Psychology major Cara Miles ’25 capped off a whirlwind four years at Berry College by taking home the Martha Berry Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Award. Four months later, she joined McKinsey & Company as a business insight fellow while pursuing a master’s in human resources management at Penn State.
“Being chosen from a class of so many deserving people, I teared up,” says Cara.
“I came to Berry not knowing I could afford college,” she adds. But she managed to financially support herself through a combination of academic scholarships and work opportunities.
“When it came time to choose a major, I wanted to select a field where I could make a meaningful impact, and psychology felt like the perfect fit,” Cara says.
An internship with Floyd County Social Services allowed training across child welfare, protective services, family preservation and foster care/adoptions.
Cara’s next stop was Amazon where she jumped in as a human resources partner intern in San Francisco. “I loved applying Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Two of my favorites were earn trust as well as dive deep,” she explains.
Powerful mentoring by Assistant Professor of Psychology Kuo Deng took Cara to the next level. “At the American Psychological Association, I showcased our poster on using explainable AI to retrieve past cases for psychotherapy training, an interdisciplinary approach that bridges psychology and technology,” she notes.
The pair traveled to Boston, where they shared research funded through a George Scholar undergraduate grant on intercultural relationships. Their work explored the lived experiences and the impact of racism on intercultural couples.
“I must credit Dr. Kuo Deng for being such a constant mentor throughout my research development at Berry,” Cara says. “Her guidance and mentorship have been instrumental, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow beside her.”
At Berry, Cara discovered her passion for understanding human behavior and applying psychological principles to create meaningful impact in organizational settings. Most of all, she found her place in the world by leaning in to all that Berry offers.
Whether psychology majors choose human resources, counseling, data-driven research or applied behavior analysis, she says: “Berry gives you the place to become the best person you can be and provides you with the opportunities to become your own success.”
