Danielle Shaver’s Award-Winning Honors Thesis Poster Submission
Author: Danielle Shaver | Majors: Psychology and Social Work
If the idea of completing an honors research project is daunting and intimidating to you, you are exactly where you need to be. I want to talk directly to the undergraduate that feels small or powerless when it comes to completing an honors thesis. To introduce myself, my name is Danielle Shaver, and I just graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S.W. in Social Work, and I plan to pursue my Master of Science in Social Work in the next year. With the help and funding of the Honors College, I placed 2nd the university’s undergraduate research competition, and I was able to present my research at the 2022 Conference for the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. I do not recite those terms and accomplishments to brag or to repeat my resume. I write to say that it is possible for you.
My freshman year, conducting and completing research made me freeze. It made my heart drop. It made me second guess my entire academic path. For heaven’s sake, I was only in General Psychology and struggling to remember the different parts of the brain, so how could I write something new for the field? With the support of an honors college faculty though, I reached out to my current honors thesis mentor, Dr. Veilleux, and she welcomed me into her lab as a research assistant. Dr. Veilleux is the epitome of a strong, unapologetic woman in academia. I would like to paint a triumphant picture of me confidently slaying each challenge she placed in front of me. Instead, I thought of myself on a tightrope, strategically placing each foot in front of the other, hoping that I would not fall. As I write to you now though, neither picture is accurate. Instead, I am just a graduate attempting to share my experience with others. But how did I get here?
I began my honors project in my junior year, and I decided to study the ways that emotion regulation use differs with relationship factors and self-criticism following relationship conflict. At the time, I would not have been able to find those words for one big reason. I feared falling off that tightrope. I was scared of saying something wrong, writing something unprofessional, embarrassing myself, or showing my scholarship providers that I was unworthy of their investment.
But if I could tell that scared student something, I would say this.
There is no tightrope. You will not fall 100 feet with each mistake. Your challenges are not terrifying monsters that need to be slayed.
Instead, you are just learning as you go. Each mistake is still a step in the right direction when you learn from it. Each challenge is your motivator to try something new. And your honors thesis is doable. Yes, you might get tired sometimes. Yes, your brain might hurt sometimes. And if you’re like me, you might spend an ungodly amount of money at coffeeshops typing up your research article. But you will get there with each step.
It might take time to train your mind to think about your academic and professional life in this new way but have patience with yourself. Find your supports and find the reasons that you keep moving forward. And most importantly, know that it is possible. Know that it is possible for you.