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.)

Winter 2025 Orientation

Counseling/Clinical Mental Health Counseling & ABA
Online Students Only
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
4:00 PM ET

Counseling/Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus Students Only
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
4:00 PM ET

Forensic Psychology, General Psychology, and School Psychology Psy.S. only
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
4:00 PM ET

New Student Orientation

Your onboarding to the College is very important to us. So we have designed a process that consists of the following sessions:

Date / Time (Eastern Time)	Sessions / Topics
Complete prior to Winter 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 "Winter 2025 - College of Psychology Graduate Pre-Orientation".
Fall (August) 2025 only	Induction Ceremony (Doctoral and Specialist students only.) All incoming doctoral and specialist students are welcomed to attend an induction ceremony at the NSU Grande Oaks Golf Club. Due to space restrictions, this event to limited to incoming students. Additional information is listed below.
Fall (August) 2025	Pinning Ceremony (On campus Master's students only) As part of the mandatory master's orientation session, on the Fort Lauderdale-Davie Campus, all incoming master's students will be participating in a pinning ceremony. The event will be in the Maxwell Maltz Building MAP. More information is listed below.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 4:00 PM ET	Mandatory for Forensic Psychology, General Psychology, and School Psychology Psy.S. students only. NSU and program specific information Zoom session (Session will be recorded.) The schedule will be emailed to you.
Fall (August) 2025 only	Mandatory for Clinical Psychology (Ph.D. & Psy.D.), Experimental Psychology (M.S.), and School Psychology (Psy.D.) students only. NSU and program specific information Maxwell Maltz Building MAP. Lunch will be provided. The schedule will be emailed to you.
Wednesday, Dec 11, 2024 4:00 PM ET	Mandatory for Counseling (Fort Lauderdale-Davie campus) students only. NSU and program specific information Maxwell Maltz Building MAP. Refreshments will be provided. The schedule will be emailed to you.
Fall (August) 2025 only	Social event All new students are welcome to attend a social at the NSU Carl DeSantis Hall of Fame (Fort Lauderdale-Davie Campus). Light refreshments and beverages will be provided

Date	Recommended Pre-Sessions (via Zoom)
TBD	Welcome: Get Ready for Success
TBD	Introduction to Technology and Artificial Intelligence/Academic Integrity
TBD	Meet the leaders of the NSU College of Psychology
TBD	Life in South Florida with GSGA
TBD	Mental Health Check-up
TBD	History of NSU and the College of Psychology
TBD	Starting the Conversation for Suicide Prevention

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 in August 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 students.)

College of Psychology Pinning Ceremony

To symbolize the start of the academic journey of our master’s students, College of Psychology faculty will be awarding a specially designed lapel pin to each student during the orientation session. This pin is engraved with the following words, “Semper Discentes et Adservientes” which means “Always learning and serving”.

After accepting their College of Psychology lapel pin, students will start their training and accept the responsibility of becoming a competent, compassionate, and ethical professional. The pins will serve 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
- 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
- Pat Zawoyski zawoyski@nova.edu; counseling@nova.edu (954) 262-5720
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
- 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.