Having completed her thesis defense — the last mile along the honors trail at Bates — Julia Price '03 waited outside the psychology department lounge for the decision, honors or no, from the professors inside.

But whether or not she earned one of the ultimate Bates academic prizes, Price knew her next step. She was headed to Alumni Gym, where her best friends and basketball teammates — one and the same — were playing hoops. "Our team is really close," says Price. "We have good times, and we care about what's happening in each other's lives."

Her teammates knew that Price had poured herself into a study of local 4-and 5-year-olds, testing two variations of a well-known method for helping children remember past experiences.

Price overcame challenges during her thesis after interview results with the children didn't line up with initial expectations. "My advisor warned me that in developmental research, unexpected things come up," Price says. But thanks to her advisor, Georgia Nigro, Price learned the great lesson of thesis: You sometimes learn more from the detours than from the main road. "Put things aside that you can't control, focus on what you can do, and take one step at a time."

The psych lounge door finally opened, and suddenly there were congratulations, hugs and handshakes all around. A bit later — after a quick phone call to her family — the squeak of basketball shoes in Alumni Gym was joined by the sound of Price's open-toe heels clip-clipping on the gym floor.

"I got it!" she screamed. Sweaty hugs weren't in order for the dressed-for-defense Price, "so they made a little circle around me and started clapping," she laughs. "But that's just what you'd expect from our team."