A new initiative to connect current Psychology students with graduates from the program kicked off this semester with Megan Hendrich ’17, MAP’19 coming to campus to talk about her educational experiences at Marietta and the connection to her career success.
Hendrich, an Associate Research Scientist and Survey Project Manager for IPSOS in Washington, D.C., talked to several undergraduate statistical lab classes and met with several groups of undergraduate and graduate students working in the psychology research lab. She told students about her past work completing a multimillion-dollar national survey for the U.S. Center of Disease Control on attitudes and behaviors associated with COVID-19 vaccination, and her current work on several national political opinion polls and corporate marketing surveys.
Hendrich works as an Associate Research Scientist and Survey Project Manager for IPSOS in Washington, D.C. (IPSOS is one of the world’s largest global marketing and public opinion research firms).
Students were able to learn from her experiences at Marietta, as well as ask the alumna questions.
“The reasons for my career success? One was my research and statistical course training I had at MC, and the second was the unique and beneficial opportunities Marietta’s Psychology Department gave me to get involved in research and to travel with faculty to present at national research conferences.”
She noted she travels worldwide for IPSOS, presenting research at conferences.
Megan encouraged students to take advantage of all the research opportunities MC offers. In the next year, Megan plans to continue working for IPSOS, while also beginning a Ph.D. program in survey and data analysis at the University of Maryland.
“This program is part of the Psychology’s DQI (Department Quality Initiative),” said Dr. Mark Sibicky, McCoy Professor of Psychology. “In the future, we plan to invite Psychology alumni in the areas of Occupational Therapy, Law, Mental Health, College Financial Aid and a variety of other careers related to majoring in Psychology.”