For Prospective Undergraduate Students
We are not currently accepting applications for Spring 2025. Our next recruitment for new RAs will be for Summer 2025. Please check back in late Feb/March for updated information on open positions.
When you are ready to apply, 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.
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. Note that your application materials will be shared with the student project lead in addition to the lab director.
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
Mario Alvarez (2022-2023), Research Opportunities, Scholarships Help ASU Psychology Students Excel
Paola Hernandez (2022-2023), Using Curiosity to Build Resilience in Children
Kaitlin Van Houghton (2021-2022), New Study Reveals how Children Perceive Their Environment Compared with Adults and Arizona Family Live News Segment “How We Perceive the World”
Alejandro Caballero (2019-2022), Psychology Senior Wins Research Conference Honor for Work on Persistence in Children
Lexzandra Saguid (2020-2022), Psychology Graduate Changing User Experience Through Creativity.
Published Student Projects and Honors Theses
Kaitlin Van Houghton (2021-2022), Children and Adults Exhibit a Common Vertical Attention Bias for Object Tops and Scene Bottoms.
Alejandro Caballero (2019-2022), The role of effort type and intensity in children's decisions about effort-based outcomes
Conferences Attended by EML Undergraduates
The Society for Research in Child Development Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah (Eryk Mejia, Anika Islam, Gemma Trimble, Paola Hernandez, Kaitlin Van Houghton: 2023)
Arizona Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference (Anna Hinojosa, Alejandro Caballero, Vijaya Nandiwada-Hofer, Anika Islam, Shani McCollum: 2020, 2022, 2023)
The Marconi Institute for Creativity Conference (Lexzandra Saguid: 2021)
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.
Here are two other lists of internships and job opportunities for recent psychology graduates: one from Duke University and one compiled by Camilla McMahon at Miami University.
Dr. Karey O’Hara, an Assistant Professor at ASU, put together a great list of resources & videos for applying to graduate school, and navigating diverse career paths within psychology.