Explore Why Humans Act as They Do

When Miho Tatsuki ’20 came to Grinnell, she was mostly interested in neuroscience. After taking a class in psychology, she was quickly turned onto the entire discipline. “I realized there is more than just the biological and chemical reactions to how we think and how we behave. The psychology major is a perfect major for exploring why humans act as they do.”

She really appreciates how tightknit the community is between students and faculty, a community in which she is quite active as the president of the Grinnell Psi Chi chapter. Psi Chi is a national honor society for psychology and awards scholarships and grants to students and researchers in the field. At Grinnell, Psi Chi hosts an array of public events and produces brochures and content for interested students. “We also have a partner program with the College preschool and Drake Library in promoting childhood psychology literacy among local children,” she says.

Over the 2018 summer, Tatsuki worked on a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with Christopher Ralston, associate professor of psychology, examining data about juveniles who offend sexually. That research experience, combined with her experiences working in class and labs, helped Tatsuki secure an internship in summer 2019 in the Asian American Psychology Lab at DePaul University. 

She worked with Anne Saw, assistant professor at DePaul University, and several Ph.D. students in the clinical-community psychology program as an assistant on projects concerning the Rohingya refugee community in Chicago. Tatsuki says that “the research skills that I learned at Grinnell really help me both with application processes and working.”

Tatsuki has been accepted into the combined undergraduate-to-graduate master of public health program at the University of Iowa. She is specifically enrolled in the community and behavioral health track and will be attending after she graduates from Grinnell.