Alissa Der Sarkissian of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has been chosen as the 2019-20 Eduardo Escobedo Fellowship recipient. This fellowship supports qualified graduate students within the Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology (CCSP). Preference given to students having demonstrated academic promise and financial need.
Alissa Der Sarkissian is currently a doctoral student in the School Psychology emphasis under Dr. Jill Sharkey. She graduated in 2014 from UCLA with a B.A. in Psychology, where she gained experience in different labs that studied the effects of racial disparities, sexual violence, and early life stress. After graduating, she worked as the project coordinator for a longitudinal study at USC that assesses the neuropsychological effect of an intensive music training intervention for children from a low socioeconomic community. Currently, her research interests include risk and resiliency factors that contribute to mental health issues and potential interventions within the foster system, juvenile justice programs, and schools.
The doctoral program in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology is accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association as a combined psychology program. CCSP adheres to a scientist-practitioner training model; therefore, heavy emphasis is placed on developing academic, research, and practitioner knowledge and skills. The organizing themes that integrate the identity of the department are (a) the values of human diversity and individual differences (b) health and development across the lifespan, and (c) ecological (e.g., family, school, societal) influences on human behavior.