ASPSA Student Employee Feature: Spring 2022

Ally Gloekler, ASPSA Mentor

Hometown: Crofton, Md.

Education: I graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in May 2021 with a B.A. in  psychology and a B.S. in family science, and a minor in human development. I am currently enrolled in NC State’s M.Ed. in College Counseling and Student Development program.

Fun Fact: I have three Big Ten women’s basketball championship rings from being a student manager during undergrad.

Favorite Class in College: I took a class at UMD called Living the Good Life: The Psychology of Happiness that I really enjoyed. 

Activities: At NC State, I work with ASPSA as an intern and mentor and I am a graduate student ambassador for the College of Education. At UMD, I was a student manager for women’s basketball and the president of the student section. I was also a member of the club basketball team and taught a section of HONR 100: Introduction to the University.

Honors Awards: I graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maryland. I received the Jack Heise Award for Outstanding Service by a Team Manager in 2021. I am also a member of the Nu Sigma Chi chapter of the Chi Sigma Iota honor society for counseling students.

Favorite experience working at NC State: My favorite experience working at NC State has been teaching USC and helping the freshman student-athletes with their transition to college. Outside of work, I have enjoyed attending NC State sporting events and exploring Raleigh.

Career Goals/Current Career:  After graduation, I hope to work with student-athletes as an academic advisor or in a student-athlete development role.

Why did you choose to tutor/mentor with ASPSA? I chose to mentor with ASPSA because I am really interested in working with student-athletes after graduating from NC State. I wanted to get experience working directly with student-athletes and learn more about the field as a whole.

Could you provide us with a short quote or statement about your experience as a tutor/mentor? Working as a mentor has been a valuable experience for me as an aspiring professional. I have enjoyed seeing the student-athletes that I work with grow throughout each semester. The ASPSA staff members have been so supportive of me throughout the time I’ve been mentoring and I have learned so much in just a year!

Sean Douglas, ASPSA Tutor

Education: Graduated with majors in philosophy, psychology and minors in German studies and cognitive science.

Fun Fact: I began my undergraduate as a physics major!

Hometown: Asheville, N.C.

Favorite Class in College: 20th Century Continental Philosophy

Activities: President of Philosophy Club at NC State and running

Honors Awards: I was awarded the “Outstanding German Minor Award;” I also graduated with an honor’s degree in philosophy.

Favorite Experience working at NC State: I loved my research experience at NC State. I was lucky enough to research under two amazing professors. However, I had a great time tutoring German for student-athletes. All of my students were hard workers and it was such an enjoyable experience to see them improve over the semester.

Why did you choose to tutor/mentor with ASPSA? I chose to tutor because I love the German language, and I was just hoping I could help others learn to like the language as much as I do.

Could you provide us with a short quote or statement about your experience as a tutor/mentor? My time at the tutoring center was an incredibly rewarding experience. Everyone was always kind, and my students always gave amazing efforts to learn. I learned to appreciate German so much more as a teacher, helping individuals learn how to grow their confidence in the subject. I cannot take credit for their scores rising as they were the ones who did all of the work to get there. If anything, I just helped explain away a few roadblocks that kept them from fully understanding the material. I cannot thank everyone enough for the opportunity to do this work!