Why my alma matter makes me happy
Apr. 20th, 2005 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiI just read through our recent alum magazine. There was a nice interview with these two women http://www.simmons.edu/about/news/releases/2005/398.shtml and an appeal for funding to allow more women from Afghanistan to come to the school and study.
I also found out who Teresa Carterette was! At graduation in 97 I received an award, the Teresa Carterette Award for Professional Promise (or something like that). I had no clue I was getting it until seeing it listed under my name in the graduation booklet. I guess its "presented annually to a senior in the psychology department who as made a consistent and valuable contribution.". Neat!
Ms. Carterette got a degree in social anthropology from Chicago U and then did fieldwork for 2 years with the Denendeh people in Canada's Northwest Territories. Then she got her Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from Indiana University in 1960. She came to Simmons in 1964, a year later established the first experimental psych lab at the college and laid the foundation for its curriculum. She directed the department's internship program and in 1970 brought the first digital computer to the campus, introducing psych students to computer-controlled experimentation. There's a great picture of her with a group of people in 1961 as a part of the "IBM data processing class" whatever that means - its her with `about 30 or so men, the caption reading how it "reveals both her professional interests in quantitative science and her fearless rejection of convention".
I never got to meet Ms. Carterette since she retired from Simmons in 1990. She died last fall. Its great to finally know some more history of the department (and its quite flattering to know who that award I got back then was based on, and that they saw something in me similar to Ms. Carterette).
I also found out who Teresa Carterette was! At graduation in 97 I received an award, the Teresa Carterette Award for Professional Promise (or something like that). I had no clue I was getting it until seeing it listed under my name in the graduation booklet. I guess its "presented annually to a senior in the psychology department who as made a consistent and valuable contribution.". Neat!
Ms. Carterette got a degree in social anthropology from Chicago U and then did fieldwork for 2 years with the Denendeh people in Canada's Northwest Territories. Then she got her Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from Indiana University in 1960. She came to Simmons in 1964, a year later established the first experimental psych lab at the college and laid the foundation for its curriculum. She directed the department's internship program and in 1970 brought the first digital computer to the campus, introducing psych students to computer-controlled experimentation. There's a great picture of her with a group of people in 1961 as a part of the "IBM data processing class" whatever that means - its her with `about 30 or so men, the caption reading how it "reveals both her professional interests in quantitative science and her fearless rejection of convention".
I never got to meet Ms. Carterette since she retired from Simmons in 1990. She died last fall. Its great to finally know some more history of the department (and its quite flattering to know who that award I got back then was based on, and that they saw something in me similar to Ms. Carterette).
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Date: 2005-04-21 01:24 pm (UTC)data geeks
Date: 2005-04-21 01:56 pm (UTC)Perhaps! Though at Simmons we just used Stata or Statquest (blech)!
I picked up SPSS at my old job and loved it, though I haven't used it much in the past couple of years and have totally lost my coding skills. I'd love to get familiar with SAS (looks good on the resume and all) but I've never been anywhere that's used it.
My job now is so non-technical . . . all of my data analysis is done using MS Access, yuck!
Re: data geeks
Date: 2005-04-21 01:58 pm (UTC)I meant Stataquest, but you probably guessed that :)
Re: data geeks
Date: 2005-04-21 02:01 pm (UTC)MSAccess... heh, that's what I used to replace the heinous DBASE database we were using at my first post-college job -- how I got started down the road to being a geek. At the time it seemed so nice and friendly. I don't think I'll ever be able to truly hate it.