2013-2014, Undergraduate Student - Linguistics and Psychology double major, Arabic and Statistics double minor
Biography:
I am a rising senior majoring in Linguistics and Psychology with minors in Arabic and Statistics. Since the Spring 2013 semester, I have worked as a research assistant in the Center for Language Science assisting Dr. Eleonora Rossi with various studies on bilingualism including several fMRI studies and a web-based norming study.
This summer, I will work in Beijing, China at Beijing Normal University on my PIRE project, where I will be testing native Chinese speakers to determine how they acquire languages with phonemes that are not present in their own phonetic inventory. I hope to compare these results with those of native English speakers who I will testing in State College in the fall of 2014.
Outside of my coursework and research, I am active in many service and philanthropy organizations. I dedicate much of my time to being a Technology Captain for the 2014 Penn State Dance Marathon (THON), where I help develop and maintain the organizations central database system. I am also the Director of Technology for Fresh START, a day of service at Penn State that has the goal of getting first-year, change of campus, and transfer students involved with volunteer work. Through America Reads, I work as an ESL Tutor for the Mid-State Literacy Council in State College and as a classroom assistant in the Bennett Family Center. Additionally, I also work as a research assistant in the Comparative Communication Lab here at Penn State.
I am thrilled and honored to have been chosen as a member of the PIRE 2014 undergraduate cohort, and I look forward to conducting my research abroad this summer.