My name is Makayla Rushing and I am a student at Michigan State University. My major is Psychology and my minor is in law, justice, and public policy. I have always known that I wanted to help people in some way. I didn’t discover specifics of how I wanted to help them until I saw the CW the Flash. I had a goal to be a forensic scientist like Barry Allen. I was pretty set on it for a year or two of my adolescents until I discovered the reality of the career. I quickly changed my mind and realized I wanted to help people by understanding them and making connections to why they did the things they did. Not only does the social science aspect of it really fascinate me, but I want to be able to possibly supply a sort of closure for people wondering why criminals make the decisions they do. This is where the law, justice, and public policy part come in. I am interested more directly in criminal psychology and am focusing my studies on it. I will admit that with classes I have taken already and my university, I am also discovering a vast interest in neural psychology. In a cognitive psychology course brought this interest upon me and I have decided since taking said class that if circumstances do not work out for the criminal justice aspect of my goals then I will change them to neural psychology. This is still helping people in a way that I find to be important. With the fast improvements and developments in technology, neural psychologists can assist people in need to prosthetics as well as being able to provide insight in cases of different brain diseases. When considering the forensic scientist I also had an interest in the general science aspect of things but ultimately the social sciences won me over. With neural psychology, it is a great nomination of humans and their behaviors and the science involved in our brains and its structure. Regardless of what specific pathway or avenue I wish to take, I know for absolute certain that I want it in the realm of psychology. My interest and fascination with humans and their thoughts and behaviors will always be on interest to me but, that paired with the opportunity to help people understand others or themselves with what I study and observe then I will do what I can to help them.

My name is Makayla Rushing. I am currently a student at Michigan State University. I used to play softball in middle school and high school until an injury put me out of playing for good. I dislocated both of my knee caps at practice my freshman year and had to get surgery on both my knees for the remaining years of my high school experience. The recovery from the surgeries alone were a 3 months long and the physical therapy following was another 3 to 4 months. My physical therapists always pushed me to get stronger so that I would be able to play again but by the time I was at full strength again, there was only one season of my high school experience left and I hadn’t played in so long. Softball alone taught me determination and to be tough but the experience I had when I couldn’t play anymore taught me perseverance. This is the way I wish to approach things throughout the rest of my life. I want to remain determined to achieve my goals and have enough perseverance when things attempt to get in the way of that goal. Not only did I learn these strong characteristics but the sport also gave me a sense of community. Each team I played on, I made friends, improved my skills, made memories, and had an incredible time. When my injury initially happened, it was a few practices before our first game of the season, as well as over spring break when the athletic trainer was not around. Though I didn’t get to play a single game, I made sure to show up to every one of them wearing some type of spirit wear. I sat in the dugout and cheered on my friends and teammates and was still able to share those memories with them. That entire season helped me to grow a bit closer to some people on my team and was a rather memorable season for me. I may not ever be apart of a softball team again but I still hope to gain and keep people in my life that I can support and that can support me. The biggest takeaways I have had from my experience playing softball is that community is important and perseverance and determination are required to achieve your goals. Without those takeaways I wouldn’t be where I am today with the goals that I have.

My name is Makayla Rushing and I am a psychology student at Michigan State University. In the future I have hopes of being a criminal psychologist. I feel called to be able to help victims and their families understand why unfortunate things happened to them by getting a good understanding of the criminals mental process. Doing this, I am hoping to provide some form of an answer to situations where there may not be a definitive reason for the crime to have taken place. With this being a field of work that can be dark at times, I plan to stay strong in my faith to protect my own mental health while trying to help others. Through prayer and the knowledge I will learn I wish to stay a strong individual that can help others. With my faith I have gone through my own battles of dealing with injuries, surgeries, and more. Throughout a majority of my childhood, I was dealing with having bad knees and had to wear a knee brace through most of my childhood. Later on, it only got worse and was injured to the point of needing surgery. In my freshman year of high school I had to get surgery performed on my knee and just a year later, the same surgery was done on the other knee. Through the healing process I was unable to walk for about 3 month. Not only was this a mental battle but a physical one. Years later I am hear with two fully working knees that have given me no trouble. I was raised in a single parent household and though there were times I struggled a lot, I have always had a great support system. In recent years I have become a member of a church that pushes me to be a better person and do what I was called to do. With many prayers and blessings I was able to get through the struggles of my life and I am now a young adult that has achieved goals I never even thought I would set. Before I even turned 18 years old, I graduated with honors from high school and completed an associates degree of arts at a local community college. After achieving these things, with lots of prayer and hard work I was able to be accepted into my dream school, Michigan State University, and start working towards what I will be doing for the rest of my life. I have been raised in my faith and have been continuously blessed. I will continue to serve my church as I make the moves to answer my calling. With my church and my faith holding strong I know that I can achieve my academic and career goals.