Allison White

From a very early age, Allison White knew she wanted to dedicate her life to the field of psychology.  Intent on this goal, she took the first academic opportunity that became available to her during her senior year of high school.  In 1999, she took an AP course in psychology and interned at an adult mental health rehabilitation center named The Rock Creek Foundation.  This experience, in addition to her experiences as a consumer, confirmed her interests in psychology and the mental health system. 

Allison entered the University of Maryland, College Park’s Honors Program in the fall of 1999, majoring in psychology.  She was selected to participate in the Gemstone Program, which is a unique, four-year team research program for the brightest honors students of all majors.  Allison saw this program as her chance to explore psychology, or more specifically, research the stigma against mental illness and develop ways to end it.  After she proposed this topic, a team of seven students and one faculty member was formed.  During the next three years, the team designed, directed and conducted significant research on the university campus.  In the fourth year, they wrote a team thesis entitled Stigma Against Mental Illness On the University of Maryland, College Park, Campus.  Through this experience, Allison was introduced to On Our Own of Maryland and became a member of the Anti-Stigma Project Workgroup and the Child and Adolescent Subcommittee. 

In addition, she was a member of the honors psychology society (Psi Chi) and the Golden Key International Honour Society.  During Allison’s college career, she was a research assistant in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Department (Fall 2002) and the Clinical Psychology Department (Spring 2003).  She also volunteered at the campus Help Center (314-HELP), a crisis hot line. 

In the spring of 2003, she graduated from Maryland with a 3.6 overall GPA and a 3.76 Psychology GPA.  After Allison earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Gemstone and Honors citation, she interned at the Mental Health Center of the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004.  This internship focused on updating the resources and improving the overall design of Students Educating about Eating Disorders (S.E.E.D.s).  Currently, Allison is working at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology in the next two years.