Renee Torio is using her voice answering calls for a crisis hotline, teaching after school programs, and singing her way to a cappella championships.
Originally from Holliston, Massachusetts, Torio (CAS’24) thought she would double major in psychology and vocal performance. Eventually, she decided to commit herself to psychology and explore the opportunities within the program related to her interests in music and voice. During her undergraduate studies, Torio has had internships with Call2Talk, a 24/7 mental health crisis hotline based in Framingham, Massachusetts, and Mountain Valley Treatment Center, a counseling center in New Hampshire for teens with OCD and anxiety disorders.
Outside of class, Torio is a music director for The Boston University Allegrettos. She got involved with The Allegrettos, an a capella group, during her freshman year at BU, which consisted mostly of virtual concerts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, she and her teammates are performing at competitions around the Northeast.
After graduation, Torio will pursue a master’s degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she will study clinical mental health counseling with the goal of becoming a practicing therapist for children and adolescents.
Arts & Sciences caught up with Torio, who is majoring in psychology and minoring in vocal performance and speech, language & hearing sciences.
Interview responses have been edited for clarity.
Arts & Sciences: How did you choose your major and minors?
Torio: I came into BU knowing I wanted to do psychology and something with music. I initially was going towards a dual-degree path with psychology and classical vocal performance. Later on, I decided to focus on psychology as my major and pursue music as a minor so I could have time to explore the options within the psychology major. Through a course I took for the HUB, “Introduction to Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences,” I decided that was an area I was really interested in. I decided to pursue that as a minor as well and it turned out to complement my research interests too.
Can you describe your role in the Biobehavioral and Social-Emotional Development Lab?
Since my sophomore year, I have been a research assistant in the Biobehavioral and Social-Emotional Development Lab under Dr. Nicholas Wagner in the psychology department. I had initially gotten into that to gain more research experience and the interests of the lab lined up with my clinical interests of working with kids and learning about their development. Since becoming a research assistant there, I then pursued a research project through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to look into child attachment and language usage with their caregivers. This year that turned into an honors thesis within the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Can you talk about your internship with Call2Talk?
When I was a freshman, I was looking for internship opportunities and I found Call2Talk on Handshake, the career platform. I decided to pursue an internship there in the summer of 2021 to grow in my psychology skills in a different and more person-oriented way. Call2Talk is a mental health crisis line that’s based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It operates out of an in-person call center and receives calls all across the area as well as calls from the National Suicide Hotline if we are the closest call center. I completed that internship and I sometimes go back and volunteer on school breaks because it’s close to where I live in Holliston. I have really been able to grow in my empathetic listening skills, basic crisis intervention skills, and risk assessment for suicidality. I have found that I really enjoy client-centered work and working with people directly.
How about your internship with Mountain Valley Treatment Center?
Over my junior year summer, summer 2023, I completed an internship with Mountain Valley Treatment Center in New Hampshire. That internship was a Residential Counselor position and I worked directly with teenagers with anxiety and OCD related disorders. I was able to work directly with people in that position including patients and leadership at that facility. I could hear about the clinical side of things from social workers, mental health counselors, and other people who work there to help the teenagers. It was really interesting to see how all the facets of that experience apply to those patients. I got to be in a place where treatment was happening in real time and got to make a real impact on those kids.
What is your favorite memory from singing with The Allegrettos?
It is so hard to pick just one memory, especially because my experience spanned through the most intense parts of the pandemic and beyond. I had a lot of different kinds of memories whether they be on Zoom or in-person. One recent memory that was really special is when we competed in the semi-finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) competition. It’s kind of like Pitch Perfect because we all have individual microphones and we’re doing choreography. We made it to the semi-final round for the first time ever. We made it to the quarter-finals in 2023 and in 2019 before I joined the group. It was amazing to get a chance to perform at Berklee Performance Center, to a sold-out audience. I found that beyond the performance quality and working on our musical skills, we grew closer as a group through that experience and through preparing for the competition. I have found some of my best friends at BU through The Allegrettos.
Hear more about Torio’s BU experience in a new Senior Spotlight video.
Interview by Shelby Rose Long (COM’27)