Louisa BudzinskiLouisa Budzinski
PhD Candidate
Louisa is from Canada and is studying at Melbourne University as an international student. Her research thesis is on "Pitting indebtedness against gratitude".
"After years of contemplating without answers for many of those ‘I wonder why…’ questions, psychology was actually providing some answers. The nail in the coffin, however, came about when I realized that psychology is not only a science, but an art, and one that requires a fair bit of creativity. It was at that illuminating ‘ah-ha’ moment that I recognized that through designing and conducting research, which requires both innovation and creativity, I could also add something new and contribute to the scientific community.
From that point forwards, I decided that a career in psychology was my calling, and my efforts were directed at obtaining research experience to assist me in choosing the right niche in psychology to concentrate on in graduate school.
I decided to apply to the University of Melbourne just before I was due to go backpacking in Australia. This had the added benefit that I could survey the University of Melbourne, the Department of Psychology, meet with A/P Yoshi Kashima and some of his students in person, and get a feel for Melbourne before deciding to pack up my whole life and move just about as far away from Canada as possible. I was more than impressed, and A/P Yoshi’s reputation, I can now say after being here 1 year, is 100% accurate.
I am grateful to be here at this Department of Psychology which seems to have got the mix right – a serious environment in which high-quality work is expected and produced, although one that recognizes and appreciates that this can be achieved best by making sure there is enough ‘down time."