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Putting Psychology to Work

Erin McCuaig ‘20

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

The opportunities MAPP

offers has opened, and will

continue to open, many

doors, a l l o w i n g u s t o

reach our goals with ease.

MAPP is an experience I

will never forget!

Erin McCuaig is a graduate of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. She is currently a Project Manager intern at Symbol and Fire.

Find out more: appliedpsychology.usc.edu | facebook.com/applied.psychology

Twitter: @appliedpsychusc | linkedin.com/company/usc-ms-applied-psychology/

”

I graduated from McGill University in 2018 with degrees in Psychology and Social Studies of Medicine. During my time at McGill, I worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL participating in the Cultural Exchange Program for two summers and studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland for a semester. Shortly before arriving at USC, I worked as a Social Media Marketing Manager for a start-up home-made greeting card company.

What is your professional background?

What sparked your interest in Applied

Psychology?

“

I always knew I wasn’t going to go into clinical psychology but didn’t know exactly where my psychology degree would take me until a professor exposed me to Organizational Psychology. I was instantly drawn to it. To be able to use psychology to effectively organize and develop companies or understand consumers is so fascinating to me. I chose MAPP because it is the only program I was able to find in North America that combined both Consumer Behavior and Organizational Psychology. My time in the program so far has been an incredible learning experience; I have had the chance to meet and learn from professionals working at major corporations in positions I was not aware of until I arrived at MAPP.

What’s keeping you busy this semester?

This semester, I am interning at Symbol and Fire, a start-up marketing and brand consultancy firm, as a

project manager. This internship is especially exciting for me as I will be able to utilize my skills in both organizational psychology and consumer psychology.

I am also conducting a consulting treatise project with two MAPP classmates this semester. It’s an advertising/contextual alignment consulting project for Channel Factory, a company that provides brands or ad agencies with the appropriate YouTube content to pair their advertisements with. The project will greatly build on my analytical skills, knowledge of the advertising world, and quantitative research methods in a unique and hands-on way.