Before enrolling in Northeastern’s MS in Applied Psychology program, Kaitlyn Gonyer was studying psychology at the University of Massachusetts Global while completing an internship at a military behavioral health clinic. Watching clinicians work with children, families, and service members gave her a first glimpse of what psychology looks like outside the classroom. “Up until that point, psychology had mostly existed for me in textbooks and class discussions,” she reflects. “Being in the clinic was one of the first times I got to see what psychology actually looked like in practice.”
What drew her to applied psychology specifically was the idea that research doesn’t have to stay confined to journals or laboratories. “The questions researchers ask and the findings they produce can directly shape how people are supported in schools, clinics, hospitals, and communities,” she says. That connection between research and real-world impact ultimately led her to the MSAP program.
A Program That Felt Personal, Even from 7,000 Miles Away
Kaitlyn completed the entire program remotely from South Korea, navigating a 13-to-14-hour time difference while balancing coursework, research, and life abroad. Flexibility was initially a practical priority, but what she found exceeded her expectations. “One thing I genuinely appreciated was that the program never felt impersonal, even though I was an online student living abroad,” she says.
Faculty accommodated her schedule, answered questions over video calls, and, perhaps most meaningfully, treated her not just as a student completing assignments but as a developing scholar with something to contribute. When Dr. Neha Gothe invited Kaitlyn to speak to one of her classes about pursuing research across cultural environments, it reinforced that her experiences and perspective were genuinely valued.
A Class Assignment That Changed Everything
Kaitlyn entered the program already planning to pursue a PhD, but without a clear research identity. That changed in her Family and Systems course, where an interview assignment put her in conversation with a military family raising a child with autism. What she heard, the gaps in care, the loss of providers during relocations, the constant rebuilding of support systems, stayed with her long after the assignment was due.
“Military transitions are already difficult on families, and it made me realize how much harder those transitions can become when a child has developmental or psychological needs,” she recalls. That conversation became the seed of a research direction she is still pursuing: developing intervention and support systems for military-connected children and families around the world.
From Intimidated to First Author
Research once felt daunting to Kaitlyn, particularly because she was completing her studies overseas, where research opportunities and infrastructure can be more limited. During the MSAP program, that relationship shifted. She developed and led an independent research project examining children’s literature through a cross-cultural lens, conducting literature reviews, designing the coding framework, managing data collection, and overseeing the project from concept through analysis. The work was eventually presented as a first-author poster at the APA Convention.
“What made that experience meaningful was not just the presentation itself, but realizing that I was capable of taking an idea and turning it into a research project,” she says. “It was one of the first times I stopped seeing research as something that other people did and started seeing it as something I could contribute to myself.”
Statistics, another area that once felt overwhelming, was transformed by the teaching of faculty member Krystal Hinerman. “She took something that had always felt overwhelming to me and made it approachable,” Kaitlyn says. “I think her support played a major role in helping me build confidence not only in statistics, but in my ability to pursue research at a doctoral level.”
Prepared for the Next Step
By the time Kaitlyn graduated, the MSAP program had given her more than research skills. It had given her a research identity. The projects, conversations, and coursework she completed during the program became the foundation of her PhD applications, giving her language for why her interests in military families, neurodevelopmental disorders, and systems-level interventions mattered and how she planned to pursue them.
Those experiences helped her secure research positions, present her work at APA, and earn admission to the School Psychology PhD program at Texas A&M University, where she will begin her doctoral training in Fall 2026. Upon admission, she was selected for a faculty-nominated merit fellowship recognizing exceptional incoming graduate students.
Advice for Prospective Students
For students weighing whether they’re ready for graduate school, Kaitlyn’s perspective is clear-eyed: the perfect moment doesn’t arrive on its own. “One of the biggest lessons I learned throughout my academic journey is that there will always be a reason to wait,” she says. “More experience. More research. More confidence.”
Many of the experiences that shaped her future were things she never could have predicted: a class assignment that became a research interest, a conversation that became a professional connection, a project that is still shaping her thinking years later. “You do not have to know exactly where every step will lead before taking it,” she says. “Some of the most meaningful opportunities come from being willing to follow your curiosity, put yourself in challenging environments, and trust that the direction will become clearer along the way.”
Kaitlyn Gonyer completed the MS in Applied Psychology at Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University. She will begin her PhD in School Psychology at Texas A&M University in Fall 2026.
