Sociology 2018 Newsletter

SOCIOLOGY NEWSLETTER | Issue #3 19 a n d H o n o r s T h e s e s Senior Sociology and Spanish major, Becky Corbin trav‐ eled to Reynosa, Mexico to complete her internship. For three weeks in July 2017, she volunteered and lived at Big Heart Orphanage . Working with children between the ages of 4 and 13, she helped to get the children ready for the day, planned activities, and gained hands on experience working with children who had suffered severe trauma, abuse, and neglect. Since returning from Reynosa, Becky has been busy work‐ ing on her Honors thesis, a survey of volunteers at Our Daily Bread , a Food and Resource Center located in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Her Honors thesis advisor, Dr. Heather McLaughlin, said that Becky’s desire to help others and give back to her community is truly inspiring. “Becky is an excep‐ tionally kind and compassionate person. When brainstorm‐ ing topics for her Honors thesis, Becky’s main goal was to use her research to help others, and she worked directly with Our Daily Bread and the Oklahoma Regional Food Bank to better understand their needs and identify how she could make the largest impact. Her research is a product of that goal, and she looks forward to sharing her findings and making her recommendations at the end of the semester.” Taken together, Becky said that these experiences have taught her a lot about the importance of healthy, functional relationships in people’s lives. After graduation, Becky will be working for the Life Launch mentorship program at Stand in the Gap , which provides mentorship to young adults aging out of the foster care system.