{"id":36109,"date":"2015-03-30T08:40:01","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T12:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=36109"},"modified":"2019-08-28T13:14:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T17:14:15","slug":"psychological-phenomenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2015\/03\/30\/psychological-phenomenon\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychological phenomenon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kevin<\/a>

Wright State\u2019s Kevin Smith, who bounced around the foster care system for nearly 10 years before being adopted, is poised to graduate and hopes to combine psychology with political science.<\/p><\/div>\n

Relationships \u2014 both personal and international.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the career focus of Wright State psychology major Kevin Smith, who bounced around the foster care system for nearly 10 years before being adopted by a family in Chillicothe, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of all the time I\u2019ve spent going from one family to the next, one state to the next, getting that diversity of different backgrounds made me want to broaden my view of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith is poised to get his bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in human interaction from every dynamical level \u2014 relationships, parental interaction to just the social dynamic interaction with friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith is also interested in international studies and policies. Eventually, he hopes to get his master\u2019s degree in political science and his Ph.D. in the concentrated field of political psychology.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he is preparing to take part in the Model UN<\/a>, a New York City conference similar to that of the United Nations in which students participate as delegates to various UN committees.<\/p>\n

After graduation, he hopes to join the Peace Corps and spend time in Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have that comprehensive background of the cultural shock,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to read it in the papers. It\u2019s another thing to actually go overseas and experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s interest in the Peace Corps and foreign cultures was fired by three of his college roommates, who hailed from different foreign countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would always tell me these stories of their cultures, the beliefs that they had,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was profoundly fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was born in Lima, Ohio. He lived with foster families until he was adopted at age 11.<\/p>\n

His mother works for the Ohio Department of Health in Columbus. His father is a funeral director and a well-intentioned disciplinarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants you to be able to walk tall with your head held high, Smith said.<\/p>\n

As a child, Smith was energetic and would spend a lot of time playing in the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom used to have a nickname for me, called me Dirt Magnet, because I would always come back covered in dirt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/a>

A member of the Wright State Model UN team, Kevin Smith hopes to join the Peace Corps and spend time in Morocco after graduation in May.<\/p><\/div>\n

During his senior year at Chillicothe High School, Smith had doubts about whether he could get into college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m one of those students that has to work very hard, study for long hours to get that A,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I learned I got accepted at Wright State, I was blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith says Wright State is the ideal size for him, not too big and not too small. He also likes the surrounding community and everything it offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State is the perfect setting,\u201d he said. \u201cI ended up falling in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, college wasn\u2019t easy for Smith at first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning of my college career, I was struggling a lot to keep up in my classes, almost to the point where I was even considering dropping out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I had excellent faculty\/staff who gave me some guidelines, some tips, kept encouraging me to stick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright State is engaged in a $150 million fundraising campaign<\/a> that promises to further elevate the school\u2019s prominence by expanding scholarships, attracting more top-flight faculty and supporting construction of state-of-the-art facilities. Led by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks and Amanda Wright Lane, great grandniece of university namesakes Wilbur and Orville Wright, the campaign has raised more than $111 million so far.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s childhood and journey to college has led him to embrace the motto: \u201cHope for the best, prepare for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLife never goes the way you want it to. Psychology definitely teaches you that,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can hope for the best, but to come out with the best, have backup plans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Smith, who bounced around the foster care system for nearly 10 years before being adopted, is poised to graduate and hopes to combine psychology with political science. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":36115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2099,715,2063,746,4298,2061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-model-un","category-news","category-psychology","category-science-mathematics","category-student-profile","category-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73050,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36109\/revisions\/73050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}