Graduate Orientation

Welcome New Graduate Students!

We are excited to have you join the NSU College of Psychology! Please see below for information about the New Student Orientation schedule, as well as departmental contact information and important links. (NOTE: THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED FREQUENTLY AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.)

New Student Orientation

Your onboarding to the College of Psychology is very important to us. So we have designed a process that consists of the following sessions. To register, check your email or Canvas “Summer/Fall 2025 - College of Psychology Graduate Pre-Orientation”. If you do not have access to the Canvas new orientation, please email gradadmin@nova.edu.

Fall 2025
Date / Time (Eastern Time)	Sessions / Topics	Location
Complete prior to Fall 2025 orientation	Self-paced canvas course. All confirmed students have been enrolled in this course. To access this course, go to sharklink.nova.edu. After logging into the site, select "Canvas" and then select your semester's orientation.	Canvas
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 6:00 - 8:00 pm	Induction Ceremony (Doctoral and Specialist students only.) All incoming doctoral and specialist students are welcomed to attend an induction ceremony. Due to space restrictions, this event to limited to incoming students only. Additional information is listed below.	NSU Grande Oaks Golf Club LINK
Wednesday, August 13, 2025 9:00 - 4:00 pm	Mandatory for Fort Lauderdale-Davie programs only: Clinical Psychology Ph.D., Clinical Psychology Psy.D., School Psychology Psy.D., and School Psychology Psy.S. students. NSU and program specific information will be provided. Lunch will be provided. The schedule will be emailed to you.	Maxwell Maltz Building MAP
Wednesday, August 13, 2025 3:00 - 7:00 pm	Mandatory for online and Regional Campus programs only. For Counseling M.S.: Applied Behavior Analysis, Counseling M.S.: Clinical Mental Health, Counseling M.S.: School Counseling, Forensic Psychology M.S., General Psychology M.S., and School Psychology Psy.S. online students. NSU and program specific information will be provided. The schedule will be emailed to you. The orientation session will be offered via Zoom.	Zoom
Wednesday, August 13, 2025 4:00 - 6:00 pm	Social event For Fort Lauderdale-Davie students. Light refreshments and beverages will be provided.	Don Taft University Center Second floor lounge MAP
Thursday, August 14, 2025 3:00 - 7:00 pm	Mandatory for Fort Lauderdale - Davie Master's students only. For Counseling M.S.: Clinical Mental Health, Experimental Psychology M.S., Forensic Psychology M.S. (if local), and General Psychology M.S. (if local) students only. NSU and program specific information will be provided. Light refreshments will be provided. The schedule will be emailed to you.	Maxwell Maltz Building MAP
Friday, August 15, 2025 1:00 - 3:00 pm	Research Fair Research fair for current graduate students. All are welcomed to participate Click HERE to see pictures from last year's event.	Carl DeSantis Atrium MAP
Saturday, August 16, 2025	Regional Campus "New Student Mingle" Fall 2025 Counseling M.S. students only New students will visit their Regional Campus location (Miami, Orlando, Tampa Bay), meet their faculty and cohort, and learn about the facilities at the campus. The schedule will be emailed to you.	Location will be emailed to you.

Wednesdays @ noon	Pre-Sessions \| Live via Zoom (recordings posted in Canvas by the following week)	Recordings
June 4, 2025	Welcome to the Journey: Get Ready for Success Kick off your graduate adventure with energy and purpose! This opening session sets the tone for your time at NSU—meet key players, connect with your incoming classmates, and learn how to make the most of what’s ahead.	Click HERE to view recording!
June 11, 2025	Meet the Leadership: Vision and Values of the NSU College of Psychology Get inspired by leadership! Hear directly from the College of Psychology Dean and Academic Chairpersons about the mission, goals, and student-centered values of the College. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and feel more connected to your new academic home.	Click HERE to view recording!
June 18, 2025	Smart Start: NSU Systems & Technology Get plugged in to everything you need to succeed. This session introduces the key NSU platforms—SharkLink, Canvas, email, and more—so you can confidently navigate your courses, communication, and campus life from day one. Tech stress? Not here.	Click HERE to view recording!
June 25, 2025	Life as a Graduate Student: South Florida & World-Wide	Click HERE to view recording!
July 2, 2025	Meet Your Success Squad	Click HERE to view recording!
July 9, 2025	Mental Health Check-up	Click HERE to view recording!
July 23, 2025	History of NSU and the College of Psychology	Click HERE to view recording!
July 30, 2025	Grad School Success Strategies	Click HERE to view recording!
Aug 6, 2025	Everything You Need to Know About Next Week, But Were Afraid to Ask	Click HERE to view recording!

