Ryan Panzarella, PsyD ’26 credits his formative years for giving him an empathetic ear.
He grew up abroad, attending American schools in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, and believes his global experience and perspective have served him well as he prepares for a future in psychology. “I have always believed that our differences are our strengths,” he says.
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Panzarella is pursuing a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at Chaminade. The APA-accredited program is designed to prepare students for psychology practice, and stresses immersive learning and clinical experience. Panzarella has thrived under that model, tackling a number of hands-on internships at facilities in Hawaiʻi and Colorado.
Panzarella’s academic journey has been a circuitous one.
It started when he entered boot camp at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
After two years, Panzarella realized military life wasn’t his life’s path. So after a gap year, he enrolled at Berklee College in Boston, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music therapy and started pursuing a future in counseling and psychology. “The environment at Berklee better suited me since I was surrounded by students from different cultures,” Panzarella said.
As a music therapy major, Panzarella learned to connect, inspire and heal others through music.
“Music strikes an emotional chord among people,” Panzarella said.
Panzarella’s first job after graduation wasn’t in music therapy, however. Instead, he moved back to the UAE, where he took a position as a project and general manager. He then returned to Seattle to land for a job with Comcast Business. He thought he was ready to settle down. He wasn’t.
Feeling unfulfilled, he quit his well-paying job, and decided to become a professional caretaker at an adult foster care home.
“I found the work rewarding.”
With the support of his parents, Roy and Jody Panzarella, he was able to enroll in the Clinical Psychology doctoral degree program at Chaminade. The PsyD program aims to educate and train students, employing a practitioner-scholar model so graduates succeed in the profession.
Panzarella’s dissertation is titled, “Narratives of Solitude and Belonging in the Age of Information,” and explores how the more connected we are online, the more isolated we become. “It’s a paradox,” he explained. “How do we as psychologists address that gap?”
Panzarella said Associate Professor Joy Tanji, Ph.D. has been a key mentor for his dissertation research. Tanji, meanwhile, praised Panzarella for making key connections through his research.
As he continues work on his degree, Panzarella has made what he hopes is a temporary move to Denver for a one-year internship at the Colorado Mental Health Institute. His goal is to return to the islands and open his own practice.
“I want to give back to the community, which has been instilled in me since I was young, even more so now that I have been at Chaminade,” he said.