Madeline Rhodes

• Professor

Growing up in a small town in southeast Texas, going to college was something my family assumed I would do. So I did, but I wasn’t very good at it, and I dropped out after three semesters. I eventually went back to school and was assigned an advisor who had a research lab where he and his students studied learning strategies using fish, turtles, and squid. I started working in his lab my second semester and knew that I had finally found the thing I was meant to do – research! He took a chance on me, introduced me to a part of psychology that I didn’t even know existed, and encouraged me to do things I never dreamed I could. My hope for our students is that they find their “thing.” The work that I do in the classroom and lab is designed to help them on that journey. Sometimes this means students letting me know that getting so excited about a particular study is a little nerdy, which is fair. But, when one of them walks into my office and says, “I just read this really cool study and I thought you’d like it” – best feeling in the world!