About My Interest in Psychology

              The branch of psychology that I have found myself most interested in is the branch of sports psychology. I did a lot of research about this branch of psychology when I was a senior in high school because I thought that I might want to be a sports psychologist in the future. This branch of psychology studies topics such as how psychology affects sports, how well an athlete performs, and even how exercise affects and can affect the brain. In order to become a professional sports psychologist you must have either a masters or doctoral degree in counseling, sports psychology, or just a regular psychology degree. A typical job that you could have as a sports psychologist would including working with professional sports organizations, high school or junior high sports teams, or even university athletic departments. Even though I have actually never heard of any prominent or famous sports psychological some of them include Terry Orlick, Timothy Gallway, and Dr. John F. Murray.
              The first time I heard that sports psychologists were even a thing was from one of my best friends. We were talking about what we might want to do after high school and she mentioned that her aunt worked as a sports psychologist for the NFL team the Chicago Bears. At this point I was really thinking about doing something in the sports industry, but especially medically. I also have always been drawn to the field of psychology, so this seemed like the perfect job for me at the time. Being in sports for a big majority of my life I had never once come in contact with any type of psychologist that specialized in sports, so I thought that it could be really cool to help athletes perform better and become even more mentally tough and stable. Especially because I know personally how much playing sports all the time can take it out of you and especially how unwanted and unexpected injuries can affect you mentally. The main reason I believe that I would be a good fit for this is mainly because of my love and passion for sports and also anything that has to do with helping others.

Sources:
https://www.psychologyschoolguide.net/blog/famous-sports-psychologists/
https://study.com/articles/Sports_Psychology_Career_Information_and_Education_Requirements.html
https://www.verywell.com/major-branches-of-psychology-4139786

About Me

Hey ya'll!
              My name is Sarah Rodgers. If you don't know how to pronounce that, well, you'll just have to figure it out. I was born and raised in Dallas and I currently live in Lancaster which is about 15 minutes outside of downtown Dallas. I have one sibling who happens to be fourteen years older than me. Yes, I know this is very odd, but it makes for a great fun fact about myself. 

              Hardin- Simmons was definitely not on my priority list of colleges when I first started my college search. In fact, I swore I was never going to live in Abilene after stopping here on a trip for basketball so the fact that I did end up in Abilene definitely goes to show everyone to never say never. So how did I end up here exactly then? Well, I was visiting ACU down the street one day with one of my friends and she really wanted to go to HSU, so she had set up a time to tour it while we were in Abilene. I was getting ready to head back to Dallas with my parents, but my friend's dad strongly encouraged me to visit HSU with them just to check it out. So I went on this tour with them spontaneously and as soon as I met some of the people on campus I knew this was the university for me. 

              So all of this leads to what my major is. I am currently majoring in Biology with a minor in biochemistry as a pre-med student. I have been interested in plastic surgery since I was in second grade and at first, I just liked it because it seemed cool and interesting to my second-grade self, but recently I became a lot more interested in the mission’s aspect of it. Throughout my life I have been surrounded by an abundance of people with medical issues and this has exposed me to an abundance of medical personnel, which I believe is part of the reason why I am so interested in this field of work. These experiences, I feel, have lead me down this path of wanting to help others through medicine. I am very interested in the study psychology. So much so that I would have liked it to be my minor. I have even thought about becoming a sports psychologist if ever ended up not wanting to be a plastic surgeon.
              Another one of my great passions is most anything to do with athletics. I have been in all kinds of sports from the time I was six and then all the way through high school. I played volleyball for five years until I became uninterested with it in the eighth grade. I did track for six years and finally I played basketball from the time I was six all the way through my senior year of high school. So as you can tell athletics has been a very big part of my life and has helped me to have the drive and perseverance that I have today. I also really enjoy photography, but I have only really been involved with that for about four years, and of course I loved taking pictures at the sporting events that I wasn't involved in during high school. The nice thing about playing sports for so long is that it has helped me make many life long friends. Some of those friends even decided to attend HSU as well so that has been a very fun experience for me.
              Although I would consider myself sort of an extrovert in sports my personality definitely isn't like that all the time. I'm one of those people where you have to talk to me first or i'll just go on with my day just fine. If I were to compare myself to animal I would definitely say that I am like a turtle. I'm very chill and go with the flow, so that's why I say this. I am very excited to see how this course goes and I can't wait to get to know more about ya'll.