Adrian Dang

Hi there! I’m a senior majoring in psychology with a neuroscience concentration. Growing up in a small town in the Bay Area, I was surrounded by people from many different cultures and backgrounds. Three years ago, I came to the Hill as part of the Bay Area Posse 3 cohort along with my Posse. In high school, I served as president of the student government association for the inaugural class of a newly established middle college high school serving underrepresented students. Our class started with just 19 students, splitting our time between high school classes and college courses at a community college. Being part of that first class and helping shape school policies through student government showed me what can happen when students are given access to opportunities that might not otherwise be available to them. Every student in our class continued on to college, and many graduated this past summer. From a young age, I liked observing how people talked, interacted, and responded to the same situations in different ways. I became curious about why people could experience the same environment so differently. That curiosity drew me to psychology and neuroscience and has grown through my experiences working with students, conducting academic and clinical research, and in healthcare. Those experiences have made me think more about how someone’s background, what matters to them, and the support and services available to them can shape their experience and their ability to reach their goals. That’s why I was drawn to the NSM Student Action Team. As a Psychology DEI Fellow and Psychology representative on the team, I want to listen to what is working for students, what is not, and what they wish other students or faculty understood about their experiences. I hope we can use those conversations to find things we can actually improve.