By NICHOLAS MOORE
Business Manager
When a psychologist comes to mind, most people assume someone who pokes and prods into a person’s emotions to assist them fits the bill, but the field, and the people within the field, are more than just analysts of the mind.
Briana Spina, a soon-to-be graduating senior, discovered how her aptitude to want to help people meshed with a field of study that she found unique and paired a way to bring a future endeavor to help people to fruition.
Before committing to psychology, Spina had a different path in mind, wanting to initially become a high school English teacher due to her positive experiences with teachers from high school. Her experience learning about the profession in college changed when she took classes from home her sophomore year when a class at SUNY Orange changed her once bright perspective.
“The professor was like, ‘if you don’t think like I think, then you’re wrong,” said Spina. She further explained how that did not feel like a message an English teacher should state. “I always wanted to analyze the characters [in stories] psychologically.”
The opportunity to explore this idea further met with Spina being closer to home her sophomore year.
“Between taking those cool psych classes at SUNY Orange, and going on my own mental health journey, I thought this would be a cool career,” said Spina.
Returning to campus junior year, she officially transitioned to becoming a psychology major, fueled by a renewed perspective from new content and her own mental health experiences.
The coursework involves classes that specialize in conducting research, Research Methods I and II, and conducting their research to collect information and create a report based on their findings. In Spina’s case, Ross Krawczyk, a professor and clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders, provided insight into the exact field of study she seeks to pursue, eating disorders and body image.
Spina loosely mentioned while interviewing her that she has plans to further her studies towards a masters degree, PhD, or PsyD, as Krawczyk helps shed light on what paths are available.
“To be a psychologists, first thing to say is there’s a lot of kinds of mental health professionals… and you’re going to have at the doctoral level either a PhD or MD, you’re going to have psychiatrists as MD’s and psychologists with PhDs,” said Krawczyk. Earning a PhD is not the path to success, however.”If they do not want to pursue the research or the academic side of things, then a masters is what makes the most sense… Most therapists that have their master’s degree and either are mental health counselors or clinical social workers.”
Krawczyk has become familiar with Spina’s desire to help those who she feels seek help with eating disorders and body image, as not only her research is within the same confines as his field of study, Spina was also under Krawczyk’s supervision in her research while at Saint Rose, as well as being a research assistant for Krawczyk.
Her Research Methods I study was based on fad dieting and stigmas about carbohydrates and how these myths correlate with body shame and eating disorder symptoms, and moving to senior seminar research focusing on, as she puts it, “a phenomenon colloquially called drunkorexia,” where people do not eat before binge drinking, feeling that this phenomenon is both physically and mentally taxing and requires further study to understand the underlying causes.
Of course, Spina is one of many students in the psychology department. However, to those she meets, she stands out. Shane George, a junior who tutors psychology classes, met Spina through a bio-psych study cluster and noted that her attentiveness and willingness to learn brought her through one of the notably more challenging courses. Befriending Spina through both studying and conducting research under Krawczyk, Shane knew that she was in the right place.
“She works with Dr. Krawczyk, and it works out great because Dr. Krawczyk works with body image and eating disorders and that’s totally Spina’s realm of research interest,” said George.
Having known Spina since their time together, George also acknowledged her seemingly boundless compassion for helping people.
“She’s a very compassionate person, which you don’t see in psychology often… and that’s why I think she’ll be great with a Psy.D., because she’s very compassionate and a people person,” said George, further covering that psychology can tend to be seen as science where people are seen as “subject one, subject two,” rather than individuals.
George is not alone, Krawczyk also explained the competitive nature of graduate and post-graduate studies for psychology. Out of the locations Spina is contemplating on going to for her future studies is the UAlbany Clinical Psychology program.
“It’s one of the most competitive grad school fields you can choose to go into… a lot of students wouldn’t have the work ethic to do that, but we’re encouraging her to do that,” said Krawczyk.
Spina’s reputation and work ethic follow her to her passions and extracurriculars, as a member of the Saint Rose Chronicle, her work as the Layout Editor and previously assisting the News Editor before sophomore year, as well as contributing articles regularly to weekly (and during the pandemic, bi-weekly) prints.
She also raised awareness for eating disorders with support from the Student Association and the Counseling Center, providing tabling sessions as well as helping raise over $200 for the National Eating Disorders Association, and help spread awareness to a problem Spina feels needs to be advocated for in greater strength.
For her future, while she is uncertain of the exact direction she wants to go in, one thing is for sure. Those who have seen Spina work first-hand can account for her compassion to help people and her drive to become well-versed in her field of study to continue learning how she can help as many as she can.
