Issue link: http://tcnj.uberflip.com/i/1547453
16 The College of New Jersey Magazine "He reached out to me and said, 'It seems like you're really interested in these topics. Would you want to do research with me?'" says Wang. "I had never done research before. I didn't really know what it involved." That invitation would become the first of many. Wang continued working with Ruscio throughout her four years at TCNJ and developed relationships with other faculty mentors who opened doors to clinical psychology and neuroscience, including Joanna Herres and Ashley Borders. She learned to code, run simulations, and analyze data. She designed studies, presented at conferences, published her work in peer-reviewed journals, and brought these skills together through her undergraduate thesis on cognitive and affective mechanisms of eating disorders. But looking back, Wang realizes the most consequential thing her profes- sors gave her may not have been a research skill at all. It was confidence. She remembers sharing ambitions that, to her, felt audacious: applying to PhD programs, pursuing a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The response from her professors wasn't just encouragement — they fully believed these goals were well within her reach. Hannah Hoer '27 SHE'S HAD TO GET COMFORTABLE TACKLING PROBLEMS SHE DOESN'T YET KNOW HOW TO SOLVE.