Matthew is a star student on the Psychology BA major in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and has made an indelible mark on the Department not only through his outstanding attainment on the program, but also in his extensive and broad service and community contributions to the Department, School and University more broadly. Matthew, a First Gen Mexican/Salvadorian American student, has maintained a near-perfect 3.988 GPA during the course of his academic studies and named on the Dean’s list consistently throughout. Alongside this Matthew has been exceptionally active as a research assistant and lab contributor working, particularly with Dr. Alex Khislavsky and is in the process of completing his Honors project with him, and Dr. Matthew Zawadzki in his Health and Stress Lab, but also in the CRADLE Lab with Dr. Hahn-Holbrook and in Prof. Anna Song’s lab with the Nicotine and Cannabis Prevention Center. In addition, he participated in the UROC Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program with Dr. Zawadzki as his faculty advisor, and performed outstandingly over the 9-week Fellowship, as demonstrated by his poster presentation on his Research at UROC SURF Symposium in August 2022, and his Research Assistant work was supported through the LEAP Program. More recently he presented his research as a poster on his UROC research at the Western Psychological Association in Riverside CA in April 2023. He is also one of the first student to apply to and be accepted on the Psychological Sciences Mentored Internship Program working as a mentored intern for Merced County’s Behavioral Health Recovery Services agency in which he has shadowed clinicians and mental health workers during therapy sessions with clients and gone into the field to meet clients at their homes. He has recently been accepted on to Marriage and Family Therapy Counseling Masters Program at California State University, Northridge, assuring his future as psychological practitioner.
