Ron Sigmundi says one college psychology course changed his life’s path. From there, he pursued the field head-long, eventually receiving his Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Northern Iowa University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in biopsychology.

For Sigmundi, the SLU psychology department is “a great place to spend time, full of smart, fun, opinionated people with strong personalities, but there's not enough time to jam ideas with them,” he says.

“What's interesting to me is how strong the faculty members are in their academic concentrations and related areas,” Sigmundi says. “Much stronger than one can imagine.”

Sigmundi held one-year positions at Hamilton, Dartmouth and Toronto before landing at SLU. “It's been a difficult but engaging career path where I've never felt like watching the clock for quitting time,” he says.

Sigmundi perceives his students as friendly, highly capable, and “great.” He believes students should build their intellectual self-confidence in order to be more comfortable with their analytical, evaluative and generative thinking. “Going to college should be helpful in those respects,” he says.

Finding that his “home life and academic callings merge smoothly into a flow,” Sigmundi appreciates his North Country setting where things are “pleasant, engaging and meaningful.”

In his work, Sigmundi discovers “the distance our attitudes, points of view and philosophies can go in determining our subjective well-being and quality of life.” He believes framing our activities in a constructive manner is one of the keys to a happy life.                                               

--Haley Bourke ’12