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Career
Profiles - Victoria Kazmerski
- Describe your career field.
My field of study is called Biological
Psychology. Psychology is the study
of how people think and behave. In Biological
Psychology we study the relationship
between how the body, especially the
brain, works and the way people behave.
One of the questions we study is to
look at how certain actions are controlled
by certain parts of the brain. We look
at pictures of how the brain starts
to use more energy in some parts when
you read and other parts of your brain
when you build a puzzle. Other people
in this field look at how certain chemicals
in the brain can change the way people
act and might even cause a problem like
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
- How did you become interested
in this field?
I first got interested in Psychology
in high school when I was reading books
about people who had mental and behavioral
problems. I thought it was interesting
to think about the different kinds of
problems and what could help people.
When I got to college I studied psychology,
focusing on child development –
how does the behavior of children change
as they get older. I got very excited
about a research project I did, where
I looked at how in some cases first
graders remember the actual words they
read better than college students. I
wanted to understand how children learned
to read and thought the best way to
do that would be to teach children to
read and try to understand what they
were doing. With my background in psychology
and interest in people with problems,
I decided then to become a Special Education
teacher. I went to graduate school as
soon as I graduated from college and
studied how to be a teacher. Then I
taught in New York City for seven years.
I taught children with learning disabilities.
As I did this I kept wondering about
what made some people have learning
disabilities. I did a lot of reading
and decided that it was time for me
to do some more of my own experiments
to find out about learning disabilities.
That's when I went to graduate school
to get my doctorate in psychology.
- What were your favorite subjects
in school?
It's hard to think of a subject that
wasn't important except maybe gym. But,
I guess the most important ones were
the math classes and Biology. English
and German were important, too. I write
almost every day on my job. Even though
I don't actually remember much of German,
I do remember that it really helped
improve my English grammar as I thought
about the parts of speech and how sentences
are formed. Math is extremely important.
I use it to do many calculations. I
use it in simple ways like to calculate
students' grades. I also use it in complex
ways to do statistics and to take readings
of people's electrical brain activity
and change it into numbers that we can
use to tell which part of a brain is
more active than another one.
- What's every-day life like in
your field?
I have two main parts to my job: teaching
and research. Some days I mostly teach
college students. I have to prepare
for class by reading books and writing
notes. Sometimes I also make computer
presentations for class. I also have
my students use computers so I have
to spend time practicing with the programs
I have them use. I have to make up and
grade exams. I also have to assign and
grade papers. I make all my students
write since I think it is so important
no matter what job they will have. The
other part of my job is to do research.
For my research, I record people's brain
waves while they do different tasks.
Right now I'm looking at how the brain
processes ordinary sentences like, "A
banana is a fruit." Compared to
ones that have more than one meaning
like, "He went to the bank."
To do this I put electrical sensors
on a person's head and attach them to
a computer. I then record the person's
brain activity. I usually have a college
student help me with this part. Then
I have to analyze the data (that's the
part where lots of math comes in; the
computer does most of the math). After
I do this to many people I have to try
to understand what the data means. So
some days I have to read and talk to
other scientists to get more ideas.
Then I can better explain how the brain
works and helps people to act and think.
- How do you balance a family and
career?
Balancing a career and family is not
an easy task. But, I would not give
up either for anything. I find it takes
a fine balance between planning and
being flexible. The most important thing
for me is that I have care arranged
for my children during the day that
I really trust. My son is now 1½.
When I went back to work when he was
just 6 weeks old, I was able to go nurse
him every day since he was at the day
care center here on campus. That way
I got to know all the teachers at his
school and could see how well they took
care of the kids there. I don't go visit
him during the day as much any more,
but know he is in good hands. My daughter
is 7 now and is in school most of the
day. My husband now teaches at the same
school she goes to. We have been lucky
in that my schedule is somewhat flexible
and either my husband or I can take
care of my daughter after school every
day. We try to have a special family
time every weekend. We also try to eat
dinner together most evenings. Even
though we have these great plans for
our kids, we also have to be flexible.
It's important to me that I have a husband
who will take over when I have late
meetings or have to go out of town for
a conference and I do the same for him.
- What's the coolest thing about
your career?
The thing I like best about my career
is that it is always changing. There
is always something new to figure out.
Science is always changing. Every time
we find out something new, we also come
up with new questions that we need to
answer. My students are always changing,
too. I get new students all the time.
So even if I teach the same course more
than once, it is never the same. Each
student has new ideas. My job will never
be boring.
- Anything you would like to add?
For anyone going into psychology I would
recommend taking lots of science and
math classes in high school. It will
help you think in a scientific, organized
way. It will also prepare you for going
to college. I would suggest spending
some time volunteering with people in
your community. You could even volunteer
to work with animals since a lot of
what we know about the way people act
comes from studying animal behavior.
Since psychology is the study of behavior,
just sit and watch what people do. Most
importantly, ask lots of questions.
Never stop wondering "Why?".
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