Madison Akles, BS '23

The Question That Stuck

Her words are rooted in lived experience. One ordinary flyer in an NYU elevator quietly set her entire career in motion.

For years, Madison found herself circling the same question: What shapes people's choices, and how can those choices be gently steered toward better outcomes? That curiosity became the thread running through her work, long before a PhD was ever on her mind.

Madison arrived at NYU as a 17-year-old who had applied to mostly colleges near home in California. New York was the one exception. During her first semester, she noticed a flyer for Dr. Diane Hughes’ lab posted in the Applied Psychology elevator. That small moment opened the door to research. Soon, she was working in the Learning Race Lab, helping code hundreds of qualitative interviews examining racial socialization within families. The experience changed how she thought about psychology. Research was no longer abstract. It became a process of asking careful questions about real social dynamics and translating those questions into evidence.

At one point, Madison joined the BS/MA track because she believed it offered a clear and stable path forward. As she explored new research opportunities at NYU, she joined Dr. Claire Robertson and Dr. Jay Van Bavel at the Center for Conflict and Cooperation, where she dove into projects on moral decision-making and intergroup bias.

When the Plan Fell Away

In the middle of that exploration, she made a difficult choice. She left the MA program and graduated from the Applied Psychology undergraduate program in 2023.

Her next chapter broke from the usual academic script. After graduation, she took jobs pouring coffee and folding clothes, all while applying to doctoral programs. When those hopes did not pan out, she returned to California, arriving just as her family needed her most.

What came next reshaped Madison’s sense of purpose. She took on a research role at Azusa Pacific University, working on substance use prevention for youth by blending digital tools with behavioral health strategies. Juggling full-time work, she also enrolled in a master’s program in data science, eager to see how technology could help people make healthier choices.

Rather than waiting for the perfect door to open, Madison started building her own. She pursued research grants, collaborated on community projects, and dreamed up digital interventions to support recovery and prevention.

Madison begins a PhD in Psychology at the University of Southern California in Fall 2026.

Looking back, the rejection that once felt like a dead end became an unexpected turning point. It gave Madison space to develop as a researcher, sharpen the questions that mattered most, and stay close to her family. 

For Madison, self-actualization did not arrive in a single flash. It unfolded through a series of choices to keep asking deeper questions and to keep moving, even when the way forward was uncertain.