The chatter of the Psychology Club members rose in excitement as they sat on the bus, taking in the trademark burnt orange and white, grinning at each other, because they were in the school that many dreamed of studying psychology and neuroscience in – The University Of Texas at Austin. 

On Feb. 22, Psychology Club took a group trip to the UT Austin Campus Psychology Department. The opportunity allowed students to explore the campus, bond with their fellow club members and learn about UT’s unique psychology program.

“The main goal of the club is to [expose] students to things they don’t see in the classroom,” sponsor Vicki Flam said. “My goal is that students get to see a broader view of psychology than they would necessarily in the class.”

Unlike clubs like DECA or HOSA, which are chapters of a nationwide organization, Psychology Club was founded as its own unique club.

“This is really a student-inspired, student-run club,” Flam said. “Some students came to me from last year’s AP Psych class and said they wanted to learn more about psychology and broaden their view from what we did in class. So they created this Psychology Club and asked me to be an advisor, which I was really happy to do.”

During the UT trip, students were able to hear from Dr. Jacqueline Evans, who serves as not only a psychology professor, but also the university’s undergraduate faculty advisor for psychology. Dr. Evans laid out a framework for the UT Psychology program and spoke about how it could become a pathway for students interested in medicine.

“She’s super well-spoken and you can tell that she’s incredibly intelligent and informed on what she is saying,” president and junior Sophia Minney said. “Everything she said made me so excited to want to go into psychology even more than I already wanted to and it just shows how great of a school UT is.” 

Although eventful, this trip took the club officers many weeks of coordination to plan. 

“Ms. Flam had emailed Dr. Evans to see if we would even be able to go,” vice president and junior Gabriella Guerra said. “When Dr. Evans said that she was thrilled by the ideas, we all got really excited. We all worked alongside Ms Flam to fill out a field trip form, get permission slips out to everybody and make sure everybody was on the same page.”

From a Halloween potluck to a Christmas party, the club has hosted many intra school events, but this was their first out of school experience. According to the officer team, it will not be their last.

“We want to actually take another UT trip to the neuroscience department next year,” Minney said. “And we’re all looking forward to that. We have many more plans for next year, maybe attending the Brain Bee in Houston at Rice University and just continuing to study psychological and neuroscience things.”

The majority of the students in the club have taken the AP exam for psychology, and this extracurricular has allowed them to further their understanding of the subject. 

“AP Psych is very driven to pass the test, so it can be very intense,” Flam said. “But I feel like with the club, we can kind of take our time and explore things that we might not have time in class to do. I hope it brings an intellectual curiosity and that we look at things beyond what is taught within the curriculum.”

Psychology club welcomes every student, regardless of their experience.

“I hope that students who are interested in joining this club know that you don’t have to have previous knowledge of psychology,” Guerra said. “You can join the club, having taken psychology or not. Sure, it would be beneficial, but being in the club is not just about having taken the class, it’s about getting to learn and grow with the help of psychology.”