Who Can Join or Start a Psychology Student Committee?

Any pre-psychology or psychology major is welcome to join an existing student committee or start a new one.

The Psychology Department is large, and while all students are invited to participate in the Psi Chi / Psychology Club, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to find a smaller community. To help with this, the club has adopted a committee model—a structure designed to support both leadership development and flexible participation.

Leadership and Participation

• Committee leaders are students who want to take on a leadership role and guide the vision, planning, and execution of activities for their committee.

• Committee members are students who wish to stay involved without committing to a leadership position or large time investment.

Both leaders and members contribute meaningfully to the club's work, and all are encouraged to find a role that fits their interests and availability.

How Committees Work

• Committee leaders will stay in contact with the club’s faculty advisor: Dr. Farin Bakhtiari (for all committees) and Dr. Isom (for the Kindness and Gratitude Committee).

• Leaders, with input from their members, will define their committee’s mission, vision, and activity goals each semester.

• Committees may vary in activity from semester to semester—it depends on the level of interest and engagement from leaders and members.

Although committees operate independently, they remain part of the broader Psi Chi / Psychology Club structure:

• The officer team, including the president and treasurer, must approve any fundraising or spending proposals.

• The social media coordinator and officer team must be kept informed about all committee-planned activities to maintain cohesion and communication across the club.

Kindness and Gratitude Committee

Mission: To be added.

Activities during Fall 2025:

• Committee formation

• Advertised and participated in Psych Good Deed Day (Oct 8)

• Resource exploration: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org 

• Participation/collaboration with the book club committee 

  • The Biology of Kindness

  • The Rabbit Effect

• Gratitude Wall – Physical and virtual space for community appreciation

Plans for Spring 2026: To be determined.

Book Club Committee

Mission: To be added.

Activities during Fall 2025: 

• Committee formation.

• In-person and virtual meetings.

• Participation and reflection slide development.

Plans for Spring 2026: To be determined.

Communication Committee

Mission: To be added.

Activities during Fall 2025:

• Committee formation.

• Exploring Canvas and Google Sites as forms of communication beyond social media.

• Explored Perplexity.ai as a potential platform for communication.

• Student-led activity grant submission to enhance communication.

Plans for Spring 2026: To be determined. 

• One idea under consideration is focused on communication support for parent scholars in the psychology department.

Graduate School Preparation Committee

Mission: To be added.

Activities during Fall 2025:

• Updated the graduate information document with deadlines and details about ongoing information sessions for psychology-related graduate programs at Fresno State.

• Hosted a graduate school information panel featuring representatives from the following Fresno State programs: General Experimental Psychology Program; Applied Behavior Analysis Program; Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling Program; Clinical Rehabilitation Program.

• Hosted a talk on “How to Get into Grad School” by Dr. Mike Botwin (the club’s emeritus faculty advisor).

Plans for Spring 2026: 

• Resource development and communication. 

Interdisciplinary Psychology Committee

Mission: To be added.

Plans for Spring 2026: To be determined. 

Pre-med Psychology Students Committee (upcoming in Spring 2026)

Mission: To be added.

Plans for Spring 2026: To be determined. 

How to join a student committee

To join any of the committees, please contact one of the leaders (their contact information is listed below). Notice that there are multiple sheets in the Google Sheet below, and some of the sheets are still work-in-progress.