College of Social and Behavioral Science
Celebrates 50 Years!
Did you know the College of Social and Behavioral Science is celebrating it's 50th anniversary? In the spirit of celebrating our history, we're encouraging our many students, alumni, staff, faculty and community members to share a bit about their academic experience with CSBS and how their time with our college has influenced their personal and professional story!
Your story and photos will be archived and shared through our communication channels as part of our annual celebration. Storytelling is such a powerful way to preserve the legacy and tradition of our college and we're so grateful for your support!
Stories from across our college
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"A few years ago, I was making a proposal to a company that they hire our firm. I made my standard proposal with accounting, personnel and operational plans for this job. My meeting was proceeding fine. Near the end of our meeting, my contact asked me to describe the "marginal propensity to consume." He'd heard that I had a degree in statistics or something. I proceeded to describe to him the calculus of a consumption function graphically. I told him to calculate the derivative of the function at any point along its curve to arrive at an actual number. I gave him an example of marginal consumption to be like how much we want each additional bite of cake. Often, we enjoy the first bite very much and each additional less and less. It was a curve-ball question and had little to do with our proposal, but we got the job. Thanks to my professors in both undergraduate and graduate school." - Eric Thompson |
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"I was invited to both the CSBS Scholarship Celebration Dinners in 2018 and 2019 because
I had received scholarships. It was such an honor to receive the scholarships as well
as to meet my donors. - Krisha Shakya |
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"Upon graduating in Economics and Political Science from the University of Utah in 1988, I took a position with Bain & Company, a strategic consulting group headquartered in Boston, MA. I worked in the Boston Office of Bain & Company for three years, spending my final six months at Bain working on Bain Capital projects. This introduction to the Private Equity sector had an enormous impact on my employment post going to business school. From Bain & Company I went to business school at Harvard. I graduated from Harvard Business School in 1993 and took a position with a west coast-based Private Equity Firm, Aurora Capital Group. I became a partner at Aurora Capital Group and worked there for 25 years. My family and I recently relocated back to Salt Lake City, Utah where I am working on projects with privately held companies. I believe my undergraduate education at the University of Utah to be the most important professional accomplishment of my career." - Mark Hardy |
"In the summer before my senior year I married the beautiful Robin Picket whom I meet on campus. Graduating from the “U” law school in 1974 I began practicing Law and I have been a sole practitioner now for 46 years. The “U” gave me a foundation for life."
- William B Parsons lll,
Attorney at Law
Political Science, 1971
"In my short two years at the U, I felt new to everything as I was the first person
in my family to pursue college and I also came from a small rural Indian reservation.
I was not use to the city and it was difficult for me to navigate myself into a different
environment that was majority white and urban. On top of that, there were not many
Native American students or staff on campus for me to talk to.
As a Navajo woman, I have always kept in mind that the place and people I come from
is resilient and beautiful. Even though I felt alone and had to do everything on my
own - I was just grateful to be in college knowing I was rising out of the cycle of
disparity that has been placed on Native youth.
There has been many obstacles to overcome, but I know I would like to become a future
psychologist for Native youth. As of now, I am currently employed with the Psychiatry
department and I am apart of a wonderful research team.
Go and climb that ladder shiyazhis! Ahe'hee!"
- Lisa Wilson - Research Assistant
Psychology
"One of the greatest things I think I gained from my time in the MPA program here
at CSBS was my newfound love of other people and their ideas. Before this program
I was in a place where I did not accept others views or opinions, and would defend
only what I thought was right. The issue was I wasn't even thinking for myself, it
was simply me taking what other people said and applying it to my life.
The program enabled me to research, study and begin to more fully understand public
issues, other people's views and in turn my own perspective. Since the program I have
been more open to all views of political parties, understanding things from an objective
point of view and finding ways to ensure consistency and compromise when it comes
to solving problems."
- Austin Westley
MPA, 2018
"I'm a 74 graduate and was a NROTC member as well as a member of Phi Delta Theta and
the U of U Lacrosse team. I was commissioned in the Navy upon graduation and served
34 years. I also worked for The Boeing Co. for nearly 10 years. I took full advantage
of the great opportunities the U provided as well as the other U activities (hiking,
skiing, etc) I engaged in. The education I received at the U served me very well throughout
my professional life as I traveled throughout the world getting to personally experience
the 'things' I learned while at the U. A number of specific classes served me extremely
well...Dr. Lee's Cartography course and Dr. King's Geomorphology course, as well as
a host of other courses which made me appreciate the world I was able to fly above
and visit through my life. I was blessed to have been able to attend the U and further
blessed by education I received and the experiences I have had. My wife is a 77 grad
and our daughter is a 17 grad... Go Utes!"
- Matt Moffit
U.S. Navy / The Boeing Company - Retired
Physical Geography, 1974
"I received my B.S. degree in Psychology in 1984 as a commuter student living in Park City. When I left Salt Lake for graduate school in counseling psychology, I never dreamed I would return to my alma mater to work in the University Counseling Center, where I am now director! Pivotal experiences as an undergraduate that positively affected my career path included mentorship from Fred Rhodewalt and Juan Mejia. Now, I have the opportunity to work with clinical psychology graduate students when they train in the Counseling Center, and I still smile when I walk past the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building on campus. I feel so fortunate to have this ongoing reminder of my fond memories of time as a psychology undergraduate at the U!"
- Lauren Weitzman
U of Utah Counseling Center - Director / Licensed Psychologist
Psychology, 1984
"When I graduated, I immediately went to work on a cancer genetics project at the U of U Department of Human Genetics in which my honors thesis advisor (Dr. Bob Croyle) was involved. This project was looking at the psychosocial and behavioral impacts of genetic testing for a breast cancer gene. Thanks to my undergraduate thesis which gave me experience in statistics and collecting data, I set up the database for the project and learned to program computer-assisted surveys. I had many amazing mentors in the psychology department. I also learned a lot about leadership, as the President of Psi Chi and as a supplemental instructor for Psych 101. Twenty six years later, I'm still at the University of Utah, managing a team and working on projects within Huntsman Cancer Institute's population sciences department, which conducts many studies of health behaviors and interventions. My undergraduate degree, with a focus in health psychology, helped me find my passion. I love my job today."
- Debra Sorensen Ma
Huntsman Cancer Insttute - Senior Database Analyst
Psychology, 1994