By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Media Relations  Late in his freshman season, Devon Carter tore his ACL. It was a major hit for a promising young player. Carter's career could have gone downhill, but instead, the pain was temporary.  Instead of dwelling on the negative, Carter turned the moment into an opportunity to refocus and hit the "reset" button.  "I can say the injury definitely humbled me, especially coming in with high expectations out of high school," said Carter. "It helped me realize, this game can be taken from you in an instant and if you're not prepared, it will lead to other issues. The ACL injury taught me that you have to work as hard as you can in whatever you do because you never know when it's going to be over."  Looking back, Carter's mindset in all areas of life went to another level, but it wasn't a flip of the switch. It took significant struggles in his rehabilitation to get where he is today.  One day, when listening to his playlist, three words Carter heard struck him… pain is temporary.  "Those words struck me because an ACL injury takes about a year and a half or two years, at least for me, to fully get back to where I once was." said Carter. "With that quote in the back of my head every day during rehab and every day during workouts, it helped me push myself as far as I could, whether that be conditioning, working on different drills to better my skill-set, or even pushing my teammates to be better team players or things like that."  Perhaps most impressively has been Carter's growth off the court. Entering Lehigh as a marketing major, a move to psychology helped the Cleveland, Ohio native flourish in an area of interest.  "Initially, academics were a challenge just due to the fact that I didn't really know what I wanted to do," he said. "I thought marketing would lead me to an area of interest. What I didn't realize during my freshman year, was my innate ability to think outside the box. I thought it'd go perfectly with marketing, but I actually took Introduction to Psychology my freshman year and that stuck with me throughout."  With the blessing and assurance of his parents, Carter transferred into the College of Arts and Science and became a psychology major.  One individual had a significant influence in Carter's interest and growth in psychology. Carter became especially interested in research within the field due in large part to his advisor, Dr. Gordon Moskowitz, Professor in the Department of Psychology. Moskowitz only had Carter in one class, Statistics, which does not usually feature excessive student participation during lectures. Despite that, Carter made an impact.  "I can say that Devon was a student who worked hard," said Moskowitz. "He took advantage of opportunities to meet with me about assignments and in office hours before exams. Three of my colleagues in social psychology have had Devon in smaller seminars, and I have consulted with them over the years about him since he is my advisee and has expressed an interest in graduate school."  "I came to Professor Moskowitz with my interest in psychology and asked about his role as a professor and researcher," said Carter. "He told me everything he did and I built this cohesive relationship with him where he's been helping me along the way. He's helped ensure I'm completing the necessary credits I need to graduate and helped me pursue graduate school, which is my next goal."  Moskowitz has helped guide Carter along the way.  "Psychology, like all fields of study, has subdisciplines, and when Devon met with me about his interests in research and post graduate study, we put together a curriculum of classes that fit his interests and could prepare him for that path," said Moskowitz. "The initial report of Devon was that he was quiet and needed to have his analysis be drawn out with written assignments and direct questions. However, by the end of the first semester in such a seminar he had become comfortable and was contributing to class often as a leader of the discussion."  There is perhaps no better example than Carter's growth as a young man than his decision to stay on campus this summer to work on psychology research. Carter is currently involved in two projects.  "The first type of research actually started last fall. I'm just looking at time perception with Professor Moskowitz," said Carter. "Whether it's racial, gender, or whatever the case may be, we want to figure out how different types of groups interact with each other. We want to know how interaction is affected by something like time perception."  What specifically is time perception? Carter provides one example, focused on gender, specifically a male interviewing a female for a job.  "One of our hypotheses is when that female is interacting with the male to try and get the job, the female may view those 15 minutes as being more fast-paced than it actually is," said Carter. "She might get a little jittery, or she might get a little antsy and might not be able to express everything she wants to say."  There is some very practical application to Carter's research.  "Will someone not get a job based on the fact that their time perception is altered due to who they're talking to?" he wondered.  "Also, from the male's perspective, the fact that he's interviewing a female, implicitly, the time of 15 minutes might actually be slower than what's expected, so he might start to get bored," Carter continued. "He might not be able to listen or even comprehend what she's trying to say or what she's trying to convey."  The second research is with Professor Dominic Packer.  "We're focusing on the geography of bias," said Carter. "We're trying to find, in regards to different groups geographically, the types biases that may affect group-on-group interaction."  The two types of research are quite different. The time perception research consists of field experiments.  "I have willing participants come in, sign a consent form, participate in both tests and after the tests are done, they fill out a questionnaire," he said. "We compile all the participants' answers and we use that information. We want to see if there's a discrepancy between different races or different genders. My job is to have participants who are very diverse because we to see a plethora of people take the test and see results come out of it."  