Senior Nicole Kingdon is passionate about improving how our country cares for and educates low-income children.
“We know from our research on children in poverty that ages 3 to 5 are the most crucial for their social and emotional development,” says Kingdon, an honors psychology major.
Kingdon’s interest isn’t simply academic. The Barrington, New Hampshire, native and first-generation college student knows what it’s like to grow up close to the financial edge. “My parents worked really hard, but I saw them struggling with bills,” she says.
By age 16, Kingdon was working 28 hours per week at a local Market Basket while carrying a challenging high school course load. Her parents were supportive of her college dreams but not able to contribute financially. That made finding a college that could offer scholarship assistance essential. Suffolk’s federally funded McNair Scholars Program—whose mission is to help low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students attend college and prepare for doctoral degree programs—more than fit the bill.
At Suffolk, Kingdon has worked closely with Psychology Professor Rosemarie DiBiase, who says Kingdon is doing “graduate-level work” as a research assistant in Suffolk’s Early Childhood Risk and Resilience Lab. Kingdon has presented her research on the impacts of the pandemic on low-income families and children attending Head Start programs at conferences, and since then, has completed an additional research project on the developmental impacts of the pandemic. She has also worked as a resident assistant, teaching assistant, daycare teacher, and orientation leader.
She plans to apply to PhD programs, and she continues to mentor younger students struggling with challenges—be they financial, emotional, or academic. “If I have the knowledge and skills to help others, I want to be there for them,” she says. “We are here to have an impact on the world.”
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Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
FEATURES
| Fall 2022
By Erica Noonan
