same ones that I have.
And, Thomas, this is for you.
How many credits of I didn't finish my master of education.
I only couldn't finish my thesis.
I had an extreme low low before I knew I was bipolar Right.
And just kind of fell off the school wagon.
And, how many credits do you think I mean, I have some of those psychology courses in there that are human development.
Mhmm.
And so is it possible that some would be accepted?
You know, always.
I mean, I I I I get this all the time.
I have students who, maybe started another program, and we certainly take a look at it.
But, I mean, in transferring, we will take up to, you know, two classes or six grad hours on average now.
You know, that could change a little bit.
But because, see, we're we're we're always working on our curriculum and, you know, to to make it better, you know, in things like, in the human services concentration, we're putting a component of addiction help in it.
Mhmm.
And we and we have a lot of nice things coming in the future too that, you know, I can't really say, you know, until they're approved from, you know, state to state because, I mean, this being online, we gotta be approved at every state, you know, which we are for this program.
So did that answer your question, Sherry?
Yes.
And one more.
How many concentrations do you have?
Because it's gonna be difficult to pick one.
Boy, it is.
Know them all.
But but but we have one that has a little bit all.
But, you know, in the concentrations, we we have is, you know, marriage and family.
Mhmm.
I'd say that's the most popular one in human services.
Then we have leadership for those who work in, you know, industry and wanna manage and lead people.
The pre PhD, which deals with thesis writing, you know, learning how to do your thesis.
And then self design where you get to pick one elective out of leadership, one out of, human services, and one out of, fam marriage and family.
Okay.
And those are the three concentrations or four?
I mean yeah.
Well, there's there's five.
Yeah.
There's five.
That would be perfect because, I do plan on I guess, I I really do wanna get my PhD eventually Oh.
Because I would like like to have a doctor of psychology.
And and I love to write, so that would be a very good fit for me.
You're in the right place.
I'm an English teacher.
I'm the English teacher of the group.
So so so, Karen, I mean, I mean Thank you.
How much writing do you do?
Every week, you have to write a 300 word, up to 300 word, 150 to 300 word response to the question, and then you have to write two responses to students that are a 150 to 300 words.
My biggest challenge was staying within the 300 word word count.
It was always a challenge for me.
That That wouldn't mind.
300 words.
But, anyway, I had to really learn how to how to be concise.
And then every course has a made a fairly major paper that you're working on throughout that course.
So you're doing each week's writing and then working on a paper for each course.
Right.
And a new component to our, it's called Canvas.
That is the our online platform is that when you write a paper I don't think you had this when you're there, Karen, but, you can send it into them.
And within twenty four hours, they'll get it back to you with suggestions.
No.
That that's new.
Yeah.
That that is new.
And and like you were saying, like, like, the videos and lectures, and these are all, they can all be downloaded to audio points, which is new.
So you can listen to them on the road or when you're That would have been nice.
Or you you know, while you're mowing your lawn or what have you.
That would have been nice.
Yes.
I did.
Yeah.
I did download all my readings so I could read those offline.
Okay.
And now the and what's nice about that is I've been able to keep those files.
So I have I have all my readings to refer back to.
That's right.
And and, you know, I I would rather read something, but, you know, it it takes time.
You know, part part of multitasking would be to, you know, download it and say you have a, you know, a commute to work, you know, listen to it on the road.
Yep.
I mean, that's so.
Okay.
And then it looks like, Delia has another question.
Delia?
Just need to unmute there.
K.
Hi, Delia.
I I lowered my hand.
That was from before.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
So you got your question answered.
Okay?
Okay.
And does anybody else have a a question for, Karen?
Oh, Marie.
There you go, Marie.
Let me in.
Hi.
I'm not sure if you're seeing some of the questions in the chat, but, I I had a similar one as Gisela of if you take the master's in psychology, would those credits then count if you wanted to go for a master's in counseling?
18 of them will.
Okay.
Not 18 classes, but eighteen credit hours.
Mhmm.
What state do you live in?
Wisconsin.
Okay.
Yeah.
