$1.2 million grant will fund psychology students’ study abroad

Dr. Joseph Wyatt of the Department of Psychology has co-authored a grant that will bring more than $1.2 million to provide undergraduate psychology students a year of study abroad. Not only will 24 Marshall students spend a year studying psychology in Europe, but an equal number of students from schools in Hungary and Poland will spend a year at Marshall. All of this is to further the globalization of the field in an increasingly shrinking world.  

Wyatt is now taking the lead as academic coordinator for this new project.  Funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), the “Atlantis Program” will allow students to earn bachelor’s degrees at both Marshall University and at one of the European universities.

The Atlantis Program is a grant competition conducted cooperatively by the U.S. Department of Education and its European counterpart, the European Commission. Its purpose is to promote student-centered, transatlantic education and training in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines. Only about 10 U.S. institutions, including Clemson and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI), received the prestigious grant. MU psychology students as well as psychology students enrolled in two oversees institutions—Debrecen University in Budapest, Hungary, and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology in Warsaw, Poland, will benefit from this program.

Wyatt came to the position of academic coordinator after a meeting with Clark Egnor, director of Marshall's Center for International Programs. Egnor had read an article in The Parthenon about Wyatt’s November 2005 travel to Warsaw as a guest lecturer. Egnor asked Wyatt to get involved and the grant application was written and awarded. An article about the program was also printed in the @Marshall in February 2006.

“This is the birth year of this particular Atlantis program. With Marshall taking the lead in the application, we will offer very beneficial opportunities for our students and the students from Budapest and Warsaw,” Wyatt noted.  

MU’s Transatlantic Degree Program in Psychology is designed to allow students one full year of study at European schools. Likewise, European students will spend a full year at MU and an additional semester at their non-home European institution.

“Marshall students will travel to both Debrecen University and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology to spend a semester at each institution," Wyatt said. "Our aim for the first year is undergraduate juniors [psychology majors] since they will be able to come back and discuss the program and their experience with both faculty members and their peers during their senior years here. The European coursework will be taught in English and the curricula used matches closely with Marshall’s. However, some courses are unique. For example, students may have the opportunity to take a class titled ‘The Psychology of Concentration Camps’ at the Warsaw school,” Wyatt explained. 

Each of the two dozen students will need to have completed 15 hours of psychology and other requirements before going oversees. Students will receive some cultural and language training to help them fit in better when they are in Budapest and Warsaw before they travel. In March Wyatt will meet with representatives of the European schools to discuss the program, then he will spend the remainder of the semester selecting appropriate student candidates. Grant funds go toward project expenses including tuition and travel for all participating students.

“At the end of their academic experience the Marshall and the European students will have earned psychology degrees from Marshall University and one of the two European institutions,” Wyatt stated. 

Wyatt received his doctorate in psychology from West Virginia University before coming to Marshall University in 1980. Board certified in forensic psychology and specializing in behaviorism and clinical psychology, Wyatt has authored numerous articles. The most recent is titled “Biological Psychiatry: A Practice in Search of a Science” and it may be accessed at www.behaviorandsocialissues.com. 

Wyatt has authored books on the discipline of psychology (The Millennium Man, 1998; B.F Skinner From A to Z, 2001) and one book dedicated to the memory of his father and his love for the Boy Scouts (Buckskin Boys: A History of the Buckskin Council 1919-2004, Boy Scouts of America, 2004). He edits and publishes Behavior Analysis Digest, a quarterly newsletter that translates technical behavioral science research and theory into everyday language. In December 2000, Wyatt received the award for Effective Presentation and Popularization of Applied Behavior Analysis from the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis for The Millennium Man and for his work in representing the discipline in popular media.