Seventeen undergraduate students from 11 universities and colleges around the country were welcomed to the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) earlier this month as participants in the center’s developmental science summer internship program. The YCSC, which serves as the department of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, offers the summer internship annually to rising junior and senior undergraduate students in various areas of developmental science.

The internship was expanded this year through a collaboration with the Yale Department of Pediatrics, offering interns a broader range of expertise and resources. YCSC summer interns are paired with faculty mentors based on their research interests and career trajectories. They spend the summer working with their mentors on relevant research projects and present their projects as conference posters to faculty, staff, and students at the end of the summer.

The 2024 developmental science summer internship poster session will take place on Friday, July 26 from 9 - 11 a.m. Past areas of focus have included the neuroscience of parenting, adolescent risk-taking, family interventions, and addiction. The program is co-directed by Amanda Dettmer, PhD, Helena Rutherford, PhD, Vince Faustino, MD, MHS and Linda Mayes, MD, along with PhD student Kathy Ayala. Linda Isakson serves as the administrative assistant for the program.

“Every June brings a buzz of excitement as we welcome the summer interns to our program, and this year is no different,” Dettmer commented. “We have an exceptional group of 17 young scholars with us this summer and we’re eager to learn alongside them. We are especially excited to be partnering with Pediatrics for the first time this summer, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow that partnership.”

This year’s interns are as follows, including their home institution and YCSC mentor.

• Caroline Alessio, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Dylan Gee
• Mc Noriel Baldonado, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Sacit Omay
• Jordyn Barkley, Spelman College; Mentor: Chris Cipriano
• Cindi Blanco Villanueva, Vanderbilt University; Mentor: Carla Stover
• Addison Cassada, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Erin Warnick
• Claire Chiles, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Nadia Ameen
• Ash Chinta, Dartmouth College; Mentor: Dustin Scheinost
• Olivia Ciocca, University of Vermont; Mentor: Karim Ibrahim
• Joshua Fairhead, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Ellen Hoffman
• Sofia Ferrucci, University of Georgia; Mentor: Uche Aneni
• Akansha Magal, University of California, Los Angeles; Mentor: Wan-Ling Tseng
• Logan Marco, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Mike Crowley
• Arianna Medina, St. Edwards University; Mentor: Emily Olfson
• Adriana Rivera Vega, San Diego State University; Mentor: Chris Cipriano
• Maya Steiger, Otterbein University; Mentor: Chris Cipriano
• Rob Sullivan, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Declan Barry & Hilary Hahn
• Mia Tan, University of Virginia; Mentor: Denis Sukhodolsky