Speaker 1:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the host and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker 2:

I am going into my last semester of chemical engineering.

Speaker 3:

I'm a senior journalism major.

Speaker 4:

And I'm minoring in supply chain and operations management.

Speaker 5:

I'm a biochemistry major.

Speaker 6:

Classes are going great, extracurriculars are going great.

Speaker 7:

I'm an RA on campus.

Speaker 6:

I'm thriving.

Jason Meggyesy:

Hi, I'm Jason Meggyesy and this is Major Insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

Kristina Miljkovic has been interested in psychology from an early age – ever since she saw how the pressures of ballet dancing affected the mental health of many close friends.

At college, psychology has continued to influence her work with the Research on Eating Disorders and Suicidality Lab here on campus. She also conducts research on drunkorexia, and today, Kristina has added public health into her program to help even more people live healthier, happier lives.

We’ll also talk about overcoming some common college challenges -- like avoiding the trap of comparing yourself to others -- and the importance of taking things one day at a time.

MUSIC/MUSIC FADE

Jason Meggyesy:
Today, we have a person on the podcast who is doing lots of important work in the field of psychology. I guess just to kick things off, who are you?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Hi, my name is Kristina Miljkovic and I'm a senior here at Miami. I'm actually in the combined program, so my undergraduate major is psychology with a dance minor. I'm also in the master's program in the kinesiology health and education department, which is in public health, education and promotion.

Jason Meggyesy:

Lot's going on. Lot's going on there. All right. Let's back it all the way up before you even got into college. Where are you from originally? I know that might be a hard question because before we were talking, but if you could sum it up in the best way.

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. It's a little complicated, but I actually moved to Oxford, Ohio in the middle of high school from Fargo, North Dakota. But my mom works at Miami, so that's what brought us to Oxford.

Jason Meggyesy:

I know you told me that both of your parents are not originally from the US. Is that correct?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yes.

Jason Meggyesy:

How did that, them being not from the states, impact you growing up?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Both of my parents are from former Yugoslavia in Europe. They actually came over like 30 years ago to continue their education, to get PhDs and my mother, her masters. But overall, I think I was brought up in a very ethnic household. I spoke a different language at home. It changed my perspective in a lot of things and I feel like opened my eyes. I do like to travel a lot and I've gotten the opportunity to travel because most of my family is in Europe, not in the US. That has really shaped my upbringing and who I am as a person, I would say.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. You also mentioned obviously dance is your minor. When did that start to become part of your life?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. I started dancing when I was four years old. I remember the day before my first ballet class, I was so nervous because I didn't know if this was what I wanted to do, but I danced from the ages of four up until my senior year of high school and I did want to go pre-professionally once I moved to Ohio. I was in the pre-professional program in the academy and that was like my main life goal. Unfortunately, my knee got a really bad injury, my left knee, and so I had to pull back on that and I found a way to incorporate dance in college by having the dance minor here at Miami.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. Now I'll be interested to hear how that all comes together. But more professionally, when did psychology start to come onto your radar as something that you could do for a career?

Kristina Miljkovic:

It was actually while I was dancing because so many of my close friends and peers had eating disorders or had severe anxiety or were just going through their own mental health problems. It was high school, so everyone's going through it in their own way. I started to become really passionate about it because a lot of my close friends were dealing with it, so I realized that was something that I wanted to study and learn more about.

Jason Meggyesy:

Do you think that's a problem across dance or is it mostly just growing up, you have problems, things of that nature?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I definitely think it's a problem in the industry. I think all things that are in the art industry where it's the perception of someone's body obviously is going to have an impact on those types of things.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. I mean, I know you said it influenced you into wanting to pursue psychology, but how did it just impact you mentally to see your friends and people around you that are so close to you struggling and things like this?

Kristina Miljkovic:

It was very difficult because you always want help, but sometimes you don't know how. And obviously, every person is a little bit different. And in that age, once again, like you don't really know how to approach the situation. You don't know how serious someone is being about it. I think that's where, once again, like I just wanted to learn, why do these things happen or how do they develop and how are you actually supposed to treat them or help someone that's going through it?

