Ashley Wren, a senior psychology major from Murfreesboro, Tenn., is using data collected from CHAMPS students to help the PC community learn more about the future generation of Laurens county—and how to most effectively discover ways to capitalize on these students’ strengths.

Wren’s research is supervised by Dr. Brooke Spatta, associate professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department, who specializes in studying adolescent development.

“This summer, we plan to collect, analyze, and interpret both self-reported and peer-reported data gathered from the students in the CHAMPS program,” Wren said. “We are interested in their self-concepts and self-esteem as well as their attachment to their parents and behaviors in the peer group. This valuable longitudinal data set steadily grows each summer as Dr. Spatta continues to follow each new group of students’ development from seventh to 10th grade.”

Wren began her research process in the spring by conducting a literature review with previous psychological research articles addressing self-esteem and self-concept in adolescents. She explained that this was done to gain knowledge for the first round of questionnaires for data collection.

“It is especially exciting to work with this data because we get the opportunity to see age-related changes occurring in this group of teens right before our eyes,” Wren said.

Wren is a lacrosse player for the Blue Hose and is actively involved in Campus Outreach, Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and serves as a co-coordinator for the Thornwell Home for Children Big Brother/Big Sister program and Student Volunteer Services. She is also a member of the Psi Chi honor society and Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society. She plans to pursue a master’s degree following graduation next May.

The PC Summer Fellows Program is designed to enhance the academic experience of PC students by providing them with opportunities to work with faculty during the summer. The program is intended for motivated students to gain research experience with direct faculty mentoring. Students experience the process of research as a creative intellectual activity in a living-learning environment.

Presbyterian College is located on a striking 240-acre campus in Clinton, between Columbia and Greenville, S.C. Offering challenging academics and a culture of honor, ethics, and service that prepares students to be leaders in communities, PC offers its students the benefit of engaging with an exceptional faculty who take individual interest in their students’ well-being, both personally and in the classroom. The Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy is dedicated to the ideals of leadership, honor to the profession, and service to the community. For more information about Presbyterian College, visit www.presby.edu.