Sociology major

My first experience with service learning at Eckerd was a spring break trip to Immokalee, FL my freshman year. I didn't really have any expectations going into the trip, I just knew that all of my friends were going home and I didn't want to waste the week doing nothing. At that point in my college career I was still unsure of who I was and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but I can honestly say that the experiences that I had over the course of that week as well as through subsequent service learning projects helped to give me a sense of meaning and make me the person that I am today.

I grew up in a small New England town and lived a rather sheltered life so it was a real shock for me to witness the working conditions in the fields and to listen to the farm workers discuss what life was like for them. That trip was my first real exposure to the stratification system that exists in our society and when I returned to campus I wanted to learn more about the causes and consequences of social inequalities. I graduated from Eckerd with a major in Sociology and am currently enrolled in the department of sociology's PhD program at Florida State University where my research interests include black and white health disparities in old age and access to child care among low-income populations. Although school takes up most of my time, I like to try to volunteer at the local animal shelter when the opportunity arises since it provides me with some needed stress relief.