Kevin Carriere, of North Smithfield, posts his 'diary' on the Clark University website

WORCESTER, MA (11/16/2012)(readMedia)-- Kevin R. Carriere, of North Smithfield, R.I., is one of the 10 undergraduate students who has been documenting his semester on the Clark University website. Carriere was chosen at the start of the semester by the Office of Admissions to serve as a Clark Diarist for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Clark Diaries offer a unique and personal look at the life of a college student.

Carriere is a junior at Clark, majoring in psychology. He is a member of the Clark University Ballroom Dance Team and Club, the Undergraduate Psychology Committee, Psi Chi (the international honor society in psychology), Clark Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Salsa Club, and Student Council. He also serves as a Scarlet Key Student Ambassador.

Carriere transferred to Clark after spending his freshman year at the University of Vermont. His posts describe the campus culture and his experience with Clark faculty.

"Professors here do care," he wrote on September 28. "They actively want you to succeed and research what interests you."

In an earlier blog dated September 7, he wrote, "Here, you aren't just a number. Here, people aren't just interested to know you; they want to understand you. Here, being quirky is just being a Clarkie. Here, faculty don't just use you as an extra pair of hands in typing in data, but take your hands and fully immerse yourself in the research experience."

Carriere shares advice in his blog, and lets his readers know about other challenges one faces as a student living away at college.

On September 13, he wrote, "You learn a lot of things in college ... but I think the most important part of college is the lessons outside of the classroom. You learn to deal with people, cleaning, cooking, how to handle living by yourself and not be dependent on your parents and how to deal with problems in your own way."

"Clark enabled me to get the experience of both researching and learning about myself in a setting I could not have found at any other school," said Carriere.

Carriere is a member of Clark's Class of 2014. He is a 2010 graduate of Mount Saint Charles Academy High School and is the son of Louise and Richard Carriere.

To read more about Carriere's experience at Clark, visit http://admissions.clarku.edu/kevin/.

Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a small, liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark's pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark's faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to contemporary challenges in the areas of psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University's motto: Challenge convention. Change our world. www.clarku.edu