What brought you to IPS?
“Frequent relocations made us a close-knit family. Difficult job situations for my father, a biomedical engineer, led to my living in six different states before I was twelve. I believe that the many moves helped me become more flexible and adaptable and to forge time-tested bonds with my parents and four siblings. My parents' decision to educate us at home motivated us to stay academically focused and prevented us from losing a school year despite the many interruptions. Aware of the possible distractions, my parents consciously encouraged us to channel our inquisitive energies to investigate and read beyond the limits of the curriculum. I devoured the classics, of which Homer, Defoe, Stevenson, and Doyle left particularly deep impact. The library became my tutor as I went through those phases common to so many boys—of medieval chivalry, space exploration, aerodynamics, and paleontology. I am profoundly grateful for my family's love and support without which I would have never learned to appreciate the abundance of knowledge and beauty in the world.As a high-school senior, I enrolled at the Immaculate Conception, a boarding school for boys considering a priestly vocation. After graduation, my path naturally led me to the novitiate. I wanted to explore the possibility of giving my life in service to God and others in this way. After much reflection and several years of rich experience, I came to the certainty that the priesthood was not my vocation. My time in the seminary, however, was not spent in vain. My years there were rigorous and demanding as well as full and worthwhile. During that period, I had the opportunity to study philosophy in Rome, Italy, for two years and to do a year of missionary work in Mexico. The range of experiences through my years abroad has served to widen my horizons and deepen my appreciation of the common and unique elements of the human condition.
Though I come from a family of chemical, computer, and biomedical engineers, I did not choose to become an engineer. I appreciate their labor that has given us hydrocarbon polymers, instant global multimedia communication, organ transplants, and numerous other inventions, without which beneficent technology our sophisticated lifestyle could not be sustained. However, during my studies, I came to the understanding that I would like to dedicate my career to people. I am, incorrigibly, a liberal arts major. I believe that ideas shape society. Furthermore, I believe that each person has an inestimable and exceptional value, but I realize that many people do not reach the full human potential and dignity that they inherently deserve because of emotional and mental damage. Though all of us carry the scars from the past, many people need help in particular ways to rebuild after much pain. I want to be of help in that process. That is why I have chosen psychology for my career. I hope to attain the qualifications necessary to guide persons through the process of recovery and development of their faculties to reach their full potential.
The reality of this idyllic vision still had to be forged, however. Where could I undertake the arduous task of graduate school? I had heard impressive recommendations about the Institute of the Psychological Sciences through friends of the family, but I was reticent to pay out of pocket for a doctoral degree. My visit to the campus sold me on the value of the program. Although it would be financially easier to grind through a PhD program somewhere else, IPS had the unique intellectual climate that made studying psychology worthwhile. Here I could build upon all the philosophy and theology that I had learned in an atmosphere of collegiality rather than competition. I instantly made friendships which have endured. At IPS, I was able to continue my education as self-formation, a transformation of myself into an instrument for aiding others.”
And what are your goals as you look toward the future?
“I want to be a counselor, but not just a counselor. As a psychologist, I will strive to help individuals and also to apply my education to impact a larger population. I hope to learn the proper psychological methods, but I see that there is much more that psychology can do— positive psychology and forgiveness therapy. Psychology is an efficacious instrument that has helped many people, but it can be gravely harmful if left in the hands of incompetent practitioners and flawed techniques. The progress that psychology has to make is a stimulus for me to further its cause. I hope to contribute to the body of knowledge and the cohesive science of promoting the well-being of persons, drawing upon a solid anthropological framework provided by perennial philosophy and orthodox theology to augment and apply clinical research with my reflection and using practical experience. I hope to be in the vanguard of the therapists transforming psychology into a more effective field of human care.”