May 28, 2026
Kudos to recipients of the Graduate Student Council (GSC) Spring 2026 awards. Seven LRDC graduate student researchers (GSRs) GSC awards during the 2026 Spring semester; four awards were made for the fall cycle, bringing the total of this year's awards to 11.
The GSC created and oversees the award, which provides financial support for the development of new, innovative, and interdisciplinary research conducted by graduate students within LRDC (amount of award varies based on request). Support can be used for travel costs, participant compensation, or specific items such as research software, conference fees, or society memberships. The GSC makes awards two times per year, during the fall and winter terms. The GSC offered two separate tracks for applications: Project Expenses ($500) and Conference Expenses ($1500).
For the Conference Expenses track, a total of $1,500 was made available to Maria Arévalo-Jaimes, Joei Camarote, Qianjin Guo, Nathaniel Pettit, and Amy Qi. For the Project Expenses, a total of $500 was made available to Diya Goyal and Nabila P. Jamal Orozco.
Conference Expenses
Maria Arévalo-Jaimes, advisor Melissa Libertus, Cognitive Psychology Program. Maria is interested in numerical cognition, developmental psychology, home math interventions, and individual differences in math skills, particularly among preschool students.
Joei Camarote, advisor Heather Bachman, Applied Developmental Psychology Program, School of Education. Joei's research focuses on children's academic development, specifically in the spatial domain. She is especially interested in gender differences in spatial ability and how factors such as the home environment and parental involvement influence these differences.
Qianjin Guo, advisor Diana Leyva, Developmental Psychology Program. Qianjin explores how parenting practices shape children's early development, including language, reading, math, and self-regulation. She also examines the impact of family-based interventions on children's outcomes. Her research focuses on the casual mediation effects of children's approaches to learning in the association between family intervention and children's academic achievement.
Nathaniel Pettit, advisor Heather Bachman, Applied Developmental Psychology Program. Nathaniel studies sources of support and stress in the lives of parents. Much of his current work focuses on families' housing experiences, exploring how housing hardship may influence parents' well-being and their children's developmental trajectories. Nathaniel is interested in practice- and policy-relevant work that aims to improve parents' and families' lives.
Amy Qi, advisor Marc Coutanche, Cognitive Psychology Program. Amy is interested in studying human learning and memory using fMRI, with a particular focus on how conceptual knowledge is represented in the brain. Broadly, she is interested in how meaning, prior knowledge, and experience shape the way we learn and remember.
Project Expenses
Diya Goyal, advisor Natasha Tokowicz, Cognitive Psychology Program. Diya is interested in adult second language acquisition and bilingualism. She is especially interested in the role that technology and games can play in helping adults acquire non-native language vocabulary.
Nabila P. Jamal Orozco, advisor Daphne Henry, Cognitive/Developmental Psychology Program. Nabila is interested in the socio-emotional development of children and youth, focusing on adolescents of color and the risks and promotive factors that impact their mental health and well-being. She specifically studies critical consciousness development and youth activism, as well as the sociocultural and contextual influences (parental/family, poverty, racism) on the development of children and youth