IU Groups Scholars - STEM Summer Research Experience Program

This summer I had the privilege of mentoring an incoming freshman who is a member of the IU Groups Scholars program. This program puts first-generation students and those with socioeconomic barriers on the path to college success by providing academic, financial, and social support on their path to obtaining a bachelor's degree at Indiana University. My mentee, Jeshua, was an exceptional research assistant! He hopes to become a pediatrician someday and was excited about the opportunity to work with children on the proposed summer project. He came into the lab each day prepared to take on new challenges and was a fast learner. During the six week experience, Jeshua was tasked with learning the data collection protocol, collecting behavioral data with 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds (he ran 10 participants in just a few weeks), and annotating collected speech samples on TextGrids in Praat. He picked up Praat quickly and did a great job isolating utterances from the waveform, which was so impressive for a student who has never taken a speech science course! He also prepared a 14 page research paper for the course that accompanies the lab experience, which is no small feat for just a few weeks. I believe Jeshua is going to go on to do great things and he is making a pit stop in the Speech Perception Lab for a bit, as he has agreed to stay on to continue helping with this project!