Mary Catherine Cunningham
This section of my website serves as a small insight into my curriculum as well as highlights some of my favorite projects and assignments I have had the opportunity to complete through my Human Development and Family Studies degree. Each class has prepared me with the skills needed to pursue a master's degree in school counseling.
Adolescent Development
Adolescent Development is a class I took the second semester of my junior year that focused on the analysis of adolescent development with emphasis on family context and developmental outcomes employing an ecological framework. One of our main projects was to write a literature review on our topic of choice. Writing a literature review helped me with skills such as collecting and presenting data as well as thinking critically about the implications of findings. My review was focused on the factors that affected identity formation in adolescence. I analyzed how personality, the family unit, and school can affect identity formation for adolescents. Completing this project expanded my ability to synthesize research well as to incorporate analysis and implications from that research. These things will help me as a professional as I am keeping up with new research in my field to apply to my counseling techniques. Furthermore, I am prepared to analyze research while in graduate school in order to have a full understanding of theory and practice. Additionally, I will be better able to help my future students in their identity formation by implementing the successful strategies found in each study.
Child Development in the Family
Child Development in the Family is a class I took the first semester of my sophomore year that explored the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of humans from the prenatal period through adolescence. We also applied knowledge learned from theories and research about patterns of development. One of our main projects was to write a topical review on a topic of our choice. My review was focused on the factors that affected adolescent substance use. I analyzed how family, peers, and personality affect substance use in adolescence. Writing this review helped me grow in my ability to think critically about research as well as my ability to communicate effectively through writing. These abilities will help me as a professional and as a future graduate level student. Professionally, I will need to write effectively to communicate a point. As a student, I will need to be able to be comfortable reading and analyzing research as well as writing about it. Also, as a school counselor, I will meet with adolescents who are struggling with substance use so having this knowledge will enable me to connect with and guide students more competently.
Parent Education
Parent Education is a class I took the second semester of my sophomore year that prepares students to work with parents using theory and research‐based knowledge of parent-child relationships. Our main project for the class was creating a website that incorporated current research on a chosen topic and presenting it in an easy-to-read format and giving practical recommendations. My website was focused on exploring preventative actions parents can take to avoid substance use in adolescence. I analyzed three different research articles and summarized them in order to pick out the main ideas to present on my page. Completing this project expanded my ability to think critically as well as to apply research in tangible ways such as parenting. This will aid me in my future goal as a counselor in a number of ways. For example, I will learn many different counseling theories and read research throughout graduate school but will then need to apply these ideas in practice with students. Furthermore, the information I learned through my research can be shared with the parents of the students I will be counseling.