Kamari Moore

My name is Kamari Moore, I am from Shreveport, Louisiana, and I am a non-graduating senior majoring in psychology and minoring in chemistry at Howard University. Growing up, I was always interested in the advancement of human capabilities through technology; I believe if I am selected to participate in this program it would enhance my knowledge and understanding in the field of engineering while combining it with psychology and technology advancements.

My life started from humble beginnings. Being raised by a teenage mother in the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, the third largest city in the state and one of the poorest states in the nation, I watched her work very hard to provide for me and my younger brother. Through my mother’s struggle I’ve learned that hard work, perseverance, and growth pay off; as she is now in the final stages of receiving her PhD in urban higher education. With my mother ‘s strong work ethic and drive instilled in me I’ve made it my life goal to forever expand my knowledge and skills, exceeding all limits placed upon me; because statistically speaking my mother nor myself were expected to have made it as far as we have.

The beginning of my college career was very rough being that I was majoring in a field that was not grasping my attention. I started college majoring in chemical engineer. The first three years of my college career were not fulfilling to me. In those years, I was trying to grasp who I was as a person while finding my passion and place in the world. During this transition, I still worked on maintaining my grades in my field, chemical engineering, but there was no passion or desire for me to successful maintain in that field. But there was light at the end of the tunnel; my life finally changed for the better when I decided to take an intro to psychology course taught by Dr. Harrell, the man I credit for helping me find my calling in life. His class opened my mind to a world I did not know existed; the study or science of self and the environment around you.

The psychology field is my true passion. Studying behavior and figuring out how to better my environment and myself excites me. I decided to change my major while in my junior year as a chemical engineering major in order to better pursue my passion and haven’t looked back ever since. Since my major change my GPA has increased dramatically having a 3.8 major GPA. I have been diligently working to accomplish my goal as one of the first males in my family to receive my bachelor’s degree and eventually earn my PhD. I plan on earning my PhD in engineering psychology. I want to study the interactions between human limitations and machines and preferably focusing on human and machine interactions in the medical field. I feel that this program is a great fit for me because it will give me an opportunity to gain hands on experience in the engineering field while adding on to the psychological skills needed in the field of engineering psychology.