An Inside Look at the SPSP Student Committee

What is the SPSP Student Committee (SC)? As a student member of SPSP, you may follow the SC on Facebook or Twitter, read the SPSPotlight, attend the SC party at the convention, and vote during SC elections, but you might not know what the SC is or what it does. As chair of the 2017 - 2018 Student Committee, I’d like to share what I know about the SC, highlighting things I didn’t know before joining.

It was created so students would have a voice within SPSP

The SC was created in 2002 by a group of students who wanted their concerns and needs represented within their professional society, who wanted to help their fellow students, and who wanted to give back to SPSP. Over the years, it has grown, but its core responsibilities remain the same. The SC create resources and events that benefit students of personality and social psychology and advocate for students - for example, by sending a representative (the SC Chair) to SPSP’s Executive Committee meetings.

It organizes events at the Annual Convention

Though there is flexibility in what the SC does, it is traditionally responsible for organizing events at the annual convention. Members of the SC:

• manage the Student Poster Awards and the Outstanding Research Award, including the review and selection process;
• organize Mentor Lunches at the convention, where about 35 faculty mentors offer advice to undergraduate and graduate students over lunch;
• host a social event at the convention where students can connect with one another.

In addition to these convention events, the 2017-2018 SC also posts articles and notices on social media that are relevant to students, offered an abstract check service for non-native English speakers, and produces resources relevant to students -- with more projects in the works.

It chooses projects and events to focus on

Each SC can choose to allocate their effort differently, and may choose to change or innovate traditional events in ways that better serve the student population. For example, the 2017-2018 SC has focused on peer mentoring. As part of this, we created a Road Map to graduate school, written by current graduate students for hopeful graduate students. We are also developing a year-round, online mentor match system to facilitate connections among students, which is in the early stages of development.

Many of the things that students benefit from at the SPSP convention - like the mentor lunch and the poster award - were created by student committees who thought that these things would be valuable and worked to make them happen.

Any student member can serve

Members of the student committee must be members of SPSP, and must be willing to devote their time and energy to SPSP and its student members, and serve SPSP’s core values and goals. Beyond that, there are no qualifications (yes, undergraduates can serve on the committee!). The student members of SPSP are diverse in their gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity/race, and nationality, and in the kinds of institutions they come from. The student committee membership can and should reflect the diversity of the students it represents.

SPSP provides much to its student members

In working with the central office and other committees within SPSP, I’ve learned about the many resources that SPSP provides its members. The staff and volunteer leadership of SPSP dedicate a ton of time and care to its members and to social and personality psychology. Most visibly, SPSP hosts a giant annual convention during which we share our research, connect with colleagues, and learn about new research or new-to-us methodological or statistical techniques. In addition to that, SPSP also gives awards, manages journals we publish in, and takes care to meet the needs of its members - including students and scholars from underrepresented groups. It creates useful resources for undergraduates looking to do research or applying to graduate school and for graduate students on the job market, and it funds professional development opportunities (e.g., SISPP), research grants, and small conferences.

Serving on the committee is personally beneficial

Being part of the SC offers financial benefits - by way of free registration at the annual convention - but it also offers unique professional benefits. Members of the SC develop connections with other students of social and personality psychology who come from all over the United States and the world, who are based at a variety of institutions, and who study a variety of topics. Members of the SC can also write pieces for the SPSPotlight that will be read widely, create resources for students that are published on SPSP’s website, and contact faculty members (e.g., in the process of organizing mentor lunches or in collaboration with the other SPSP committees) in ways that are likely to benefit their professional development.

Members are nominated and voted in

In the late fall, there is a call for nominations to serve on the SC - with self-nominations encouraged. Then, a ballot is sent out to all student members of SPSP. Students run for specific positions, and once elected are assigned by the chair to lead and serve on various sub-committees.

If you have questions about the SC, or are interested in serving, please get in touch with us at [email protected].