University of Rochester

Rochester Review
March–April 2014
Vol. 76, No. 4

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Features: Center of Success

Psychological Studies
kearns_sideKEARNS SCHOLAR: With the guidance of Kearns Center staff, Nicholas undertook research on mercury’s effects on child development, leading to his graduate school interests. (Photo: Kevin P. Casey for Rochester Review)

Jarrett Hannah ’14 grew up listening to his mother tell him he was going to college—but that he would need a scholarship to limit the financial burden.

He was able to make that happen through the Kearns Center, becoming a Kearns Scholar as a freshman and a McNair Scholar as a sophomore.

“For the McNair Program, I was basically told it was for hotshot scientists across the country, and that I should be one of the unexpected people to succeed despite whatever obstacles were in my way,” says the double major in psychology and brain and cognitive sciences. “I never got any special attention in high school, and it was really cool for me to come here and have people understand that I didn’t have the easiest upbringing.”

During the summer between his sophomore and junior years, Hannah worked with Miron Zuckerman, professor of psychology, on a project to explore whether specially designed computer technology could help people increase their self-control.

“That experience was more than just a position for me,” says Hannah, who went on to work last summer at a research lab at the University of Toronto. There, he studied neurophysiology and neural functioning, areas of psychology that he hopes to research further in graduate school.

If everything goes as planned, he’ll be earning a PhD—and he says he has the Kearns Center in large part to thank for that.

“One of the reasons I still have my ambitions,” he says, “is because I’ve been pushed to do the best that I can at this University.”