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Budding Psychologist
Does Research
Spelman Woman Past:
Carolyn Irvin Brailsford
Venetta Coleman, a junior
psychology major at Spelman
College, has been involved in
research since last summer
when she served as the research
assistant on a Minority
Biomedical Research Support
Grant directed by Dr. Jeanne
Stahl at Morris Brown College.
At that time, she perfected a
technique for embedding badly
damaged brain tissue for
histology. The results of this pro
ject will be presented at the
Southeastern Psychological
Association meeting in Atlanta
this March, at the ADAMHA-
MARC conference in
Washington DC this April, and
at the MBRS-MARC conference
in Washington DC next Oc
tober. Venetta is an honor stu
dent in the ADAMHA-MARC
research training program
directed by Dr. Margaret L.
Weber-Levine, and has recent
ly written a grant proposal to the
American Association for
University Women Educational
foundation to support her
ADAMHA-MARC thesis. Her
research proposal is titled: The
Correlation Between
Psychological Androgyny and
Relationship Satisfaction in
Career-Oriented Dating
Couples.” She is also conduc
ting thesis research for depart
mental honors here at Spelman
under the supervision of Ms.
Myra Burnett and Dr. LaConya
Butler. That research deals with
testing the reliability of measures
of masculinity-femininity in
Black subjects. Ms. Coleman is
President of the Spelman
Psychological Association, a
member of the Senior Honors
Society-Mortar Board and Psi
Chi Honor Society in
Psychology, as well as a student
member of the American
Psychological Association and
the Southeastern Psychological
Association.
What Is Your
Alcohol IQ?
From p. 3
servings of each can have the
same effect on you. Don’t think
of wine or beer as substitutes for
alcoholic drinks. They are
alcoholic drinks. And they’re no
“lighter” than a cocktail.
Remember, a drink, is a drink,
is a drink.
6. All three activities slow down
the effects of alcohol (d). All are
responsible ways to drink at a
party. On the average, the body
needs about one hour to “burn
off” any typical drink, whether
it’s wine, beer, or liquor. So
pace yourself accordingly.
Eating something substantial is
one of the best ways to slow the
body’s absorption of alcohol in
to your bloodstream - preferably
food high in fat and protein - 15
or 20 minutes before you drink.
Some people think that wine
and beer are foods. Actually, the
nutritipnal value is too small to
matter. Eating solid food is just
as important when you drink
wine or beer as it is with liquor.
7. Labels on beer, wine and li
quor vary in what they tell you
(c). Beer labels usually don’t tell
you alcohol content. Wine labels
record alcohol content by
percentage of volume. Liquor
labels record their “proof,” a
term derived from the “proving”
of alcohol content in tests
distillers used centuries ago.
The Spelman Spotlight staff is
in search of unrecognized
literary talent throughout the
A.U.C. area. If you feel you are
a gifted writer and poetry is
your forte', then submit your
work to the Dimensions’ poetry
contest. Look on page 7 for
details.
By Lorena M. Craighead
Carolyn Irvin Brailsford, in
structor at Spelman College is a
successful mother, wife, teacher
& singer. Her talents go beyond
classical training to the overdue
production of her first gospel -
inspirational album, entitled
“Real Peace.” Carolyn just
recently gave a wonderful con
cert at Big Bethel, AME Church,
for their ministry to the hungry.
After seeing her concert and
enjoying her beautiful gifts of
composing and singing. 1 was
quiet anxious to find out more
about such a talented woman.
What made you choose
Spelman?
CB: When I was a student in
high school, 1 really did not
know where I wanted to go. I
think, probably, like everyone
else you may hear the names of
many schools and institutions,
that you think you want to go to.
But, unless you have a good
guidance counselor, who knows
what is best for you and knows
where a good place for you to
be is, then you may end up in
the wrong place. 1 had never
heard of Spelman, but my
guidance counselor had and he
thought that it would be a fan
tastic place for me to come.
Spelman had a great reputation
and it was all female and he
thought that I was one of those
people who needed to be in an
all female school, (giggle giggle)
Were there a lot of music
majors when you were here?
CB: There were a lot of music
majors at Spelman when I was
here, because there was more
emphasis placed on the arts.