And, you know, the the you know, they they they they could, you know, up to it's actually six classes that would transfer in that are like like.
I mean, they have when you do credit transfers, they just they have to map out perfectly, but we do, you you know, the six classes on that.
No.
I can get the basic material that we for example, probably five fifty, which is helping like, the whole human person perspective, the Catholic Christian meta model, the human person.
I'm sure everybody does that no matter what program they're in.
That's right.
That kind of thing.
So those courses that are more general to the whole program would fit you know, they would transfer over.
Okay.
Thanks.
I like Karen.
She knows the class notes.
So Hi.
I had the same question, and I'm in Florida.
I don't know if my state applies.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Was that Delia?
That's Gisela.
Oh, just oh, I need to go okay.
Gisela.
Okay.
You're in Florida and again?
It's the same question that was asked just now, that if I go for the master's in psychology and then I wanna go for the master's in counseling, would Six classes.
My escape But would my escape also apply?
Because I saw in the website that, the master's in counseling does not apply in all states.
It does not yet.
And, you know, we are on the midst in the on the horizon of what they call CACREP accreditation.
And it's kind of like a blanket thing that a lot of states say, well, if you're we have that accreditation, we'll license it.
But there may be a few states that say, you know, we don't care how you're accredited.
We want our people to go to our state schools.
Now I'm not gonna say the states.
And I'm not gonna say it's Illinois, but, it's probably Illinois.
So Florida is no problem?
Florida.
I mean, when it happens, I'd say they'd be definitely, you know, in that mix.
So but but, you know, you know, when you a lot of lot of folks, oh, all the glamour of the council, Getting my license and this and that.
Well, you know, it's not that easy.
You have to have a three point o average.
You gotta take the GRE, and it's, you know, three trips to, Washington DC for residency.
And when you're done, you have nine hundred forty hours of what they call practicums and internships before you can test.
With arts.
Right.
Yeah.
But, but, I mean, you know, like I said, it's glamorous.
I have a license.
You know, you're it'd be a total career change because if you have the license, you're gonna be, you know, with a group of counselors seeing about 30 people a week.
Many of them repeat, and your success rate will be less than ten percent.
Yeah.
Someone just asked a question, so I'm gonna answer it.
Someone asked, who just came in late, said, are they does the master of science in psychology lead to licensure?
No.
The math, no.
You'd have to take the counseling program leads to licensing, but not the master of science in psychology.
But, again, as some people have been asking, in case you didn't hear, six of the courses in the master of science in psychology transfer over to the counseling program.
Right.
And it, We should be grateful to find out if it's right.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's a great way to find out if it's right for you.
Period.
So but, everything I've seen on outcomes with our graduates, you know, Karen and other graduates, it's it's worked out pretty well for them just with the masters in science and psychology because, you know, it's a big commitment to do anything for 16.
I mean and it's gonna change you as a person too.
I mean, it has to change you as a person to, so you can help, you know, help other people.
And but it is, it doesn't last forever either.
It seems like forever when you're doing it, But when it's done, it's done.
So One of the things I loved about the program was that throughout the courses, unless this has changed, you're working on yourself as well.
So not only are you learning material how to help other people, but you're also learning what you need to do to become a more effective person in your life in general, in your spiritual life, in your, relationships with other people, and in your work vocations.
And, every class, you actually also have to write about ways in which you're growing, and it that's been really that I found that really lovely as well.
Did you have to think about that?
I mean, somewhat, I mean or you Oh, yeah.
Yourself?
Specific specific goals Mhmm.
Self specific goals in the areas of, yourself, your personal self, and your relationship with God, personal goals relating to your your vocation, your principal vocation, whether it's single life or married life or whatever it is, and then goals specific goals relating to your whatever your work or service is.
And it was very helpful.
It was good to think about specific things that I could do to grow and become more effective in each of those areas.
Right.
And that that's, you know, well well said, Karen, because it's, you know you know, everyone here I mean, you have to have a bachelor's degree.
It doesn't matter what it's in, but it has to be a 2.5 or better grade average.