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Talk to me about your college search process. Was ballet a thing that you were pursuing in your college search process or was that more on the back burner at that point?

Kristina Miljkovic:

At that point, it was on the back burner because I was told by multiple professionals in terms of my physical health that I would not be able to pursue a ballet career. I was told multiple times if I were to continue dancing at the rate that I was, I would need to get knee replacement by the time I was 25, so that was not an option anymore. But in terms of the college search, I knew I was going to come to Miami because, like I said, I have a parent that works here, so that was the best option for me. I was really interested in going to the east coast, like New York, which actually my freshman year I did try to transfer. I got accepted, but then I decided to stay here. I'm really happy with my decision because COVID happened and so that wouldn't have been good, but also I had a lot of great opportunities here that made up for everything.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. That leads perfectly into my next question. Obviously, freshman year, no matter if you're 20 minutes away or 20 hours away, it's just a change of scenery. You stayed on campus freshman year, is that right?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. I was in the dorms.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. That's just a completely different lifestyle in and of itself. You're living with somebody that you may not have known before. Just talk to me about what the biggest challenges were for you and what prompted you to want to transfer and then ultimately stay?

Kristina Miljkovic:

For me, I think the biggest thing was that I did live in Oxford for two and a half, three years before and so I really wanted a change of scenery. I like a faster pace and I wanted to always live in a big city. And at the time, in the beginning of my freshman year, I didn't feel like I was getting as many opportunities as I wanted to or possibly could have, but then I realized that I just wasn't seeking opportunities in the right places, I guess. That's really why I wanted to transfer. I really just wanted to live in a big city.

Jason Meggyesy:

Is that still something that you're interested in doing?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yes, it really is.

Jason Meggyesy:

What specific places you got in mind?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Chicago or New York?

Jason Meggyesy:

Got you. I'm interested to see, like tease that out a little bit. What do you mean by you weren't looking for opportunities in the right spot?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I thought that maybe... I don't really know exactly what I thought, but I thought it'd be easier that maybe people would reach out to you or the department, like the psychology department, would present you with opportunities, which they do in their weekly newsletters and stuff, but you get more out if you go to faculty and reach out and say, "This is what I'm interested in. How can you help me or what can I do moving forward?"

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, I think that's definitely a big thing a lot of people get confused because even I was there when I was a freshman. There's so much tailored to you when you're coming in. They're sending you all these letters, this, this and this, but when you actually get here, it's like, all right, you got to make the most of what you're doing. When did you start to get involved with things and what kind of things were you getting involved with when you started to connect the dots and say, "Okay, well if I'm going to be here, then I got to go get it myself."

Kristina Miljkovic:

My freshman year, I made a bold move. I printed my resume and knocked on a professor's door in the psychology department, who at the time was Dr. April Smith, who no longer works here, but she was the director of their Research on Eating Disorders and Suicidality Labs, so the REDS Lab. I was just like, "Hi. I'm a freshman. Here's my resume, my GPA, my past work experience. I'm super interested in your work and research and I would love have a position in your lab." And pretty much immediately, she was surprised because normally people don't knock on her door and hand her resume, especially as a freshman. I got an interview and the next semester in the spring I started working in her research lab.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, that's awesome. That's definitely going and getting it type of thing. But I mean, before we dig more into what you're doing with psychology, if you're looking at a big picture, a lot of people are like, "Oh psychology, what are you going to do with that?" Do you ever get those questions and how do you combat them when they do come your way?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Oh, I get a lot of questions like that. Especially like, "How do you think you're going to be able to do that for the rest of your life? Isn't this a something that's going to burn you out, listening to people's problems all the time," but I think it's important to be really passionate about it and to have a deeper connection or reason why you even chose the field in the first place, because everyone wants to help people, everyone wants to be a good person, but it's the energy and effort that you're willing to put into it is what will lead you to be successful I think.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, got you. We've been saying this whole time, a lot of your work is centered around eating disorders and suicide. That's heavy stuff. Just talk to me about what kind of work you have been doing over these last four years and how that's impacted your whole college experience?

