My name is Michael Peck and I am currently a Senior at IUPUI studying Psychology and Data Science. Developmental psychology has been a major area of interest to me since I began my jounrey at IUPUI. Understanding the complex maturation process of our brains and the reuslting changes in our cognition and behaviors is a major part of why psychology as a field fascinates me. Beyond just understaning how we develop from infants to adults, I believe it is important to understand how we can best foster this growth both in ourselves and others to promote wellbeing for all. This belief is what drew me to MOR, being able to assist them in their goal of supporting mothers as they transition back to their communities and improving these women's chances of staying with their babies.

My primary duties as a CEA Scholar with MOR has been transcribing interviews of MOR staff and the mothers they work with about their experience in the program and the impact the program has had on them and building a website to display these transcripts effectively. Through transcribing these interviews I have gained a great respect for the MOR staff and the women they work with. It is very eye opening to hear the stories of these women and the hardships they have faced before, during, and after their incarceration. The strength and grit displayed through their interviews is truly a sight to behold, especially considering some of the life events that lead these women to this point. This project is a good reminder to never judge a book by its cover and to recognize that everyone has a story. One mistake doesn't make someone a bad person, it simply means they did a bad thing.

During my time as a CEA Scholar I was able to gain valuable experience working in a real world setting. Due to the nature of my role, I often worked independently and had deadlines I needed to meet for the project's completion. A large part of my role was communicating with my mentor to coordinate access to the interviews once recorded and to troubleshoot any technical issues in sharing the recordings. During these exchanges, I prided myself on writing professional emails that reflected well on myself and grew my ethos. I have been able to apply these writing skills to other areas of my life and continue to grow and adapt them to different scenarios while remaining concise, clear, and professional. 

Time management has also been an area I have grown in through my work as a CEA Scholar. By learning to balance my duties from my role at MOR with an internship, my courses, and my role as a mentor and TA, I have been able to apply and maintain time management strategies that work for me. These strategies; including utilizing a synced calendar, keeping a to do list, and prioritizing my duties; have helped me to stay on top of my responsibilities so that I can continue to provide high quality output in a timely manner. In addition to these strategies, I have also applied grit to situation to ensure I am able to complete all that is expected of me in a way I can be proud. This experience has helped me learn to draw my motivation from within to continue on even when the responsibilities get overwhelming.

Overall, this experience has helped me to grow as a professional and an academic. After this program, I feel more prepared for my post-graduate plans. I am in the process of applying to Clinical Psychology graduate programs with the goal of a career in research and clinical practice. The soft skills this experience has helped me to grow as well as the real world experience with transcription and presentation tool building have helped me to diversify my resume and present myself as a stronger candidate for these highly competative programs.