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In high school, many people predicted that Ariana Botelho would go straight into the law profession. At 16, she landed a job as a file clerk at a Pawtucket law firm and worked her way up to becoming the firm’s Medicaid specialist, drafting legal documents and researching court cases.

However, during her freshman year at ΢��Ȧ, her attention switched to another form of research: psychology.

“There are some aspects of law and psychology that are similar,” she says. “But I love how psychology is so versatile and can be applied to understanding how people operate. On my journey to becoming a good psychology researcher, I’m using some of the same skills I learned in law: self-discipline, meeting deadlines and accepting criticism.”

Botelho, who earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from ΢��Ȧ in 2022, will be a 2025 graduate degree recipient in the same field. She plans to pursue a doctoral degree in a research-intensive education program at the University of Rhode Island. 

As a first-generation college student, Botelho is passionate about supporting college students, particularly those who are underrepresented, which is what most of her psychology research focuses on. 

Before receiving her bachelor’s degree, she produced an honors thesis that linked the relationship between virtual social interaction, such as online courses and social media, and bouts of depression and loneliness among undergraduates during the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Her quantitative study, based on surveys, found that in-person connection is better suited for students to keep loneliness and depression symptoms at bay. 

Botelho’s master’s thesis examined how undergraduate students’ working hours and academic workload impacted their stress levels and, in turn, their eating behaviors. 

“Through that survey, I found that the number of hours a student works doesn’t predict their stress levels,” she says. “Telling a student to take less classes or work less may not help them as much. It’s more about how a student is personally perceiving that workload to feel overwhelming.”

Botelho presented a paper titled “A Deficit of Support: Exploration of First-Generation College Student Stress and Well-Being” at the 2024 New England Psychological Association Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

In addition, a poster detailing her honor thesis on college loneliness during COVID was displayed on ΢��Ȧ Day at the State House in 2023. 

Currently, she is the project manager for an ongoing research initiative that explores the intergenerational relationship between college students and their close circle of family members who are 60 years or older. This study is designed to look at the advice college students find to be the most impactful from their elders.

At ΢��Ȧ, Botelho has received many years of impactful advice from one of her greatest mentors, Associate Professor of Psychology Melissa Marcotte.

“Ariana feels like a daughter to me,” Marcotte says. “She’s an exceptional student who I have watched grow over the last seven years. I met her as a freshman in my research methods course. Her research proposal was so well done that I encouraged her to revise it and complete it as an honors project.”

Marcotte served as Botelho’s honors and master’s thesis advisor. Through the years, their relationship flourished.

“We’ve worked in a growing capacity, from her being my student, then my research assistant and, most recently, a co-author on a few research papers that we’ve submitted for publication,” says Marcotte. “After she earns her doctorate, I am hoping she will come back to ΢��Ȧ so we can be colleagues.”

Botelho says that it would be a dream come true.

Learn more about the M.A. in psychology program.