{"id":51672,"date":"2018-11-09T13:34:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T18:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=51672"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:19:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:19:21","slug":"fall-convocation-psychology-student-awarded-presidents-medal","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/fall-convocation-psychology-student-awarded-presidents-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Convocation: Psychology Student Awarded President\u2019s Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Fall Convocation: Psychology Student Awarded President\u2019s Medal\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Between starting medical school and completing her second undergraduate degree, Psychology<\/a> graduate Cassandra Coville is having an eventful autumn. In recognition of her stellar academic endeavours, she has been awarded Carleton University\u2019s President\u2019s Medal. The prize is given to the student with the highest standing in a general or major degree program of studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited, it\u2019s a really huge honour.\u201d says Coville. \u201cBeing able to graduate at the top of the program is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coville was initially drawn to Carleton\u2019s Neuroscience<\/a> program to complete her second bachelor\u2019s degree, where she focused on prerequisite courses for medical school. Switching to Psychology toward the end of her studies, she found the easy transition of courses between the two programs helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really liked the access to the courses, the Neuroscience and Psychology programs have a lot of overlap,\u201d she says. \u201cThose are courses that weren\u2019t available anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating in Hands-On Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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For the aspiring doctor, an advantage of completing her prerequisites at Carleton was the opportunity to participate in hands-on research. She took part in research projects and was able to work alongside PhD students studying addiction in Prof. Matthew Holahan<\/a>\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\u201cWith everything that\u2019s going on in mental health right now, and the attention that is being put on mental health in general, I think it is such an interesting time to be able to participate in research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward, Coville expects to use the skills and experience she gained at Carleton in her future practice, especially to help patients with their mental health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn family medicine, you really get to treat an individual as a whole person – you\u2019re not just treating a specific component of their illness,\u201d says Coville. \u201cYou get to see the whole person\u2019s social aspects and their mental illness or mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that the Psychology programs and Neuroscience programs teach you about somebody before you go on to treat them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Importance of Flexibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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With her academic success, it would be easy to assume Coville had long established a predetermined path \u2013 but that is not the case. When students are trying to figure out their futures, Coville advises they maintain flexibility, say yes to new opportunities and explore their options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFigure out what you like and, when you like something, stick with that,\u201d says Coville. \u201cDon\u2019t try to do what you think you should do, or what fits on a checklist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you do things that you enjoy, you\u2019re going be passionate about them \u2013 and then you\u2019re going to be successful because you\u2019re passionate about them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fall Convocation is taking place on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. The ceremonies will be broadcast online via live streaming at Carleton.ca\/convocation\/live<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between starting medical school and completing her second undergraduate degree, Psychology graduate Cassandra Coville is having an eventful autumn. In recognition of her stellar academic endeavours, she has been awarded Carleton University\u2019s President\u2019s Medal. The prize is given to the student with the highest standing in a general or major degree program of studies. \u201cI\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":51675,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-51672","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/51672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/51672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97938,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/51672\/revisions\/97938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=51672"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=51672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}