The Mountain Top research with Professor Packer consists of gathering and compiling pre-existing research.  Carter was named to the 2014-15 Patriot League Academic Honor Roll with a 3.5 semester GPA. One of the greatest aspects of Carter's summer is the wide breadth of experiences he's obtaining.  "I asked him to work on a project that was just in the early stages of development," said Moskowitz. "This is less exciting work. The tasks involve developing materials that will be well-suited for an actual experiment and requires somewhat extended and tedious effort in refining materials and coding items, then repeating this until the materials are appropriate."  It may not be glamorous, but Carter is going about everything with a passion.  "Collecting data and analyzing data is the more exciting part of research, but Devon has already seen that to get to that stage requires lots of hours and dedication so that the experiment produces meaningful data," said Moskowitz. "His effort here has been incredible, and he is also contributing to the discussions about how to refine the materials, not simply doing leg work."  Carter's work fits perfectly with his career goals of becoming a professor and doing research.  "Devon has illustrated effort, skill and dedication at both the more tedious aspects of lab work, and the more interesting part of producing a finalized data set through experimentation in the lab," said Moskowitz. "These are the skills he will need for a career as a scientist and he is illustrating he can meet the challenges, both in the classroom and in his experimental work, by combining his thoughtfulness and intelligence with the hard work needed."  While Carter is impressing in the classroom and setting up a strong future, he's looking to wrap up his basketball career on a high note as well. Last year, Carter's improvements were evident, both in practice and in games. He played in 17 games with many standout moments, including a big three-pointer at Lafayette and playing key minutes in a road win at Army. More important than stats, Carter became an influential leader and role model to his teammates.  "My role for our team is to lead by example, whether that means going the extra step during a drill or picking my teammates up when they're down," he said. "It's a very long season and I've been through three of them. I can help, especially the younger guys who are the nucleus of our team right now, build on their already strong growth."  The Mountain Hawks look to get back to their recent championship days and heading into a much-anticipated 2015-16 season, Carter is one of three seniors. His presence has grown increasingly important and will continue to become more important in his senior year.  "Devon has faced some pretty strong adversity with injuries and adjustments to college," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "Through those challenges, he's grown more determined, he's grown more focused and his maturity level has grown significantly. All of those attributes, combined with his improved skill set in the game of basketball, will hopefully lead to a promising senior year."  Carter understands his role, as someone who can contribute when called upon, but his presence has made (and will continue to make) an even greater impact on the culture within the Lehigh men's basketball program.  "I can say that I'm one of the tougher guys on the team, just based upon my experiences," he said. "I've been through so much at Lehigh and I've grown in such a way where now, I can relay my experiences back to other people. When I was a freshman, I had a little ego and I had to be humbled a bit. So if the current freshmen begin with this humble mentality then the sky is the limit for them. I feel like that's my duty to help them out in that way."  Carter is a success story who should be celebrated. College athletics is all about growth and he is an embodiment of that notion.Carter is one of three seniors on the 2015-16 Mountain Hawks.Â
"The general public wouldn't necessarily recognize the tremendous success story that's going on with Devon Carter at this stage, but those who are close to him can see the evolution of this young man in a positive direction," said Reed. Â "Devon is taking this summer opportunity and he's investing himself into a research agenda to gain valuable experience," Reed continued. "He's used this time to build meaningful relationships with people who can help and guide him for his future. He's gone beyond our athletic department and embraced those relationships in a very positive way. His commitment to be on campus, to conduct research, to push himself further at a time when it would be easy for him to go home and relax, is indicative of a young man who's putting forth tremendous drive towards making himself the best that he can be." Â Despite the ups and downs he's endured at Lehigh, Carter wouldn't want it any other way. Â "The entire process is something I'll look back on, how I've grown in a way that I never imagined possible," he said. "The growing process is something that I'll take with me forever. It's something you can't ever go through again. I'll take both the ups and downs any day of the week. If I had to go through Lehigh all over again, I definitely would just because of the process." Â Luckily, Carter's career isn't over just yet and he has some goals within grasp which would make for the perfect ending to his collegiate journey. Â "I really want a (Patriot League) championship so badly," he said. "Also, I'm looking forward to graduation day. To say I graduated from Lehigh is big for someone like me and where I come from. Acceptance to graduate school at Lehigh has also become a dream of mine." Â Since pain is temporary, Carter turned his ACL tear into an opportunity to refocus and hit the "reset" button. The fresh outlook has led to greater success and set him up for success post-graduation. Â "I couldn't be more proud of the way Devon has embraced his academic responsibilities, performed in the classroom and accepted a greater role within our program in the areas of intangibles," said Reed. "This summer is a tremendous illustration of his growth and progress."
