Contact: Karie Patton
For the third consecutive year, students in Mississippi State's school psychology doctoral program are selections for prestigious national internships.
The university's four students this year include Gary L. Cates of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.; Karen I. Dittmer of Lacona, Iowa; Tawny N. Evans-Hampton of Newton; and Merilee McCurdy of Tupelo. Specifically:
--Cates is interning for a year in Atlanta at Emory University's Marcus Institute, an affiliate program of the Kennedy-Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Hospital in Baltimore, Md. The Georgia institute focuses on young people with developmental disabilities and Cates will work in Marcus' behavioral center.
--Dittmer and McCurdy are spending a year at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, a University of Nebraska affiliate that trains psychology interns and others to work with children with behavioral, emotional, physical, and cognitive disabilities. Both will work in the institute's behavioral pediatrics program.
--Evans-Hampton is going to the Houston (Texas) Independent School District, which, in addition to being the nation's seventh largest school system, also is regarded as one of the most progressive. For the next year, she will conduct cognitive and behavioral assessments of students aged 3-18 and provide educational services to children with a wide range of psychological and educational challenges.
T. Steuart Watson, coordinator of MSU's school psychology programs, said the four MSU students greatly outdistanced their counterparts at other schools in being selected for internships for which they applied. While less than half of the more than 2,000 doctoral candidates nationally received "a match" with their top choice, all at the Starkville university did, he explained.
"We are extremely proud of these students' accomplishments," Watson said. "They not only represent Mississippi State in an exemplary manner, but pave the way for future students who will compete for internships."
Cates, Hampton and McCurdy all hold master's degrees from Mississippi State. Dittmer completed her master's at Minnesota State University.