Spelman has a greaty reputa
tion, when it comes to the arts,
anyway. When I came here, Dr.
Manley was president and
therefore there was that strong
emphasis still placed on the arts.
You see, under his administra
tion the fine arts division came
into being. You had a lot of
students to come to Spelman as
music majors. That’s not the
case anymore. We don’t have
moneys going to the hands of
students who want to come as
majors or for those who are
majors.
Do you think that is the
main reason for the
decrease in the number of
majors, now?
CB: 1 think that is probably
the main reason. People still
know about Spelman’s strong
reputation as a good school in
the fine arts, and particularly so
in the AU Center. But when
there is no money, and they’ve
cut back on so many of the
financial packages, there is a
greater dependancy for what the
school can give you. It really has
had its impact.
Brailsford
Was Dr. Allison your pro
fessor and how does it feel
to be one of his colleagues,
now?
CB: At first it did feel kind of
funny because I always had to
try and decide what to call him.
And with some who were more
serious than Roland (Allison),
like Dr. Smith, I had a hard time
just calling her Grace.
I understand that you got
your Master’s at Indiana
University. Do you feel that
you were well prepared
here?
CB: 1 was, when I went to
graduate school, just like at any
other institution, they’ll have
their entrance examination. And
entrance examination means, as
far as I’m concerned, you’re
entering this school and the
kinds of things emphasized in In
diana may be different things as
far as what they emphasize
elsewhere. So I did poorly on
the entrance examinations, all of
them, (laugh) But then again
there was a crisis at home, but
I won’t say that was to blame. I’ll
just say that for what they
wanted, I didn’t answer correctly
on their examination. Once I
had entered the courses, I made
straight A’s through school. So
that kind of tells you some thing
about the preparation that went
on beforehand. Their test is one
thing, but to get into the cur
riculum and to really get involv
ed in it is a different thing all
together. But I though that
Spelman gave me excellent
training and that I was well
prepared for anything.
As a teacher, do you have
any philosophies for
students?
CB: I think that I teach all of
my students in the same way.
To me, talent is something that
is God given. Everybody has a
talent or has several talents, but
it’s what you do with it that
makes a difference. Talent, in
and of itsself is no big deal to
have it is not a big thing, it is that
you are a good steward with it.
The Lord says to be good
stewards of whatever it is he has
given you. Which means, that if
you take good care of it and you
use it, in essence to glorify Him,
that’s what we’re put on Earth
for. So you either use it to glorify
Him or you’re doing something
else with it. And you can glorify
Him in different ways. I just
believe very strongly that you
take that talent and you give it
back, the best way you can and
not abuse it, not half way use it
or halfway approach it or take it
for granted, so that when you
give it back to Him it is not the
same way that He gave it to
you.
Do you think that you
would ever quit teaching to
sing fulltime?
CB: What an incriminating
question! In the distant future,
maybe yes. It would depend on
how things are going. One thing
is for certain — I feel like what
I am doing is developing a
ministry and rather than just
developing a singing career, I
think that time really has to be
considered here. To me, carry
ing on a full singing career
because once a ministry starts to
grow, I couldn’t fly off to dif
ferent places and leave the
students neglected, that woudn’t
be right.
What made you decide to
come back to Spelman to
teach and how did the op
portunity arise?
CB: When I left Spelman, my
first job was as the librarian at
Massey Business College. That
tells you what kind of school
Spelman is, you see I got this job
right after I graduated here in
Atlanta. Because of my liberal
arts education, I could talk a lit
tle bit about anything. With that
under my belt, I went to grad
school, feeling very confident
and knowing that something
well rounded is what I needed.
When I came back to teach, it
was really interesting, becaue
Dr. Allison called me and ask
ed me to take the job. At the
time, I was going through a lit
tle personal crisis and I wanted
to stay in Indiana and get my life
straightened out. I had told Dr.
Allison in April that I couldn’t
take the job and in July, on Ju
ly 4th, after I had made a deci
sion about what had been my
crisis, I was ready to walk away
from Indiana. When I called
him, I think that he said that he
was about to accept somebody’s
applicaton for the job. But he
was glad that I had called and I
explained everything to him and
(Continued on Page 6)