DAVIS, Calif. -- While most students look to come away from a class with a favorable grade, UC Davis women's volleyball player Emily Allen discovered a greater opportunity, one that would support her eventual master's degree and her career aspirations in business management. After taking an upper division course taught by Dr. Kristin Lagattuta, professor for the Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, Allen subsequently earned an internship in Dr. Lagattuta's Mind-Emotion Development Lab in the spring.
"Emily took my PSC 140 [Developmental Psychology] course in Winter 2018 and exhibited outstanding academic skills," said Dr. Lagattuta. "We were excited to have her start interning in the lab in Spring 2018, and continue to contribute this summer."
Allen works as a research assistant, helping Dr. Lagattuta and her team of undergrad and graduate students to analyze children's and adults' memories for people's prior social behaviors on an experimental task. The lab investigates developmental changes in what is most memorable about a person – e.g. first vs. last impressions, harmful vs. helpful actions, unexpected vs. expected behaviors. The team's work and publications are available at mindemotiondevelopmentlab.faculty.ucdavis.edu.
For her part, Dr. Lagattuta is no stranger to the demands of a Division I student-athlete. Her daughter, Kaitlyn, graduated this June after lettering in softball at Stanford. Her son, John, enters his second year on the California baseball team. "As a parent to one former and one current D-I athlete, I greatly respect the tremendous time, effort, and dedication it takes to compete as a D-I athlete and excel in the classroom," Dr. Lagattuta said.
Now in her final season as an Aggie student-athlete, Allen has always exhibited dedication and hard work, both on and off the court. While resuming her work in Dr. Lagattuta's lab, she continues to lead UC Davis in kills and total points this year, and ranks among the top scorers in the Big West Conference. In fact, Allen enters this upcoming weekend with 972 career kills and 972 career digs, looking to become just the fourth Aggie to reach the 1,000 career milestone on both categories. In the classroom, she earned Big West Fall Academic All-Conference in each of the past two years, and should garner a third such award when the 2018 awards are announced next January.
Q: Walk me briefly through what your job/internship entails – e.g. a typical day at work.
A: In the Mind-Emotion Development Lab there are PhD. students who are running studies and trying to get their work published. As research assistants we help the grad students with collecting and coding results.
Q: What has been the most rewarding part of your job? Challenging?
A: The most rewarding part of this job for me has been getting the experience I am going to need in graduate school. The most challenging part has been to remain objective when coding participants responses. Often we have to interpret the results but at the same time make sure we aren't creating bias.
Q: How has your experience as a student-athlete helped you with this job?
A: As I'm sure most student-athletes will agree, working brings another added responsibility. Being a student-athlete my whole life has taught me excellent time-management and communication skills. Doing this internship on top of school, volleyball, and a job forces me to manage my time and to communicate to lots of different people about my schedule and availability.
Q: How has the Aggie EVO student-athlete outcomes program prepared you for the workplace?
A: The best resource that Aggie EVO provided me in my internship search was my resume. I felt confident presenting it to employers because of the guidance I had in creating it.
Q: What are your career plans after graduation? What has inspired or drawn you to that career?
A: I am planning on getting my Masters degree in Organizational Psychology which will set me up to be in the field of business management. I am interested in this career mostly because I enjoy understanding people and working with groups. There are also lots of different opportunities regarding which industry and which end of the business my focus would be on.
UC Davis women's volleyball returns to action on Friday and Saturday for Big West Conference road matches at Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside, respectively.
ABOUT UC DAVIS: Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.
AGGIE EVO: Established in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.
