We are pleased to announce Jennifer Acosta as this year’s winner of the Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Jennifer is a Psychology major and is also completing the certificate in Child and Family Policy. She serves as a Teaching Assistant in Introductory Psychology. She is particularly interested in the experience of 1st generation college students, and worked with Dr. Mark Leary to analyze data relevant to this population from the you@duke program. She spent a summer at Davidson College analyzing data on college students’ feelings of belongingness on campus, and presented her results at the Duke Endowment and at Furman University. Jennifer has a contagious love of research and data, matched by a desire for that research to have impact. To that end, Jennifer plans to take a gap year before applying to graduate school, hopefully working with high school students who need support during the college application process. We’ll be sure to update our Alumni page in a couple years when Jennifer starts graduate school, likely in a program that combines education and psychology. Congratulations, Jennifer!
Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
