The Cereta Perry Scholarship honors Cereta Perry, PhD, co-founder of MSP, and her contributions to both alumni and diversity. The scholarship was established in her name for the purpose of recruiting diverse students to MSP. It is awarded at the beginning of each school year to a promising incoming student who belongs to ethnic, racial, cultural, religious, and sexual identity groups that have traditionally been underrepresented populations in the field of psychology. The recipient has also demonstrated a commitment to advancing awareness of issues that impact diverse populations.
This year’s recipient was Jifune Hermiz (MA).
“With intense honor and gratitude, I want to thank MSP for choosing me as a feasible candidate for the Cereta Perry Scholarship and remembering the late Cereta Perry, PhD. I believe that the community a person functions in has prodigious power to either reinforce or undermine progress. I myself, being a first-generation college student, epitomize the importance of dedication, balancing personal and professional work, and passion. While being born in the United States but raised in a Middle Eastern heritage that practiced a strict Catholic religion, I would often find myself wondering why people’s attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs could be immensely different from one another. I questioned all the time why some people believe in things with great zeal, yet others believe the contrary just as vehemently.
With my theoretical orientation surrounding the humanistic approach, I want to approach therapy from a perspective that emphasizes the whole person and motivates others to achieve their potential and self-actualization. Using this approach provides guidance and advances awareness for diverse populations to discover their own strengths, develop a vision for what they want to achieve, and learn to consider their own beliefs and strengths.
My desire to become a Clinical Psychologist is a worthy expedition because I will represent and fight the stigma, prejudice, and discrimination of mental health and illness that individuals with foreign backgrounds such as myself, face in their everyday lives. Being a naturally born American, but coming from a different cultural background, allows me to further address the concerns of minorities by understanding the role culture plays in mental health and by becoming trained to help my community.
My near future educational endeavors after the master’s program, are to obtain admission into the PsyD program here at MSP and my long-term goal is to one day open my own practice and provide services to diverse individuals. For this reason, I am honored and privileged to be one of the chosen feasible candidates for the Cereta Perry Scholarship as it is an enabling opportunity to seize my career and educational appetency. Being a new member of the MSP community, I can proudly say that I am now home.
Thank you.”
