Joshua Nagel, a senior at Yeshiva College from Los Angeles, California, majoring in psychology and minoring in English, has been awarded an undergraduate research grant from Psi Chi, an international psychology honor society.
The highly selective award of $1,500 will fund a study that supports Nagel’s honors thesis in psychology, which explores different aspects of interpersonal relationships that could create better workplace environments. His study will be conducted with the help of undergraduates in the University community. Nagel is one of just eight students to be selected for the award this fall.
“I definitely owe most of my success so far to Dr. Jenny Isaacs of the Yeshiva College Psychology Department,” said Nagel. “She’s my thesis mentor and her advice and assistance have been invaluable to me. I’m a research assistant in her lab and always knew I’d want her to be my mentor. We explored this project together and it was through her encouragement that I applied for the grant – I am truly thankful for her dedication to my project and how she is always willing to drop what she’s doing to meet with me.”
After graduation, Nagel hopes to pursue a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology. “I enjoy studying psychology and especially conducting research in the field because it requires creativity and analysis to come up with the right questions and then discover their answers,” he said. “Psychology has so much room for nuance and the findings tend to be relevant to everyday life. So much of the research that I am interested in can eventually teach us how to improve life for people on personal and professional levels – I’m never going to get bored of all those possibilities.