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Klein focusing on cognitive neuroscience research |
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Written by Publisher
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Monday, 26 November 2007 |
 St. Marys native Brandi Klein is currently in her first year of graduate school, focusing on cognitive neuroscience at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
By Becky Polaski
St. Marys native Brandi Klein is currently in her first year of graduate school, focusing on cognitive neuroscience at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Brandi is the daughter of Jim and Cindy Klein and the older sister of Krista and Tony Klein, all of St. Marys. Krista is currently a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and is majoring in elementary education. Tony is a junior at St. Marys Area High School. Brandi is also the granddaughter of Ruth and the late Elmer Wendel and Rose and the late Richard Kline.
Growing up, Brandi attended Queen of the World School from kindergarten through eighth grade and graduated in 1999. She went on to attend Elk County Catholic High School where she graduated summa cum laude in 2003.
“I enjoyed going to Catholic school because they encouraged me to go to Saint Vincent College,” said Klein. “I really loved it at Saint Vincent and feel like I got a great education and made a lot of friends. It was a very supportive environment and they encouraged the same values that the Catholic school system in St. Marys encouraged like hospitality, stewardship, and a sense of community.”
Klein attended Saint Vincent College from 2003-2007 and majored in psychology with a minor in sociology and a drug and alcohol addictions certification.
“I decided to go into psychology because I took a psychology class in high school and, while most people go into psychology because they want to counsel people or they want to figure out people’s problems, I enjoyed the research side of psychology,” said Klein. “I enjoyed reading about all of the experiments that famous psychologists had conducted and I realized it was something I could envision myself doing.”
While attending Saint Vincent, she was active in several clubs including Psychology Club, of which she was the treasurer, and Psi Chi, the National Honor Society of Psychology, of which she was the president.
“With those two organizations we did a lot of service projects to help the community and a lot of drives to help out the poor and homeless,” said Klein.
In addition to her thesis research, she also had two other publications while attending Saint Vincent College, working closely with Dr. Mark Rivardo on those projects.
She received an award for academic excellence in the field of psychology and an award for excellence and service to the psychology department. She was also elected to Who’s Who Among American Universities and Colleges. Additionally, she was awarded the Psi Chi Regional Research Award for the eastern region of the United States.
“Since Saint Vincent was small I had an opportunity to do a lot of research and work really closely with the faculty. That helped me to determine that I wanted to go on to graduate school to do research,” explained Klein.
While at Saint Vincent College, Klein completed her senior thesis on how people stigmatize the mentally ill and how one of the main contributors to that stigma is the electronic media.
“Movies, television, etc… drastically dramatize the very rare symptoms. So they portray everyone that is mentally ill as being dangerous, psychotic, and a drain on the economy, when the mentally ill are no more dangerous than the mentally healthy,” explained Klein.
After graduating from Saint Vincent in May of 2007, Klein went on to attend Bowling Green State University and is doing graduate work in cognitive neuroscience. She is currently enrolled in a five year Ph.D. program. She then hopes to become a professor and continue her research at the university or government level.
“My graduate studies are in cognitive neuroscience and that really has nothing to do with psychology as most people think of the term,” explained Klein. “It has nothing to do with mental illness, seeing clients, or therapy. It is pretty much all research and focuses on the study of the brain so we can learn about our different mental processes, such as how we interpret spatial information and how we perceive and act upon the environment around us. It is basically a completely research orientated field.”
Klein is currently working on formulating the foundation for her Master’s thesis. She plans to conduct research on applying an attentional vector sum model to semantic components of spatial Stroop interference.
“Right now, in addition to doing my own research and formulating my Master’s thesis, I am a research assistant for my advisor, Dr. Dale Klopfer,” said Klein. “I’m also a teacher’s assistant for Dr. Marie Tisak.”
Though Klein is currently assisting teaching classes and conducting research experiments, her first job was helping out at her father’s grocery store while she was in high school.
“My first job was at Johnson’s Grocery, which my dad owned for many years. I also had summer jobs at Contact Technologies and SGL Carbon while I was in college,” said Klein. “I also worked on the Children and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at Latrobe Area Hospital one summer during college.”
An avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan, Klein also worked for the Steelers one summer at their training camp in Latrobe.
Klein tries to get back to St. Marys whenever her busy schedule allows and typically makes it home on holiday breaks to see her family and friends.
“It’s always good to come home because I have so many fond memories of growing up here in St. Marys,” said Klein.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 November 2007 )
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