By Brianna Pasnik 
April 4, 2024

On March 14, students attended a meeting with the Professor of Psychology, Elise Banfield. The meeting was intended to provide information and for her to share her journey of her psychology degree and career. She has been teaching for 20 years and she told us, “I am still learning, even after 20 years of teaching.” 

She started out by telling us that she failed her first psychology test but she never gave up. She started out with a journalism major and took psychology as an elective. She eventually continued on in psychology and received her Master’s Degree at St. Bonaventure. 

Professor Banfield gave students tips on what to do in their academic career if they eventually want to pursue a psychology degree. She said if you want a higher career in psychology one day then you should plan to get your Bachelor’s degree. However, while working towards your Associate’s Degree here at GCC, you should take a lot of Math and Biology courses. A Human Services major would be a good place to start if you want to pursue Psychology later on. Psychology can also be tied to many other degrees such as teaching, art, business and more. Another suggestion she made was to take advantage of any volunteer or internship opportunities in a facility or counseling center to help gain experience. This was something she personally did as well. 

Professor Banfield also discussed all her previous jobs and how they can all tie together with psychology. Some of her previous jobs included Subway, Spencer Gifts, retail, babysitting, and resident assistant at the college she attended. All of these can relate to the field of psychology. For example in retail, dealing with irate customers will require interpersonal skills to handle it. With babysitting and working with kids, one must learn how to understand their needs. There is psychology in every job in one way or another. 

Overall, pursing a degree in psychology can start a path towards many different careers such as youth counseling, substance/abuse counseling, school psychologist, and much more. Even if you don’t plan on having a career in psychology, a psychology degree can be helpful in other careers as well such as teaching, business, art, or human services.

Hearing about Professor Banfield’s journey was inspiring and truly helpful.