Sophia Perez has built an impressive record of accomplishments since arriving at USF St. Petersburg, from co-founding an on-campus Christian-based club to designing a domestic violence prevention program as part of a semester-long project.
Now Perez can add another honor to the list: the recipient of the 2018-19 Durand Family Scholarship for her outstanding achievements as an undergraduate psychology student.
The Durand Family Scholarship is an annual award given to exceptional juniors in the Psychology program, one of the most popular programs at the University. It was created through an endowment by Dr. V. Mark Durand, Professor of Psychology and renowned expert on autism spectrum disorders.
“This is really exciting because I am only the third person in my family to go to college,” said Perez. “My grandparents came from Cuba, so any educational achievement is really important in our family.”
Perez has dedicated her time at USF St. Petersburg to campus clubs, to her church and to internships with non-profit organizations, with the common thread being her passion for relational ministry.
For the past two years, Perez was the president and co-founder of the campus organization called Community Church, a Christian-based club funded by the Wesley Foundation. It offers weekly praise and worship gatherings, followed by dinner together in the University Student Center.
“It is really cool because we are very welcoming and open,” Perez said. “A lot of people who come are not Christians or don’t have a particular faith, but come for the community. It is nice to have a little family on campus because many of us leave our families to go to college and it is sometimes a really tough transition. Clubs help make that transition easier.”
Off campus and over the summer, Perez worked at a Christian camp in North Carolina for adolescents. Interacting with middle school and high school students, she provides relational ministry guidance as well as counseling.
“Getting my bachelor’s in psychology and then going to get my master’s in clinical mental health counseling will help me to do this sort of guidance and counseling both professionally and personally.”
This past spring semester, Perez became deeply impacted by the issues around domestic violence. In one of her psychology classes, she was assigned a semester long project to identify a social problem and propose a solution. She chose domestic violence awareness, and designed a primary prevention program that could be implemented locally or nationally.
“I loved the project,” she said. “It really opened my eyes that I can make actual change in the world and our community. One of the goals I hope to achieve is implementing primary prevention programs into local schools.”
Perez said she learned a lot about domestic violence from the project and her research revealed how much more is needed for domestic violence prevention, supporting survivors and finding efficient ways to rehabilitate batterers.
“It is not talked about enough, which means there are a lot of misconceptions about what domestic violence is,” Perez said. “We should be teaching kids about domestic violence prevention and how to be in safe relationships.”
This classroom experience is leading Perez to intern this fall with CASA, Community Action Stops Abuse, a domestic violence shelter in St. Petersburg.
Perez plans on graduating in the fall of 2019. Upon graduating from USF St. Petersburg, she hopes to pursue her master’s at a Christian college, so she can be equipped to do Christian counseling as well as regular mental health counseling.