SURE Alumni

The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program at UT Austin provides undergraduate students interested in research in psychology who are currently attending a college or university in the state of Texas, the chance for hands-on training to make them more competitive for top doctoral training programs.

We strongly encourage students from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply. Students who are accepted into the SURE program will be involved in all aspects of the research process, increasing the student’s knowledge about, and enthusiasm for, laboratory and field work in psychology.

Past particpants of the program have gone on to attend graduate school and researching at prestigious universities across the country. Below is a partial list of some of our past graduates of the program.

Past Participants

Batool Abbasi, SURE 2022 (Pennebaker Lab)

Home Institution: Austin Community College
SURE Project: When Harry Met Reality: Assessing the Relationship between Watching Romantic Comedies and Attitudes toward Singledom
Post-SURE activities: Daycare Teacher at Children Discovery Center. Graduating from ACC with my AA in psychology (Dec. 2022). I am currently applying to Masters in Mental Health Counselling programs! My eventual goal is to become a licensed therapist, and help people from all walks of life and backgrounds find a comfortable space to model their best selves! I am guided by the intimate knowledge of the self. We all become a self in response to situations, dynamics, and pressures imposed on us. Many of us develop a self prepared for conflict, and act out in a combative, defeating manner even when it is maladaptive. Therapy is a space where the self forms in relation to itself, fostered by an understanding environment. I want to assist people in discovering the goals and ideals they have for themselves and to achieve those standards by means of practice, reflection, and action.

Nicole Chuecas, SURE 2022 (Lewis-Peacock Lab)

Home Institution: St. Edward's University
SURE Project: The Networking Child: Social Media Use & the Parent-Child Relationship
Post-SURE activities: Working with Dr. Jessica Boyette-Davis as a teaching assistant for Biopsychology at St. Edward's University, and as a research assistant in her lab collecting data for the Pain & Priming study, and analyzing data for the Alternative Nostril Yoga Breathing study to create a poster to present the new findings at the 2023 Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) Conference; graduating May 2023

Andrea Baltazar, SURE 2014 (Harden Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)
SURE Project: "Age, Gender & Parental Monitoring Predict Adolescent Delinquency"
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): MARC Research Scholar, Psychology Department, UTEP; graduated in May 2017

James Carter, SURE 2014 (Pennebaker Lab)

Home Institution: Rice University
SURE Project: Accessing Class Resources to No Avail: The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Class and Grades
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): Senior Psychology major at Rice University (and Associate Vice President of the Student Association) working on graduate school applications and two independent research projects: 1) a senior thesis that addresses the subtle biases against women and minorities that exist in student evaluations on teaching; and 2) a study that investigates hiring biases and discrimination against different styles of Black hair

Vanesa Lerma, SURE 2014 (Lee Behavioral Neuroscience Lab)

Home Institution: St. Edward's University
SURE Project: “Praising Intelligence vs. Appearance: A Determining Factor of Girls’ Priorities" 
Graduation: Summer 2016 from St. Edward's University with a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Neuroscience
Post-SURE activities (Nov. 2016): Graduate Student at New York University in the Master's of Arts in General Psychology program; Neuropsychology Research Assistant at Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery at the Brain and Spine Center

Melina Acosta, SURE 2015 (Beevers Lab)

Home Institution: University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) 
SURE Project: Cognitive Biases and Distress Tolerance in Depression
Post-SURE activities (Nov. 2016): Research Assistant at UTSA; graduating May 2017; intern at Active Minds, Inc., in Washington, D.C., Spring 2017; Research Assistant at UT San Antonio, Fall 2016

Lynee Herrera, SURE 2015 (Church-Lang Lab)

Home Institution: Texas A&M University
SURE Project: Emotional Processing in Toddler at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): Lab Manager/ Pediatric Neuroimaging Coordinator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Cecilia Hinojosa, SURE 2015 (Smits Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at El Paso
SURE Project: The Effect of Alcohol on the Diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Longitudinal Study
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): Doctoral Student in Experimental-Clinical Psychology at Tufts University

