Oglethorpe University’s location in Atlanta often opens doors for students seeking meaningful, hands-on experience. For psychology major Faria Chowdhury ’27, that proximity, combined with faculty support, led to an internship at Skyland Trail, a non-profit organization providing mental health treatment for adults and adolescents living with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders.
“I applied to Skyland Trail because I wanted real-world experience working with clinical data in a mental health setting,” says Chowdhury. “I know that understanding how patient outcomes are tracked and analyzed would make me a more effective clinician.”
At Skyland Trail, Chowdhury’s work is focused on data management and research. She logs clinical scores for adult and adolescent patients, focusing particularly on outcomes related to transcranial magnetic stimulation, a procedure used to treat major depression.
Her responsibilities also include assisting with research and helping build systems to track patient progress over time. This work has allowed her to contribute to projects that support both clinical care and future research.
One of her most significant contributions has been developing an adolescent trauma database. Chowdhury has played a key role in organizing and structuring the data to make it more accessible for clinicians and researchers. She has also updated an existing adult trauma database and created supporting materials such as codebooks and maintenance guides. These tools ensure the data remains useful and consistent for future use.
Her coursework at Oglethorpe has played an important role in preparing her for this work.
“My classes in Psych Stats and Research Methods, Psychopathology, and Clinical Psychology have been extremely helpful,” she says. “They provided an excellent base understanding of terminology commonly used in the field, understanding how research is conducted, how to conduct myself ethically, and how to interpret statistics.”
Faria Chowdhury ’27 at the 2026 Anxiety and Depression Association of America conference.
In addition to her work behind the scenes, Chowdhury has had the opportunity to share her research more broadly. She completed a project examining how personality traits affect outcomes related to transcranial magnetic stimulation and presented her findings at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America conference in Chicago in 2026.
“It was the first time I traveled by myself, worked on an individual poster and presented at a national conference,” remarks Chowdhury.
Through these experiences, Chowdhury has built a strong foundation in both clinical data work and professional communication. She has gained experience managing complex datasets, participating in research and presenting findings in a formal setting.
“I hope one day I’ll make a true, positive difference in the lives of others,” she says.