Admissions Essay: Happiness Is Not The Key To Success

I remember many times throughout the years, my mother telling me, “Success is not the key to happiness, but happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful in it”. During prior years at Mercyhurst University, I had a well-established idea of what I wanted my future to include. During freshman year, I saw myself in the art therapy field, working as a therapist with children who had mental disabilities and disorders. However, during sophomore year I got involved in the research aspect of psychology by working as a research assistant for Dr. Deborah John, who at the time was an Art Therapy professor. Through this experience I was able to immerse myself and learn about the process of researching subjects that previously I had only been able to read their implications in textbooks.
It was my research experience with Dr. John that introduced me to the world of numbers behind the science of psychology. I felt as if everything that I had studied in my psychology courses clicked into place. They were …show more content…
Before I was part of the program I thought I had to choose between being a therapist and dealing with the mathematics when choosing a career in psychology. But I was wrong; last summer showed me that I could still had one-on-one interactions with people under the spectrum without having to abandon my new found fascination for numbers. It seemed that I had been able to find the best of both worlds with the behavioral path of psychology and I couldn’t let go of that. So now, I am not only volunteering as a peer mentor for the Autism Initiative at Mercyhurst (AIM) program, but I am also currently working as a Champion for the AIM Autism Support Network, where I supervise study hall sessions and assist AIM students in their academic achievement through individualized tutoring and enhancing study skills by teaching study techniques and creating individual plans of