Kristina Miljkovic:

In the beginning, my freshman year, when I first started in the REDS Lab, I started doing projects that were related to body dysmorphia. My sophomore year that's when I started doing more like suicide risk assessments for the graduate student that I was working for. I went back into eating disorders my junior year. That's when I realized I'm still really passionate about this research and I sought out to join the master's program, which is where now I continue to do eating disorder related research with my new advisor.

Jason Meggyesy:

And I know that you had mentioned before we started recording this thing called drunkorexia. Is that a thing?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yes, drunkorexia.

Jason Meggyesy:

Can you just explain that for people that might not understand?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. Drunkorexia is compensatory eating disorder behaviors occurring at the same time at an alcohol consumption event. It's basically like when you decide to skip dinner before a night of drinking because you want to get drunk faster or you choose to drink alcohol that has the least amount of calories. There's a ton of different behaviors that occur with it, but it's basically a mixture of disordered eating behaviors and alcohol.

Jason Meggyesy:

Just from your perspective, obviously you have done all this research, how do you see that? When you see people acting in that way, what goes off in your mind?

Kristina Miljkovic:

What goes off in my mind is that I think a lot of people don't, I don't want to say don't have their priorities straight, but a lot of people want either to fit in with their friend group or whoever they're around or maybe are going through something else. Drunkorexia is really commonly seen with alcohol disorders, alcohol use disorders or eating disorders in general, so it could also be a sign of like an underlying problem that someone does really have an eating disorder or is becoming an alcoholic.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. Now, tell me more about how obviously dance is still part of your life. How is that supplemented into your education and your overall experience?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I am in the dance minor. I completed the dance minor in my first two years of my degree, but-

Jason Meggyesy:

That was probably light work. That was easy.

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah, it's like an 18 credit program, so it was pretty good. It was a nice compliment since I did have to take functional anatomy or like-

Jason Meggyesy:

For the dance minor?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah, for the dance minor, I did have to take that. It was actually a very difficult class, I will put that out there, but it's good. It's good for you to know those things, I guess, especially because it connects back to psychology and the body and whatnot.

Jason Meggyesy:

Do you have any plans to continue having dance a part of your life after you're done here or how does that fit into the bigger picture?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Well, my dream job is to be a clinical psychologist for a major ballet company, so like the New York City Ballet or Ballet West, San Francisco Ballet, something like that. That would be like my absolute dream because then I would be going back to my high school self working with ballet dancers who are going through it.

Jason Meggyesy:

I think that's real noble too because you know you've seen it when you were young. Now, you've gotten all this training and being able to go back and apply what you've learned and not just in the classroom, but also on a personal level. I think that could be very useful and I'm sure you've already thought about all the different ways you can make an impact. Immediately after, what does life look like for you?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I am currently applying for jobs to work as a research assistant or a research fellow at a university, get more researcher under my belt or also jobs in the clinical field, so work for a hospital, which would still fall under a mental health service kind of, but the main end goal is to get into graduate school for clinical psychology PhD program is the goal. But the pipeline right now is that you don't get into it right out of undergrad, you need to get some more years in between and then apply.

Jason Meggyesy:

Gotcha. In what ways do you think you've grown through these four years, like where you started to where you're finishing now?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I feel like I have grown honestly more than I ever thought I would. Because here, I mean graduation is a few weeks away and I didn't think that I would be achieving what I have. I didn't even think I would have the opportunity to get my masters and bachelors in four years. I didn't think I'd be able to complete it. I'm really proud of myself and I think it will be really rewarding. It feels rewarding. The process has been honestly pretty difficult, but I love to think of growth through adversity. I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't get to go through that and experience the hardships of literally working academically so hard. I feel like I've grown more than I could have ever imagined, honestly.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. And how does the public health aspect tie into everything?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I am taking the public health classes, but technically my advisor, she does health psychology, so it is a branch of psychology and that's what my research fits into, but public health is really important because psychology is on an individual level, while public health is looking at a larger group of people, so it is beneficial to be able to recognize and work with both. In psychology, you would be helping a person who has depression on an individual level, but at a public health level, you're addressing how depression may affect the community or a school or a specific larger group of people.

