After spending a year abroad in Paris, Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill '05 came back to campus with a sense of focus. Bentsi-Enchill knows what he wants to do in the future. He plans to earn his M.B.A. in five years with a concentration in human resource management, and in ten years he hopes to set up his own grass roots recruitment agency placing undergraduates in internships and jobs in his home country of Ghana. Twenty years from now, he envisions himself running his established business, having settled down with a family.
In the meantime, Bentsi-Enchill has been fulfilling requirements to graduate with a psychology degree, and preparing for his senior year. "This summer represents a chance for me to polish up on some rusty research skills that I will need for my senior psychology project," says Bentsi-Enchill, who is working with Assistant Professor of Psychology Joanna Bulkley on a research project supported by the Ferguson-Seely Fund. His project investigates how values influence the development of teenagers by looking at the ten universal values, some of which are split into collectivist (conformity, traditionalism, benevolence, universalism, security) and individualist interests (self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement and power). Bentsi-Enchill is also focusing on whether there are any cross-cultural differences in what values are considered important by adolescents, and if those differences influence academic achievement. Participants answer questions that assess the ten universal values in regards to adolescent adjustment. Bentsi-Enchill hypothesizes that there is a positive correlation between students who score highly on the individualistic values and high academic achievement.
| Summer Research 2004 |
Bentsi-Enchill became interested in this topic while working with Professor Bulkley and reading some literature based on her past research. He found that values can have "predictive potential" in that they "relate to choices that people make and behaviors that people pursue in life." This topic has not been fully researched before, so it gave Bentsi-Enchill the opportunity "to explore an as yet barely touched area of study" within psychology. Bentsi-Enchill is also taking full advantage of being able to use the summer to research and present his work as a "rehearsal" for his senior thesis project in the spring of 2005. After spending his entire junior year abroad in France, Bentsi-Enchill felt that researching at Hamilton over the summer would help him "reconnect with the campus in a less stressful environment." He has also enjoyed working with other "equally motivated students" who are conducting research over the summer.
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill is a rising senior from Accra, Ghana, and is involved in The Brothers Organization, the Black Student Union and also Student Assembly. Nii also is a disc jockey for the Hamilton College radio station, WHCL 88.7 FM.
-- by Jason Ruback '05
