Psychology Scholarship and Teaching Exchange Program (PsychSTEP)

Psychology Scholarship and Teaching Exchange Program (PsychSTEP) was developed in 2009 to support Northern Arizona University’s strategic goal of Global Engagement. PsychSTEP facilitates faculty and graduate student relationships between psychological scientists at NAU and University of Groningen (RuG) in the Netherlands. The primary goal of this program is to encourage graduate students in similar graduate programs (e.g., NAU: Masters in Psychological Sciences; RuG: Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Masters) to enhance their education and learn more about other cultures by living abroad for one academic semester. In addition to taking classes, students are matched with professors in their specialty areas to conduct research. The experiences have been profound for both students from NAU and those attending NAU. A secondary goal is to support collaborations and exchanges between faculty members of the two universities. Several faculty from the Department of Psychological Sciences have taught at the University of Groningen and, in March, 2018, Psychological Science’s Graduate Program hosted Dr. Martijn Van Zomeren a social psychologist, who is an expert in social change, collective action, and political psychology at the University of Groningen. During his productive visit, Dr. Van Zomeren presented research on his Social Identity Model of Collective Action (Van Zomeren, Postmes & Spears, 2008) to department faculty and graduate students; shared ideas with faculty from both Psychological Sciences and Politics and International Affairs; and attended several of the faculty’s research lab meetings. In 2017, the Department of Psychological Sciences received the NAU Award for Departmental Excellence in Global Education for PsychSTEP. For more information about this exciting program, contact the Graduate Program Coordinator for the Department of Psychological Sciences.

Stories about the program

An article by NAU student Julia Berry from 2009 regarding her experiences in Groningen.
An article by RuG student Martina Maris from 2011 regarding her plans for studying at NAU.
An article appearing in the fall 2017 edition of the NAU Global newsletter from the Center for International Education