Department of Counseling, Educational psychology and foundations finds place at Johns Hopkins

The moment Hallie Smith stepped on to campus she knew that Mississippi State University and the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Foundations was the place for her.

“Off all the programs I applied for and interviewed with, I felt a sense of peace and belonging when I visited the campus and interviewed with the faculty. Although it was the furthest from home, I felt that I would get the training and experience I needed not only with psychology, but what applied behavior analysis,” Smith said.

Smith, a 2017 graduate and licensed clinical psychologist and behavior analyst in the Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, knew that she wanted to help children ever since she took AP psychology in high school. Her goal was to create meaningful and positive change in the lives of children with a variety of disabilities. A pediatric feeding disorder is a global diagnosis that a child receives when they are unable to attain appropriate weight/growth status, have a diet so selective they are deficient in essential vitamins and nutrients to maintain appropriate growth or engage in inappropriate mealtime behavior.

Once she was admitted to the School Psychology program at MSU, she knew she’d made the right decision and that the training she would receive would help her create positing meaningful change for the children and families that would one day be her patients. She explained that one of the best things about the program for her was the quality of training, supervision and mentorship she received from the faculty.

“Not only were the faculty wonderful classroom instructors but the clinical and research supervision I received really allowed me to understand what exactly I wanted to do with my professional life after graduate school,” Smith explained.

While at Mississippi State, Smith also took part in the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic and the Autism Liaison Program. MSU’s Autism Liaison Services was developed through a collaboration with Student Support Services and the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic. Autism Liaisons, like Smith, offer services and support to degree-seeking students on the autism spectrum to facilitate their success on campus. Smith said that her experiences at the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic provided her with outstanding and unique clinical skills as well as supervision and leadership skills.

“Having been provided with so many opportunities to deliver evidence-based behaviors interventions to a variety of children with a variety of diagnoses was integral in my development as a psychologist,” Smith said.