​​Aine Montgomery ’21
Major: Psychology
Minor: Neuroscience and Human Communication & Organizational Leadership
Community Research Liaison (ADNI4 Study), Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

How did Butler prepare you for your career?
Butler prepared me for my career by allowing me to be involved in many dynamic organizations on campus. In my current role, I connect to community aging populations and provide brain health activities and education to various groups around the city. Being involved as a Resident Assistant, Director of DEI for SGA, and a tour guide on campus, I can call back on those people-focused skills to provide education transparently and energetically.

Also, having access to professors in the psychology department and their research exposed me to the many different areas of psychological and neuropsychological research, especially my advisor, Dr. Tara Lineweaver, whose research on Alzheimer’s and memory loss was my first-ever exposure to older populations in psychological research. Now, recruiting and providing education to this population is my job.

What skills or knowledge gained at Butler have been most useful in your career?
The best skill I gained at Butler, which has been the most useful, is wearing many hats. Everyone says Butler students are involved in every aspect of campus, and they are not wrong.  While at Butler, I was in a sorority, student government, residence life, and admissions. This involvement allowed me to understand the importance of flexibility and that a job may require you to do more than just one thing. In my current position, I balance recruitment efforts and providing brain health education while remaining community-centered and focused.  I wouldn’t know where to start with this balance if I didn’t have the background experience from Butler.

What is the most important thing you learned at Butler?
The most important thing I learned at Butler is to carve a path for yourself if no one else has made it before you. I spent much of my time at Butler working to make the institution more responsive, diverse, and equitable for all students, and this has entirely shaped who I am.

Who influenced you the most while you were a student?
The person who influenced me the most when I was a student was Dr. Natalie Carter. Dr. Carter was my honors First-Year Seminar professor. I never had an educator connect course content to the real world like Dr. Carter. My FYS sparked my passion for advocacy and creating equitable spaces at Butler and throughout my life. During that class, my classmate Roua and I decided to make a 45-minute documentary titled “In Our Backyard.” This project was about our experiences as Butler students from various demographic groups and how we fought and survived, even when the world didn’t want to hear our voices.

I still think about Dr. Carter regularly and have her to thank for the way I have pushed myself in my life. As a non-English major, Dr. Carter shaped my life in undergrad so much that I took another one of her classes my senior year. Being in American Women Writers allowed me to fall in love with reading again, but the class also pushed me into applying for public health graduate programs.

What advice do you have for students interested in pursuing a career in this field?
My advice is to let other people tell you “no.” You never know what opportunity may arise or what chance at a dream you might get. Do not be the person to say you aren’t “good enough” or that you don’t have “the right skills.” None of that matters; you know what you want, and your only job is just going for it. Don’t be the person to tell yourself “no.”