Michelle Hodges-Pietryka

Michelle Hodges-Pietryka is a clinical psychologist at the VA Saginaw Health Care. She graduated from SVSU in 2015 and loved her experience. She was supported by outstanding professors who were passionate about their work and helped her to succeed. Michelle loves that she is able to help people through her work and feels that she was put on earth to do this job.

Life at SVSU

Michelle chose SVSU because the school was affordable, and she received the Dean's scholarship. She started as pre-med and quickly found that it was not for her; her career plan changed when she took Psych 100 and decided to go into psychology. Dr. Travis Pashak mentored Michelle and her best friend and helped them to get on a research team and complete a poster presentation that they then presented. She loved how hands-on the professors were in the psychology department and felt that they all took the time to help her individually.

Michelle is a first-generation college student, and she felt very supported by SVSU for easing her into college life and providing resources for her. She commuted to SVSU all four years and found it was the best of both worlds because she could crash with friends on campus when needed. Michelle also started a psychology department student mentoring program where upper-level students would mentor freshmen. Michelle's favorite part about SVSU was the amount of information that she learned and how passionate her professors were about their field.

Life Beyond SVSU

Once Michelle graduated from SVSU in 2015, she attended graduate school at the Michigan School of Psychology for her master's in 2017 and her doctorate in clinical psychology in 2022. She worked in many different places for her clinic work, and her final internship for her doctorate was at VA Saginaw Health Care, where she still works today. She is a float psychologist and loves that she gets to do something different every day.

Michelle feels like she was put on earth to do this job; her favorite part is being able to help others. Michelle has future goals to open her own practice in conjunction with continuing to work with the VA. Michelle loves where her career is heading and attributes SVSU as the first step for giving herself permission to be a psychologist and continue her education.

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