By Daniela Palatchi
Do you get psyched for Psychology? Does Pavlov’s Dog ring a bell? Do only three things make you happy? Introducing the Woodward psychology club, coming to the Upper School this upcoming school year. Created by Coach and social studies teacher Ash Nash and Nsidibe Ekpo ‘26, club members will learn about all sectors of psychology and learn more about themselves through psychoanalysis.
Nash, Upper School social studies teacher and sponsor of the club, has a considerable background and history in psychology, dating back to her days in high school.
“I actually did take AP Psych as a high schooler and it allowed me to understand somebody I’m close with,” Nash said. “As I grew up, they had bipolar disorder and I never really understood what was going on. No one actually went through what was happening with his neurodevelopment and all of the things that go into being diagnosed with bipolar. It was actually that class that intrigued me into psychology; it made me understand not only my relative but myself, peers and the environment.”
Nash took the next step after high school to continue her extensive education in psychology. After that, she delved deeper into psychology, but from the teaching perspective rather than the student.
“I actually just randomly picked psychology as a major,” Nash said. “My volleyball coach at the time told me I couldn’t be undecided so psychology was what I chose, and I ended up sticking with it. I have a bachelors in psych. I wanted to teach it, so I went into teaching so that I could teach it. I taught AP psychology for the past five years now. This is the first year in a while that I haven’t taught it.”
Before Nash and Ekpo were the WA psychology duo, he was a student in her Government/Econ class, which shows the importance of having good connections with your teachers: Ekpo asked for a favor from Nash, and the train of events led to a newly established club with over sixty members already.
“He was intrigued by it one day when he came in during tutorial; he wanted to use a psychology textbook, I guess he was writing an English paper using it. And so when we did it, I call it a ‘cognitive map walk,’ it changed him, and that is what basically led him to want to know more. I had already thought about psychology and making it a club here, and he took it upon himself, and now we’re here.”
Ekpo has a significantly shorter history with studying psychology, but nonetheless a zeal for learning its ins and outs.
“I like learning about how people do things or why they do them,” Ekpo said. “Behavior memory and just how all the things we do are run by the brain and [are] explained by psychology.”
Having an idea for a club and getting it approved seems easier said than done. There is a checklist of chores a club leader must go through to get the club signed off. Ekpo, being on top of things, checked off all the boxes to make the club official.
“First I talked to Mrs. Zents and Mr. Meyers and there was a list of things we had to check off, like why could this club help Woodward, what the benefits of the club could be and how students could join it,” Ekpo said. “And through that, we wrote a written proposal to Mr. Meyers, and then he approved it.”
Psychology, being such a broad field, encompasses a wide scope of mind tricks and long unsolved theories. Ekpo’s favorite is Pavlov’s dog.
“Every time they would feed a dog and ring a bell for about a month,” Ekpo said. “After, they stopped feeding the dog and they would still ring the bell, and the dog still showed signs of salivating or wanting that food, as if he was still hungry whenever he associated the bell ringing.”
The club is open for any Woodward student to join. If you’re having doubts, here’s a sneak peak to what the club will teach you about psychology. Next year Woodward will also be offering a Maymester course all about psychology.
“I think that people could learn a lot about their brains and why they do what they do through the psychology club, and learn about things they might have questions about,” Ekpo said.
While Woodward has many social studies courses to offer, AP Psychology is not one of them, despite the demand of the course by students. Coach Nash only had one thing to say about this: “I’m working on it.”
