Aces of Trades: OSUM's Nikole Patson has a love for language research and learning
To her, it’s about the power of education — and creating opportunities for students.
“I knew I wanted to go to college and my parents were very supportive of that,” said Nikole Patson. “But beyond that, I didn’t really think about what I would do.”
Today, Dr. Nikole Patson is an associate professor of psychology at OSU Marion.
“My area of specialty is cognitive psychology which focuses on normal human cognition like memory, language, attention, etc.," she explained. "My research focuses on language comprehension. I’m especially interested in how we create meaning from sentences when we hear or read them. I do language research in my lab in Marion but also at COSI in the language sciences lab there.”
Patson grew up in Swartz Creek, Michigan, a small town outside of Flint. She graduated from high school there in 2000, then earned an undergrad degree from the University of Michigan-Flint in 2004, a master’s in psychology from Michigan State in 2007, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011.
“I grew up in a working-class community,” she recalled. “If you were a kid in my town, one or both of your parents probably worked in the factory for GM. For me, it was my dad. I had never set foot on a college campus until I started taking courses, so being a college professor wasn’t something I could have ever dreamed of becoming.”
“That said,” she continued, “there are things about my childhood that hint at what I’m doing today. I loved science. My favorite TV show was 'Mr. Wizard' and I loved to replicate his experiments at home. I also loved to read and was always fascinated by words and their meaning. My mom would drive me to the Flint Public Library on Saturday mornings, and I would look for something new to learn about. I kept coming back to one theme, and that’s how we humans create meaning. I love the challenge of understanding how language works and sometimes doesn’t work.”
Patson started at OSU in 2011 right after completing her Ph.D.
“I had several on-campus interviews at other colleges,” she said, “but my interview at OSUM was the only one that felt ‘just right.’ When I was interviewing, I paid close attention to the students I was meeting. They were intelligent, curious and had a humility I appreciated. I had to give a guest lecture in a course, and I was genuinely impressed with the students. They were interested in my presentation and asked good questions. I remember thinking, ‘I would really enjoy working with these students,’ and indeed, 11 years later, I still do. In fact, it’s the best part of my job.”
Dr. Tracy Tylka is a professor of psychology at OSU Marion.
“Nikole does so much for our campus and community,” assessed Tylka. “She consistently and thoroughly examines and implements multiple ways that we, as a university, can improve in order to benefit OSUM students and the Marion community.”
“I’m a deeply curious person, and I really enjoy thinking about complex issues,” Patson responded. “In this career, I get to work on interesting projects, learning new things every day, and I get to work with other interesting, curious people — in particular, my students. What’s most satisfying is watching how my students impact the world when they graduate. I’m just really inspired by all of them and grateful to have been able to join them on a small part of their journey.”
The Ohio State University at Marion is located at 1465 Mt. Vernon Ave. in Marion. For more information, call 740-389-6786 or log on osumarion.osu.edu.
About the Series
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at news@marionstar.com.