2011-2012, Undergraduate Student, Psychology and Linguistics
Biography:
I am currently in my Junior year in the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State, pursuing a double major in Psychology and Linguistics, with a minor in French. My interest in the language sciences of bilingualism led me to join the Center for Language Sciences as a research assistant during the fall of my Sophomore year. During the fall of 2010, I worked as a member of Dr. Chip Gerfen's phonology lab, running participants for experiments within the lab. Throughout the spring and summer of 2011, I worked on the analysis of phonological markers in bilingual speech as a member of Dr. Rena Torres Cacoullos' phonology lab. This semester marks the beginning of my work with Dr. Janet van Hell, my advisor and the head of the Bilingualism and Language Development lab.
It was through collaboration with Dr. van Hell that I was lucky enough to receive the PIRE grant for this upcoming summer. Through the PIRE, I will be traveling to Lund University in Sweden to study the effect that the scripts of a bilingual's languages has on the bilingual's ability to acquire a third language. In preparation for this summer, I will be programming my experiment and running participants for the first condition of the study.
Outside of the Center for Language Sciences, I am a member of Atlas THON and the Penn State Crew Team. My involvement with Atlas and THON started almost immediately upon my arrival at Penn State, though I knew little about THON and the Four Diamonds Fund. Since freshman year, I have become very active with Atlas which is something that I am incredibly proud of.
When I am not at school, I love doing anything that will allow me to be in or around water. During the summer of 2010, I worked as a Boat Captain for the Glacier Park Boat Company in Glacier National Park, Montana. This past summer, I worked slightly closer to home as a Boat Driver/Water Ski Instructor at Camp Micah in Bridgeton, Maine.