Jason Meggyesy:

Got you. Now, back to the personal reflection stuff. How has your image of college changed over these four years?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I think it hasn't changed too much. I think what has changed is, like I said before, is the amount of opportunities. Honestly, once you start looking for the opportunities, it feels like they just keep coming to an extent. There are times when my calendar schedule is like, oh, well we're just going to keep going because we are doing all these things, which is great. I would never honestly take any of it back, but it's exactly what I thought it was going to be plus a lot more.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, that's dope. And obviously, you don't just do school, right?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah, no. No.

Jason Meggyesy:

What other stuff do you do besides studying?

Kristina Miljkovic:

I am involved with a few clubs on campus. I am really passionate actually about like fashion, modeling and such. Since I've been on campus, I've been a part of UP Magazine. My sophomore year, I was actually the cover of the fall issue, which was really fun. I'm also in Miami University Fashion Design and I've been in their fashion show since freshman year. I also have a job, so I work, but it is related to psychology. I'm not sure if that's like a break from school, but I'm really passionate about it.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Now, talk to me about your favorite classes and shout out any other teachers that you didn't already do.

Kristina Miljkovic:

Well, I have to shout out Dr. Peter Simson in the psychology department because that guy is so funny and he genuinely is one of those professors that if you're willing to put in the work and come to class, you will succeed. One of my favorite classes was his class in psycho-pharmacology. One of the first things we learned is that alcohol doesn't actually kill brain cells. He likes to put a little twist on the class by trying to make jokes about things that he thinks are prevalent in college life.

Jason Meggyesy:

The last question that I have... I want to change it up because I liked how you packaged it when we were talking before. What ask people is if you could go back and give your freshman year self advice, what would you say? And you said, "It's not that deep, you'll be fine." I just want you to explain exactly what you meant by that because I think that's the perfect way to... that's exactly what I would say to myself if I could go back.

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. It's really not that deep and I have that problem with a lot of things is that it's all or nothing, like "Oh, if I don't do this, like I'm going to be so upset or I won't have this opportunity," but it's seriously not that deep. Just take one day at a time. There are so many opportunities and it's okay to say no to one because that doesn't mean that you'll never have another one again and things just find to way to work themselves out.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, and I'm definitely under the belief that you end up where you need to be. If you're doing all the things that you think you should be doing, then you'll end up where you need to be. If this isn't where you want to be, just pivot. You know what I'm saying?

Kristina Miljkovic:

No, I completely agree. I would say one of the biggest learning experiences I actually had was trying to transfer because I used that as a huge everything happens for a reason type of thing because I think if I would've transferred my freshman year, I would've been going to a school that was $70,000 plus a year when COVID happened, so I would be sitting in Oxford at home anyways. To me, that is like a, "Well, thank God I didn't go."

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever a moment where you, because I feel like every college student goes through the time where they see other people doing things and that was like, "Oh, am I not doing the right thing?" Did that ever happen for you?

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yes. I'd say this semester actually because I feel like everyone's getting jobs or knows what they want to do. I do know what I want to do, but it's hard to come to terms with the field because the psychology field is not as you easy to get a job in post grad because you do need to continue your education and that's just how the pipeline works for psychology. I think it needs to be talked about a little bit more so that students are aware instead of becoming psych majors and then expecting like, "Oh I can work in a hospital after I graduate." Well, you can't.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Yeah. I think the most important thing for people to understand is that, some somebody told me this the other day, it's like, "People might be passing you, but it's in their lane. You can't be in their lane, you're in yours, so you just have to roll with what's going on with you and take everything in stride that way. You can't keep looking over in somebody else's lane because then you're just going to crash in your own."

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. That's what we talk about in psychology all the time, everyone's on their own path. And you can be on the same tree branch, that's how we've learned about it in class, you can be on the same tree branch, but the branch can always branch into smaller little branches.

Jason Meggyesy:

That's a very psychology type of thing. I feel that. Well, I appreciate you for coming on. The work you're doing is very, very important and I can't wait to see what's next for you.

Kristina Miljkovic:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me today.