Okay?
And that was a big step for everybody to do that, and you should take great pride in completing it.
But when you go to the next level, okay, you you're not gonna believe the confidence it gives you and the knowledge, you know, to help you go forward, you know, within your life in that.
And and in this degree, you know, it's it's helping helping people helping people.
And Christina had a question, and that is, can you specialize in marriage and family in this program?
Yes.
You can.
You can specialize in marriage and family with the master of science in psychology.
That is correct.
That is one of the the, one of our top concentrations because that is it's a big concern and great capstone topic too.
Yeah.
And now someone is asked a different careers in this degree.
Oh, there's many.
And, you know, always the question is, are you trying to enhance your your present career or change careers?
Well, you know, changing careers is a big step too.
But, you know, with more confidence, you can do that.
But, you know, you know, we, you know, we help students with that to whether they're gonna work for the, like, the government or for nonprofits, you know, just to name a few.
And, you you should never say that you nonprofits don't pay well because they can.
Yeah.
And let's see.
Any other thing here?
Oh, Sarah Graff.
When do you have to declare your specialty?
Well, you should bear you you should have a good idea, before you start.
But, really, after your second semester, which is at, you know, after your first four months, you should really decide, you know, on what what what your what your concentration is gonna be at that point Because your electives and your scheduling will depend upon that.
So and Okay.
Anything else?
What?
God, Karen, what a great, great time, and we thank you.
I'm not even gonna go go I'm not even gonna go through my slideshow.
I do have one more question.
I'm sorry for bugging y'all.
Sure.
That's okay.
Is it possible after, like, our master's, master of science in psychology is finished, I also have always wanted to learn everything about divinity.
I want to learn theology.
Do you have those electives there, or is that a whole separate program that I would have to go into, like, say, get a PhD in, or another master's, of theology?
I I I can answer that, here in Sarah.
The, you know, in our we we're a graduate school.
All we do is psychology.
And and within the psychology, there are some philosophy courses, but we infuse theology.
So we don't have any, like, religion one zero one and that sort of thing.
And we may make reference to the saints and other things like that.
However, though, I mean, we have quite a few that's already in the program that have, their their their masters in theology.
And then they're they're teaching it usually at at a Catholic or Christian school too.
So but, and, of course, you know, the priests too.
They of course, that's what they majored in theology, but, it's, you know, it's a it's a great area.
But most folks say I'd rather do the, psychology first than do your theology.
I was gonna say, yeah, I'm doing it a little backwards or or as my nana would say, bath backwards.
That's right.
Hey.
You you stole my word there, Sharice.
And don't so much.
I Delete it.
I have to go.
Okay.
And, well, I'm about ready to go too.
So and, I think this I'm gonna declare this the best webinar ever with Karen Hamlin, our good friend from, from the North on that.
And, and what I will do is I'll I'll touch base with everybody to see if I can answer any more questions individually.
You know, wish we had more time, and, and we we'll go from there.
So Okay.
And, Delia?
Yes, sir.
Did you have another question?
No, sir.
Okay.
Very good.
So and, and I and I thank you for, you you know, staying on.
And Thank you both.
And and what I do is if I get with you, you know, we talk more about the program, concentrations, scholarships, you know, how to afford school to, and then the, what I call the acceptance requirements on it.
And then but, you know, ultimately, it's always up to you.
And, you know, you know, and the statistic is in The United States, less than 14% of the population has a master's degree.
And because it's, you know, it's a bigger commitment.
And but those who get their master's degrees or or even higher, you know, it's gonna have great payoffs for you.
With number one, your knowledge and your confidence.
And, you know, if you work on that, you know, your your your your money cuts.
Okay?
Well, thank you, everybody.
What is the Thank you both.
You're welcome.
Alright.
Thank you.
And you all take care and God bless you.
God God bless you too.
And hope hope to, speak with y'all soon.
Yes.
And thank you, miss Karen Hammond.
You're most welcome.
Okay.
Welcome.
Alright.
Well, thank you.
Okay.
Bye bye.