{"id":53200,"date":"2025-05-12T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=53200"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:35:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:35:32","slug":"tarleton-state-commencement-speaker-to-tout-embracing-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-state-commencement-speaker-to-tout-embracing-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton State Commencement Speaker To Tout Embracing Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Britt Piper\u2019s passion for taking care of children has led her down a path to become a school psychologist. An important step in that journey was to earn her master\u2019s degree in applied psychology, which she\u2019ll receive at Friday\u2019s 6 p.m. commencement ceremony at Tarleton State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spring
Britt Piper<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to getting her diploma, she\u2019ll also deliver the student commencement address, highlighting her somewhat circuitous route to graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blanket, Texas, native originally planned to be a veterinarian, so Tarleton State was always on her radar as a potential option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI visited Tarleton, and I really felt at home, at peace here,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone was very personable and super nice. So I decided to come here and pursue my bachelor\u2019s degree. Then I changed my major halfway through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive to work with kids overwhelmed her original plan, and after guidance from Tarleton State psychology faculty members, she made the switch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked at all the different things I could do in psychology,\u201d she said, \u201cand being a school psychologist really stood out to me. It combines education, getting to work with school age children and the psychology and evaluation aspects of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With her passion reignited by her new degree plan, she connected with faculty and her peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe classes were exciting to me,\u201d Piper said. \u201cMy parents owned a foster care agency for as long as I can remember, so I was always around child psychology. By choosing to major in psychology, I\u2019ve started making my way to realizing my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With her master\u2019s degree in hand, she plans to continue her education this fall by enrolling in the new specialist in school psychology graduate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTarleton is opening their school psychology program in the fall, so I will go directly into that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a degree between a master\u2019s and a doctorate, but I do plan on eventually getting my Ph.D. so I can be a professor and a school psychologist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are heady goals, to be sure, but Piper is confident her time at Tarleton State has prepared her to meet them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI work with one of our faculty, Dr. Stephanie Robertson, as a psychometry intern,\u201d she said. \u201cThat has given me so many opportunities. I\u2019ve been to numerous academic conferences. In fact, I presented my thesis at a conference. Being at Tarleton has provided me a lot of connections that will impact my future career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With her educational background and drive to help others, she plans to feature those aspects of her time at Tarleton State in her commencement address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my speech, I\u2019ll talk about how we all need to embrace challenges, get outside our comfort zones,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019ve struggled with my whole life. I usually stay within my comfort zone and not branch out, but my college experience led me to realize that there\u2019s not growth in that. No opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to embrace the hard challenges and obstacles because that\u2019s where growth happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Britt Piper\u2019s passion for taking care of children has led her down a path to become a school psychologist. An important step in that journey was to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":53201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":423,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,425],"tags":[430,437,442],"class_list":["post-53200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","tag-academic-affairs","tag-college-of-education","tag-community-events"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2025\/05\/Britt-Piper-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Academic Affairs<\/a>","College of Education<\/a>","Community Events<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academic Affairs<\/span>","College of Education<\/span>","Community Events<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 11 months ago","modified":"Updated 11 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 12, 2025","modified":"Updated on May 19, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 12, 2025 1:10 pm","modified":"Updated on May 19, 2025 8:35 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Britt Piper","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53312,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53200\/revisions\/53312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}