In Their Words: Sara Goodman

Psychology graduate student Sara Goodman is the 2016 recipient of the Frank X. Barron Creativity Award. The award, which is based on academic merit alone, is open to undergraduate and graduate students is any major or field of study at UC Santa Cruz, who are researching areas broadly defined by Barron's work. Barron helped establish UC Santa Cruz as a campus where creativity research is a respected enterprise, and where students and faculty alike understand that human creativity can contribute to psychological health, personal freedom, and social well-being.

Name: Sara Goodman

Department: Psychology

What Scholarship did you receive? Frank X. Barron Award for Creativity Research

What year are you? 5^th Year Graduate Student

Where do you call home? Upstate New York

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out? The Psychology Department at UCSC fosters a highly supportive, collaborative environment that provided a unique and comfortable environment to complete my graduate work.

What is your field of focus? Cognitive Psychology; My research investigates how goals and task parameters influence engagement, motivation and performance.

What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz? I hope to begin a career as a professor at a small university, focusing on undergraduate education.

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research? The generosity of the donors who support the Frank X. Barron award will allow me to subsidize some of the expenses accrued throughout my dissertation research, including software expenses and some travel costs to present this work at a conference in November.