Kassandra Martinez, SURE 2015 (Neil-Beevers Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
SURE Project: Initiating and Responding to Joint Attention in Typically Developing Infants
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): Research Aide, Weill Cornell Medicine (The Center for Autism and the Developing Brain)

Ana Jacome, SURE 2016 (Legare Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
SURE Project: Instrumental Instructions - More Innovation but Less Attention?
Post-SURE activities (Nov. 2016): Research Assistant at The University of Texas at Austin (Dr. Legare's Cognition, Culture and Development Lab)

Jacqueline Lechuga, SURE 2016 (Schnyer Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at El Paso
SURE Project: Physical Attractiveness and Occupational Stereotypes
Post-SURE activities (Nov. 2016): Undergraduate Teaching Assistant at The University of Texas at El Paso

Jessica Burroughs, SURE 2016 (Church-Lang Lab)

Home Institution: University of Texas at Austin
SURE Project: Prepotent Response Inhibition in Children: An fMRI Study of High-Functioning Autism and Obsession-Compulsive Disorder
Post-SURE activities (Oct. 2016): Project Coordinator at UT Austin in the Telch Laboratory of the Study of Anxiety Disorders, studying the effectiveness of exposure therapy enhanced with agnostic actions in reducing arachnophobia; and on and off as a research assistant in Dr. Church-Lang's Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, the lab I was placed in for the SURE program, where I have been assisting in neuroimaging data collection for the Twin Brains Study

Update (Aug. 2017): Enrolled in Northwestern University for an MA program in Counseling 

Tiffany Torres, SURE 2016 (Tucker-Drob Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
SURE Project: Interaction Between Parents' and Children's Conscientiousness and Children's Academic Performance
Post-SURE activities (Nov. 2016): Research Assistant at The University of Texas at Austin (Dr. Ray Hawkins lab, as well as Dr. Elliot Tucker-Drob's Lab)

Patience Kelly, SURE 2014 (Delville Lab)

Home Institution: Texas State University
SURE Project:
Currently:

Kiara Sanchez, SURE 2014 (Neil-Beevers Lab)

Home Institution: Rice University
SURE Project:
Currently: Graduate school, Stanford, PhD (Social Psychology)

Victoria Vento, SURE 2014 (Bigler Lab)

Home Institution: University of Texas at Brownsville
SURE Project:
Currently:

Daniel Avila, SURE 2014 (Henderson Lab)

Home Institution: University of Texas at Brownsville
SURE Project:
Currently:

Kendall Coffey, SURE 2015 (Harden Lab)

Home Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
SURE Project: The Effect of Maternal Warmth and Peer Rejection on Adolescent Delinquency  

Nina Rodriguez, SURE 2015 (Gonzalez-Lima Lab)

Home Institution: Texas State University-San Marcos
SURE Project: The Effects of Varying Operational Sex Ratios on Indirect Aggression
Currently: Working in the Psychology Department at Texas State

Evelyn Valenzuela, SURE 2015 (Bigler Lab)

Home Institution: Texas Tech University
SURE Project: Body Image and Its Effects on Internalized Sexualization in Middle School Girls
Currently: Texas Tech, PhD (Educational Psychology) Working at the daycare until PhD

Anjelica Langdon, SURE 2016 (Smits Lab)

Home Institution: Texas State University  
SURE Project: The Impact of the Endowment Effect on the Treatment of Arachnophobia
Currently: 

Fabiola Almeida, SURE 2016 (Markman Lab)

Home Institution: University of the Incarnate Word
SURE Project: The Effect of Perceived Time Pressure on Academic Self-Efficacy
Currently: 

Laura Flores, SURE 2016 (Booth Lab)

Home Institution: Trinity University
SURE Project: The Influence of Parental Spirituality on Children's Scientific Thinking
Currently: Working at UT in Amy Booth's Little Learner's Lab

Olivia Martin, SURE 2016 (Josephs Lab)

Home Institution: Southwestern University
SURE Project: Bullying Onset Moderates Cortisol Response to an Acute Stressor
Currently: 

Rosemary Emordi, SURE 2016 (Buss Lab)

Home Institution: Texas State University
SURE Project: How Much Does Race Matter When Dieting?: Comparing Predictors of Racial/Ethnic Homogamy
Currently: