Michal Samuel, who is a master's student in the Organizational Psychology program, came to TC from Israel where she had six years of work experience as an internal consultant to organizations and extensive experience working in human resources. She has had various work experiences ranging from working as a recruiter, a training consultant, to human resources manager a year prior to enrolling at TC. Samuel was also a lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Force from 1989-1992.

After attending Tel Aviv University and obtaining her undergraduate degree, Samuel chose TC to get more international experience. When she heard about TC's "Social-Organizational Psychology" program and that a good deal of programs in The United States were entitled Industrial-Organizational psychology, with less of a human, social focus, she knew the College would be a perfect choice. With Samuel's excellent work experience in the field under her belt, she chose to get her master's degree in Organizational Psychology because she believed that it would enable her to bring her knowledge back to the field.

There are two professors in particular who have greatly helped to shape Samuel's experiences: W. Warner Burke, Professor of Psychology and Education, and Celeste Coruzzi, Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology and Education. When Samuel took a class entitled "Leadership" with Burke, her desire to explore this area of organizational development solidified. She has also taken organizational dynamics with Caruzzi, which enabled her to gain a real world, practical understanding of how organizations work. Jennifer Parlamis, Lecturer of Psychology and Education, has also been a central figure in her educational career here at TC. Samuel believes that Parlamis is responsible for allowing her to see how theory can be applied to social psychology and the real world. Sameul is currently taking "Psychological Aspects of Organizations."

Samuel's experiences at the College have helped to strengthen her professional identity. She sees herself as an organizational consultant, and would like to act as an external consultant to organizations. In the future, she would like to become an external consultant specializing in organizational development, management techniques and overall human processes that occur within an organization. Samuel plans to stay in New York and use what she has learned at TC in the organizational development arena.

Right now she is interning at Best Practice Publications, a company that publishes the best practices regarding organizational development issues of leading companies. Best Practices focuses on case studies of specific companies. Samuel has been analyzing the data from these case studies and speaking with the subjects of the studies to see if their information is accurate and complete. Then companies use the studies to create their own analysis. She is also involved in developing surveys that analyze the quantitative and qualitative data of the organization, so that they can make this data tangible for communication purposes.

The culture at TC has enabled Samuel to get the most out of her education here. Her long- term career goals have been developed through the many lectures and events that are offered through Career Services and the Organizational Psychology program. She has been taking an extremely active role with her experiences here at TC.

Published Monday, Apr. 21, 2003