Emerging Minds Lab Meeting, Fall 2023

For Prospective Undergraduate Students

If you are interested in joining the lab as a research assistant in Spring 2025, fill out our Undergraduate Research Assistant PSY 399/499 application. After completing the application, email the confirmation to our Lab Manager, Christina Stewart (cmstew16@asu.edu) and Lab Director, Dr. Kelsey Lucca (klucca@asu.edu) along with a copy of your Resume/CV and unofficial transcript. We require a two semester minimum commitment to join the lab (PSY 3/499 credit; 9 hrs/week during the Spring/Summer or Spring/Fall). The Summer 2025 session will be from May-August, and requires 11 hrs/week. Applications are considered on a rolling basis, the priority deadline is October 16, 2024.

Research assistant activities in this lab typically involve: family recruitment, literature searches, coding behaviors from videos of participants, database management, lab maintenance, attending community outreach events/contributing to the lab’s social media, and data collection. After one year, and depending on performance in the lab, RAs may have the opportunity to plan, implement, and present their own research experiments with the lab (e.g. Honors Thesis projects). RAs must be self-motivated, highly organized, and work well with others (lab projects are team projects).

Each semester, we receive more applications than we are able to accept to join our lab. To increase your chances of being considered for a position, we recommend that you (1) write out your responses to each prompt in our application in a word document to carefully proofread each section prior to submitting your application; and (2) thoroughly review our lab's website and read our lab's publications (https://www.emergingmindslab.org/publications) before deciding to apply. 

Emerging Minds Lab Undergraduate Accomplishments

We are very proud of the success of the undergraduate research assistants in the Emerging Minds Lab! Many of our undergraduates have gone on to win fellowships and scholarships to support their research, presented their research at national and international conferences, published in peer-review journals, and received features in ASU news articles. Below are examples of some of the achievements made by ASU undergraduates during their time in the Emerging Minds Lab.

Undergraduate Fellowship and Award Winners

  • Mario Alvarez (2022-2023), The American Psychological Association’s 2023 “SUPER” (Summer Undergraduate Psychology Experience in Research) Fellow ($5,500).

  • Paola Hernandez (2022-2023), Janessa Shapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship ($5,000)

  • Anika Islam (2021-2023), Barrett “Mensch” Award for innovation & creativity in the Social Sciences

  • Alejandro Caballero (2019-2022), Winner, Best Poster Presentation, Arizona Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference

  • Vijaya Nandiwada-Hofer (2021-2023), 2nd Place Winner, Poster Presentation, Arizona Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference

  • Barrett Honors Thesis Funding Awards and Travel Awards: Gemma Trimble, Paola Hernandez, Eryk Mejia, Anika Islam, Nicole Johnson, Kaitlin Van Houghton, Sonia Patel, Kalie Scirpo, Shani McCollum

EML Undergraduates in the News

Published Student Projects and Honors Theses

Conferences Attended by EML Undergraduates

If you are graduating soon and unable to complete two semesters of PSY 3/499 with our lab, please check out these resources:

  • ASU’s ENERGIZE Initiative pairs undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds with a graduate student mentor to help them find research experiences.

  • A number of labs across the country host paid summer internships with the goal of helping students gain research skills and decide if graduate school is a good fit for them. Psych Research List (created by Meltem Yucel) compiles a list of these programs every year. Some programs are only for students who have not yet graduated, but some accept recent graduates! Psych Research List also maintains a list of postbac research assistant jobs in psychology labs.