Senior graduate Danielle Williams has never moved from daring aspirations. Since her first steps on the hill, she used her time in WKU to prepare a life of service, leadership and self -discovery.
Williams, a major in the psychological sciences of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, originally came to WKU for his criminology program, but the opportunities within the awarded team in legal medicine have sealed the agreement.
During his stay with the team, Williams participated in the National Forensic Association Championship tournament (NFA) and participated in campus events such as The Black Excellence Showcase and The Team Showcase.
Williams said: “The experience (the legal team) taught me to face adversity and to be in community with people who think differently of me.”
Although she started her studies in criminology, she changed her adult in psychological sciences, finally twin with miners in community and behavioral health and clinical psychology.
Over the past four years, Williams has been deeply involved in life and research on campus, mixing his interest in the human mind to create a stronger campus community.
In its role as a scholarship with honors for the Hon 251: Citizen and Self Course, Williams led a series of mental health workshops during the fall 2024 semester in collaboration with the Caden Lucas and Natalie Spiva natalie.
“The workshops are designed to allow individuals the skills and knowledge necessary to take care of their mental, emotional and physical health, and to support others around them,” said Williams.
Williams also described it as a deeply transformative role in personal level. “I found my vocation by being part of Mahurin Honors College and the phenomenal team Hon 251,” she said, attributing teachers and students to help him go through some of her most difficult moments. “The love I have for Professor Bohlander, Professor Sheffield, Natalie, Caden and the students brought me out of some very dark places in my life.”
Another pillar of Williams’ university experience was the ministries of the Mount Zion Nashville campus, where she was president of the WKU campus section. “Mount Sion taught me to sow seeds and trust God to be the author of my life,” she shared. “They favored my dreams, my growth and my goal even after abandoning my position as president.”
Williams’ passion for research has also prospered in WKU. “Being undergraduate research assistant in psychological sciences and applied human sciences helped me to articulate what my real interests were and to transform myself into a person I am today,” she said. “The resources I obtained by being part of these laboratories taught me to pay it with other students.”
However, the most decisive moment in Williams WKU trip came far from the campus. His study trip abroad in Tanzania with the Institute of International Studies of Kentucky (Kiis) changed his life. “It is the trip that showed me my goal: to help the communities badly served to grow and to get the care they need,” said Williams. “After being on the closure to go to the medical school for almost 5 years due to my feelings of insufficiency – this experience inspired me to get involved and to enter it with my heart and my mind.”
Inspired by the professionals she met there, Williams felt even more empowered to continue her dreams. “Representation counts, and see black men and women do what they like and live in their element – it pushed me to do the same.”
After graduating, Williams plans to work as a full -time daycare teacher while obtaining his nursing diploma. She then plans to move abroad to attend a medical school in Africa to better serve the non -profit organization she has founded, which focuses on the satisfaction of the medical needs of the school and the Montessori orphanage in Tanzania.
“I am determined to be a multidisciplinary professional,” said Williams. “Even if I don’t have all the answers all the time, I can always be the best doctor, professor, psychologist, humanitarian, future mother and woman that I can be.”
Throughout his trip, Williams has always applied his class to teach his personal growth. “I have already applied what I learn by being loving and graceful with myself,” she said. “My growth does not stop, and I have a long way to go to become the best version of myself, but I know very well that I am on the right track while I enter a new era of my life.”
Williams will graduate Summa Cum Laude de Wku with a baccalaureate in psychological sciences and a minor in community and behavioral health.
His advice to future hills? “You have the power and the strength to create your own inheritance. Maybe you do not integrate it because you were supposed to create your own space – the pen is yours, write your own story and make it well.”
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To find out more about the WKU Psychological Sciences department, visit https://www.wku.edu/psychological-sciences.
To find out more about the Mahurin Honors College of WKU, visit wku.edu/honors
#WKUGRAD series: As part of our #WKUGRAD series, articles on graduate students are shared in the weeks preceding the start. See all their stories to https://www.wku.edu/news/articles.