College of Psychology Induction Ceremony (Fall 2025)

As a way to formally acknowledge our new doctoral and specialist students as they start their graduate journey with us, the College will be having an induction ceremony during the graduate student orientation. This ceremony is similar to the “white coat ceremony”, which is traditional in many clinical and medical programs.

This event will be held on Tuesday, August 12, 2025 at the NSU Grande Oaks Golf Club (3201 West Rolling Hills Circle, Davie, FL 33328) MAP

The induction ceremony will serve as a rite of passage and emphasize the importance of compassionate, collaborative, evidence-based care as incoming students mark their transition from undergraduate to emerging professional.

New students will be asked to commit to self-care and to care for each other, their future clients, and the communities they serve. While advised that training will be tough, they will be surrounded by faculty and others who will serve as their mentors and role models through the completion of their training.

During the ceremony, College of Psychology faculty will present a College of Psychology cardigan to each student. (Due to space restrictions, the ceremony is limited to incoming doctoral and specialist students.)

College of Psychology Cardigan Ceremony

To symbolize the start of the academic journey of our master’s students, College of Psychology faculty will be awarding a specially designed cardigan to each student during the orientation session.

The cardigan symbolizes that students will start their training and accept the responsibility of becoming a competent, compassionate, and ethical professional. Additionally, it also serves as a reminder for students to strive for excellence.

(This event will be held in August 2025.)

Things to Note

In order to participate in the mandatory graduate orientation sessions, please refer to the email sent to you from psychology@nova.edu.
You will also be receiving a separate email from your academic program inviting you to their mandatory orientation session. Please register for that session as well.

Need more information?

New graduate student orientation questions
- Email psychology@nova.edu
Download the new student orientation handbook
- Orientation handbook
Department of Clinical and School Psychology contacts
- Clinical Psychology (Ph.D. & Psy.D.): Wendy Burrion psychaffairs@nova.edu; (954) 262-5726
- School Psychology (Psy.D. & Psy.S.): Suzanne O'Sullivan osulliva@nova.edu; (954) 262-5826
Department of Counseling contact
- Pat Zawoyski zawoyski@nova.edu; counseling@nova.edu (954) 262-5720
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience contact
- Experimental, Forensic, and General Psychology: Regina Schenck rschenck@nova.edu; (954) 262-5757

Presentation Documents

Important links for the event are listed below.

College of Psychology	Directions to the campus
Student Financial Assistance	SharkLink
Bookstore	Residence Life
Parking	Alvin Sherman Library
College of Psychology Student Resources Page	COVID-19

HIPAA Requirement (Clinical and School Psychology students)

The protection of patient health information is important to the training and conduct of psychologists. We are proud to house the NSU Health Psychology Services Center in the Maxwell Maltz Building where we serve clients from our community. To ensure your access to the clinic area in Maltz where a number of faculty have their offices, all incoming clinical and school psychology students are required to complete a HIPAA Privacy, Security and Research Training course.

This is a mandatory course, which must be completed PRIOR to the start of the Fall semester, and consists of the following:

An overview
Three modules
Three quizzes
A confidentiality agreement

Additional Information

All parts of the course must be completed in order to receive credit for completion. To complete the course, please login to SharkLink and ACCEPT the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) course when you log into Canvas. After completing the course, the certificate will then be available immediately. You should print or save the certificate as a PDF.
The Student Orientation HIPAA Privacy, Security and Research Training is due 30 days from entry into training and PRIOR to the start of the Fall semester.
Students, who do not complete the training within the time frame outlined above, will have their names forwarded to the Program Director for appropriate administrative action.

Please keep in mind that this will prepare you early on to be aware of and sensitive to an important issue affecting the welfare of clients. Thank you for your attention.