Student Stories and Experiences

Resources

The Latest Video Interviews

Kenya C. | Meridian Student Profile

Hear from Meridian PsyD student Kenya Clement, about her journey so far in her first quarters. She describes vivid analogies of her experience with transformative learning and shares the inspiring career goals she has for after graduation.

Valerie W. | Meridian Student Profile

Hear from Meridian student Valerie Wildman, about following her heart and soul call to choose Meridian She describes how her program has helped her understand the many different ways of learning and expressing oneself. She also shares Meridian's impact on her beyond the day-to-day.

Student Testimonials

Read key takeaways from Meridian graduate students about their educational experience and why they chose Meridian's curriculum, faculty, community, and learning platform.

—Rich McCuthchan

PhD, M.F.T, Psychotherapist in Private Practice

The school’s cohort learning model has deeply affirmed my sense that transformative learning is dependent on community; and the school’s emphasis on cultural leadership has enabled me to bridge my work in organizations with my yearning to support social change. Mary Oliver’s line — ‘One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began’ — applies to me as a result of my experience here. The combination of theory, a learning cohort, and faculty who embody the teachings, created an environment in which I transformed my capacity to experience life and to practice my vocation. I went to ‘great’ schools before this but this is where I truly learned what I needed to live in the world and serve my community.

—Mark Nicolson

MA, MBA, Co-Founder, Leadership DNA and Ventana Group

I remember my first week in at Meridian, we jumped right into the art of Psychotherapy and I was blown away by that. I deeply value that kind of education because I think it really gets into your bones. When I think about working with individuals, I can’t imagine relying on an education that would do it any other way. I know that the capacities that have been cultivated within me as a result of this experiential, transformational learning have really served my needs personally, and I feel more confident about how I take that into the world and working with clients.

—Sloan B.

PhD in Psychology

How I got to Meridian was doing my research and looking for universities that had values I align to…and I think the reason it aligns with why I care about higher education is because I’m very interested in the transformation of higher education. It’s a leadership doctorate that I’m in, and I feel that you’re a leader in your family and in everywhere in the world. I think how I’m showing up is more consistent and aware of others and the community. I’m walking a little softer in the world because of my doctorate work.

—Micki M.

Ed.D in Organizational Leadership

Through personal development as well as soul searching, I decided that I wanted to be able to use dance to be able to go to more people. So, we were working bringing movement into schools as well as volunteering doing after school programs with art and children. It was really fulfilling and I really loved it and wanted to expand that. It feels like I got to choose and personalize a graduate program for myself exactly what I wanted to do. That in itself just feels exciting. I'm doing two programs at once [Tamalpa Program] and they both influence and inform each program. Both through the learning through reading and lectures, but also learning through experience in the class, I'm getting a richer knowledge of how I react to things and my own experience in the moment.

—Alison D.

PhD in Psychology

Years after completing my doctorate, the education I received at Meridian continues to offer me guiding principles, as well as deepened capacities for self-awareness and tolerance, which I draw upon each and every day; my education feels like a living organism that continues to ripple forth. Furthermore, the power of Meridian's learning community structure catalyzed me to bring my psychological training into the political realm, towards work I never imagined myself doing: the healing of my own, local community.

—Mary Fullwood

PhD, M.F.A., Co-Director of the Terra Foundation, Los Osos, California

Each term, I am pleasantly surprised with what emerges from myself and what I get to witness emerge from others. My experience at Meridian has been defined completely by the people. I’ve been so fortunate to have the most wonderful classmates: so interesting, so diverse, from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and cultures. And that blending of voices and experiences creates such an interesting mix and transformative experience for myself. Add to that, the really extraordinary staff and professors that we get to interact with, and we create this container to guide us on this journey.

—Heather R.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

I have very much enjoyed all of the classes I have been taking so far and I enjoy the faculty. One thing I can say that I have not experienced until now was such kindness, compassion, and empathy with faculty. The staff at Meridian are very mindful to speak to you on a very personal level. The most challenging aspect of Meridian is looking into yourself and exploring all those things in yourself that you may or may have not known that has been inside you. The most exciting part is also the flip side of this. You just get to this level where it clicks in a way that makes you think: I’m glad I’m here and I want to keep going.

—Rosa N.

MA in Counseling Psychology

As an older student with an advanced degree from a traditional institution, I sought an interactive, experientially oriented PhD program. Meridian's gifted faculty delivered an evocative curriculum, exceeding my expectations, providing me with the canvas on which a deeply transformative experience was created. The initiatory nature of my educational journey at Meridian not only broadened my therapeutic skills, but it also deepened my personal capacities. As I finish my clinical hours toward my licensure as psychologist, I draw on my training on a daily basis. The program provided me with practical therapeutic interventions and strategies, but its most lasting and profound gift was the development and expansion of my empathic imagination. I am grateful that I chose Meridian University to pursue my dream of earning a PhD I can think of no other experience, outside of having my child, that has so profoundly affected my personal growth and maturation process.

—Joy Policar

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice

When it comes to transformative learning, what I really notice is kind of exactly how they say it: it’s just landing in my body. I don’t have this stress or urgency to memorize facts. Because it’s landing in such a way, it stays with me and translates to my outside of school experience, too. One thing that I have also really appreciated about the faculty is that they really leave space in their classrooms for folks to challenge and disagree not only them as the faculty, but with each other, and use those times of challenges or disagreements as learning opportunities to see how we can expand our awareness and capabilities to be with the other. Coming in, I didn’t have experience of online education. I was very surprised at what could be cultivated in the online format. I truly did feel seen and heard by my fellow classmates and the faculty and really felt like some deep transformative work was happening.

—Heather B.

PhD in Psychology

I didn’t really know what to expect when I came here. I guess I expected that things would be very personal and that there would be a lot of depth in the work. That has met my expectation. I hoped that it would be really fun, but it’s even more fun than I expected. That’s been a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I’m called to this work in Psychology, and so now it’s like I’m answering and I get to, in a sense, come home to something I’ve been moving toward for all my existence. So, I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to study that and to have access to all the things I’m doing here.

—Jon W.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

The transformative experience here feels like a safe walk, like you're walking with a friend who just cares and wants to see you get to the other side because they've been there and they know how wonderful it is. So, it feels like a real, sweet, gentle invitation. Organically over the time I've been here, my family relationships have just come even more alive... The aspect of the shared learning that's happening is so rich. I find myself in awe most of the time for the depth of knowledge and experience that's in the space with me. There are just some really heartfelt folks here that seem to get, at a deep level, that it's about humanity; it's about really being here for ourselves and others in a way that we all thrive. The teachers in general, I found to be amazing individuals. The work they're doing in the world inspires me.