I am a teacher/educator at heart. I have taught at the University of Akron, Kent State University, Walsh University, and University of North Texas. I enjoyed teaching as it gave me great satisfaction to help students learn and apply the ideas and skills they learned in my classes. This was reinforced when I received multiple Teacher of the Year awards. I taught classes in interpersonal communication, public speaking, business and professional speaking, small group decision making, and organizational communication. In addition to these classes, I also provided help to students who had a fear of public speaking. I utilized the Systematic Desensitization (SD) technique as well as other visual techniques to help them overcome their fear.
The reason I am involved with MastersinPsychology.com is that I grew up with people who were involved with psychology. My mother is a licensed psychologist (imagine the advantages and disadvantages of this 😊) and I considered becoming a psychologist for a while. My daughter has now finished her undergraduate studies and has focused on behavioral psychology and other areas of psychology. Her mother and I have advanced degrees and have traveled extensively and we have instilled the need for, and benefits of, continuing to learn (through formal and informal education) and travel to open your eyes to the world around you and experience different cultures. She is now traveling the world before continuing her education and is considering a master’s in psychology. When researching the schools and programs for master’s in psychology, I found that you needed to use multiple websites to get the information you wanted (and needed) so we created a website that has the information you needed as well as a summary of the major topic areas in psychology to help students decide which area (or areas) they would like to pursue.
Our goal is provide up-to-date information on programs and schools which offer graduate degrees in psychology as well as additional information. I will provide some additional resources as well as manage the blog posts and podcasts where I will interview many different psychologists and psychiatrists to get more information and advice that students can use when making choices regarding their academic careers. Please check back frequently to see updated information, blog posts, and podcasts.
We appreciate your support and feedback.
Sincerely,
Bradley
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Broadcast Communication (1992); University of North Dakota – Grand Forks, ND
Master of Science, Interpersonal Communication (1994); University of North Texas – Denton, TX
Doctoral Program, Interpersonal Communication (ABD); Kent State University – Kent, OH
Time-Stamped Interview Highlights
| 00:42 | Introductions: Curt Carstensen of the People I Know Show Interviews Brad Schumacher, Host of the MastersinPsychology.com Podcast. |
| 01:56 | Why are you the Podcast Host and involved in MastersinPsychology.com? My mom is a Licensed Psychologist and has been in psychology for most of my life. I have taught for 8-9 years at the University level at the University of Akron and also Kent State University. I am a teacher at heart and wanted to start a website to help those who were interested in continuing their education in psychology. I was considering going into psychology myself and instead went down the communications route in broadcast communications and interpersonal communications. My daughter has finished her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of MInnesota Duluth recently and wants to continue her education in psychology as well. |
| 04:14 | How will your website help future graduate psychology students? The biggest selling point is I will be visiting and interviewing different psychologists, professors, psychiatrists and current psychology students to talk about their field of study and what they are specializing in. I will be asking them questions about their particular field of psychology and I would also ask them “if someone were to go into their particular field, what advice would they have and what would they suggest?” |
| 07:02 | What type of multimedia skills do you have to run the video and audio portions of the website? I started off in broadcasting at University of Wisconsin River Falls for my first two years of my undergraduate degree and then transferred to the University of North Dakota. While at UWRF I did some radio shows with a good friend named Tim and it was called the “Badly Bradley and Timber Too Show”. After transferring to UND I became the local meteorologist for the local campus TV Station “Studio One”. |
| 08:50 | What was your next stop after graduating from UND? From UND I went to the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas where I studied for my Master’s in Interpersonal Communication. After completing my Master’s at UNT I wanted to continue my education and went to Kent State University and I continued teaching there and also taught at the University of Akron. |
| 11:18 | What else will be on the website MastersinPsychology.com? In addition to having interviews of psychology professors, current students, and psychologists, the website will show all the different Master’s in Psychology degree types and which schools are offering those across the United States. The schools can be filtered by state or degree type and will be ranked according to affordability. |
| 13:47 | If you were a student continuing your education in psychology, what important factors would you want to see in a graduate psychology website? What tends to be the thing I want to know right away is how much is this going to cost me. I want to be able to look within the range of prices that I am willing to jump into. If I am going to start a psychology program, what are the ones I can do for a reasonable price. I would also like to search by location and other metrics. |
| 16:20 | What does communication studies share with psychology? A lot of cognitive psychologists, behavioral psychologists, applied psychologists, and other types of psychologists and psychiatrists have necessary skills in communication, patience and listening and that’s why I get excited about psychology. It blends well with my degrees in interpersonal communication and broadcasting. |
| 18:40 | Would Bradley be a good guest for the “People I Know” podcast? I am the owner of a Toyota Prius, mostly because of you. When you learned I was looking into buying a different vehicle, you gave a very strong pitch for why I should get a Prius. Not only did I buy a Prius but I bought it from the same guy at the same dealership that you did. Whether or not it was the best thing for me, it happened because of you, so having a conversation about that and whatever extends from that, I think can lead into a conversation worth listening to. Follow “People I Know Show” on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for photos, videos and to interact with other listeners. ***Update*** Bradley was indeed a guest on the People I Know Show!! |