I was never a STEM-oriented person. I like to think it was because I had talent in another subject that took my attention away from STEM, but it was more likely due to the humbling experience of going to an academically challenging high school that turned my love for science and math into the stress of finishing mountains of homework and fear of failing back-to-back assessments. I couldn’t picture myself pursuing a career in STEM when I obviously wasn’t good at it … I bounced from subject to subject, taking various non-STEM-related classes to find my interest. Music bore me, literature made no sense half the time, and Spanish required me to use more brain cells than I had. It seemed like I would end up majoring in a subject I disliked until I took AP Psychology during my junior year. While the kid next to me used the class to catch up on his sleep, I was engrossed in the material, taking notes on every little thing in each lecture. By the time the fall semester was over, I knew that I wanted to do something psychology related in the future … I contacted a research assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and introduced myself. I combined my interest in psychology, natural understanding of economics, and job in the food service industry to research tipping and how default tip options on an electronic payment system can affect the amount a customer tips.

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• Sociology
• Psychology