My name is Giselle Loya and I am a Psychology major with a minor in business.

Tell us about your family and background.

I'm originally from Roswell which is like not too far away from here. My family however they immigrated from Mexico and they basically left their lives in order for my sister and I. For us to pursue what we can and you know make a better life here.

What are your hobbies?

My main hobby would be going to the gym, my mom constantly tells me she's like I don't know what you do there for so long. It literally like it consumes my time but I love going to the gym. Anything to do with music honestly I love music listening to music singing, dancing anything I love music. Music was a big part of my life until I came here actually I considered going into the band here but I was like I already have a good amount of workloads. And hanging out with my friends and my family.

Why did you choose to study psychology?

I guess it just comes down to, I have always been good at it. Since I was young I always had this knack for listening to what others have to say. I guess I have always had that face of the first moment I met you they would tell me there whole life story. So I thought I could make a career out of that. I also enjoy listening to people and having that little window into their life.

What do you plan to pursue as a career?

After graduating I want to go to grad school to get my license in clinical mental health counseling which is therapy. I want to be a therapist.

Why did you choose to attend ENMU?

It's close to home since my family is very family oriented I didn't want to go somewhere where I couldn't see them often and I've heard good things.

Have you earned any academic honors at ENMU?

I have been ion the dean’s list every semester since I started and I am on academic scholarships as well.

Have you been involved in any activates outside the classroom?

I work in the Multicultural Affairs Department which is down the hall we host a lot of events like just bringing cultural awareness. There's some performances that we do in the afternoons we do presentations so I like getting that out there.

 What is your favorite part about being a Greyhound?

I would say the people honestly like really friendly people I was not expecting that when I came here. Honestly I was just kind of like thinking that everyone's going to like plan their business just kind of pass through and stuff, but no uh very friendly people made friends with some of the greatest people. Definitely a lot of school spirit and everyone seems to care about each other whether you know each other or not so I really love that.

Which professor has helped mentor you the most?

For sure Dr. Bond he is my advisor and I am so lucky to have him as my advisor. There was a time when it was the pandemic and everybody you know like shifted over to online. I wasn't having the very best time with that I seriously I was like on the like right there I was about to seriously consider dropping out from how like difficult it got and I just had kind of like a nervous breakdown and I remember talking to him about it and he kind of walked me through everything. He's just like don't worry about it just look up like a big picture I got you and stuff like that and that was one of the first courses that I was failing in college and it was one of his so I told him I didn't know what to do I was like panicking and he told us on a media site lecture basically he was like I understand that this is hard and some of you have other things going on so he gave us that opportunity to we're like towards the end of the semester and he said you guys have the chance to turn in any late assignment for full credit and that literally like saved my life because I was like 14 assignments behind from how like overwhelmed I was and I have the video I have a video of me recording his lecture and me just like crying from how relieved I was so definitely he's one of my biggest ones.

Where is your favorite location on campus?

It would definitely have to be the Multicultural Affairs Department. Simply because like I walk in there and that's where like all my friends are it's as cliché as it sounds it's one of those environments where your co-workers are actually your friends like we hang out outside of class and stuff like that and it's just it feels like hope.

What has been your favorite class at ENMU?

My favorite class was definitely abnormal psychology. I love that one it's so cool the textbook that I had was actually a rental but I was like I love this class so much I'm actually going to buy the textbook because it has a lot of really good information in regards to like what this mental disorder is versus this one because there are very similar ones but like there's like the tiniest things that differentiate them and it's all there I love that class.

What others dreams do you have?

basically my biggest one is to get to a point in my life where I feel like I'm successful and for my parents to be proud of me. I want to be in a point in my life where I can try to even like begin to pay back everything they've done for me like even though like helping them fix their house giving my mom a new car you know something like that to like show how grateful I am for everything that they did for me even though I'll never be able to pay that for what they do.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in psychology?

There will be classes where you're just like I don't like this you know like it's like it's hard and some of them are just flat out boring like it's but like push through because I will say that I had the opportunity to shadow and my mentor one of the things that we would talk about constantly is everything that we learn in class is completely different from actually putting it into practice. What you think the therapist is like nothing like studying it you're just like why am I learning this if I'm not going to use it you know but once you're like actually in your environment where you're listening to these people giving them advice that's when it starts to click. I mean it's an undergrad you're not going to go into it right away so it's just a matter of how Dr. Bond put it looking at the big picture like just seeing yourself there and just pushing through just keeping your eyes on the prize.