By Kiara Catanzaro
News Assignment Editor
St. Bonaventure students interested in pursuing a career in psychology will have an opportunity to utilize a book written by Gregory Privitera, an associate professor of psychology.
During the summer of 2014, Privitera will publish “The Advisement Plan: The Most Insightful Guide For Getting Into Graduate School With A Four-Year Plan For Students in Psychology and the Sciences.”
The guide will serve as a template for students to follow while pursuing their undergraduate degree.
“Writing is a very humbling experience in a positive way,” Privitera said. “This book is specifically about detailing a student’s four years throughout college and how students can create opportunities that seem unavailable in the social science field.”
Privitera explained the inspiration for writing this publication and how students will be able to use the book through their four years of undergraduate studies.
“Most students don’t know all the possibilities to create opportunities for themselves particularly in the social sciences,” Privitera said. “The book I wrote is for the average student who wants to succeed but doesn’t know how to do so. The book empowers students with insider information on how to create opportunities.”
His publication will be featured at the American Psychological Association (APA) Conference from Aug. 7-10, 2014, in Washington, D.C. The APA is the largest professional association for psychology in the United States. Privitera has been a member since 2006.
Privitera explained how he has helped students in the past to create internship opportunities through other universities.
“I helped one of my students create a summer internship opportunity at Syracuse University,” Privitera said. “It substantially expanded her competiveness to get into a Ph.D program. I’m happy to say that the particular student was accepted into a Ph.D program for social psychology.”
Not only has Privitera helped students with internships, but he has also helped students with future employment opportunities after they work for specific internships, he said.
“I worked with another student to help him create an internship opportunity at Pennsylvania State University working under the leading researcher in nutritional sciences,” Privitera said. “Now, he is applying to work for this lab after graduation.”
Aside from helping students with internships and employment opportunities, Privitera said he was motivated to help some of his undergraduate students get published before graduation.
“Since 2011, I have published 12 research studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals with 16 St. Bonaventure undergraduate students as co-authors for those projects,” Privitera said. “It’s exciting to work with my students and know it has helped some of them get into a graduate program after St. Bonaventure.”
Taylor Phillips, a senior psychology major, said Privitera helped her throughout her four years at St. Bonaventure.
“Dr. Privitera is a one-of-a-kind professor,” Phillips said. “He’s extremely dedicated to making sure his students succeed and have the tools they need to reach their goals. He is constantly going above and beyond to help his students, which is why so many of his students have published research, which is rare for undergraduate students.”
Privitera said he hopes his book will help future Bonaventure students with their career goals in psychology and the social sciences.
“I hope this book will show any student that they can go out and achieve success by opening their mind to seek opportunities,” he said.
Over the next two years, in addition to this publication, Privitera will publish the second edition of “Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences” in addition to a study guide for the book and the first edition of “Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Brief Edition,” which will include a study guide for the book.
