Hello!

As part of my MA work, I developed academic supports and resources for undergraduate students in an ECE teacher-training degree program who are pursuing pediatric care careers (e.g., Child Life, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy). I recruited and interviewed students to better understand their perspectives on what challenges they face and what resources would be helpful. As a result of my research, I redesigned the Early Childhood Studies (ECS) Careers website to better reflect diversity of student interest and to provide comprehensive academic pathways for post-grad programs in pediatric health (link to come, website hasn't been launched yet). I wrote a report & presented to the ECS alumni association on the need for an ECS student-alumni mentorship program to supplement students' limited exposure to healthcare professionals with ECS backgrounds. I am currently working as part of an ECSAA subcommittee to launch a mentorship program starting Fall 2026.

I'm currently working on a research project involving the redesign of a music-making application to engage novice music-makers and young learners. More on this later.

Research suggests that when children are praised for their effort, they try harder, generate better problem-solving strategies, and are able to cope with setbacks. Process praise that overlaps with effort and success boosts infants' motor-based persistence, while random process praise is detrimental to persistence. In my undergraduate thesis, I explored whether contingent process praise influences how infants reason about effort expenditure, and whether this mental effort correlates with infants’ physical persistence.