Yale Child Study Center welcomes 2023 summer interns

On June 1, 2023, the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) welcomed 24 undergraduate students from 11 universities and colleges around the country to the department’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 to rising junior and senior undergraduate students in various areas of developmental science annually.

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 YCSC faculty, staff, and students at the end of the summer. This year’s developmental science summer internship poster session will take place on Friday, July 28, 2023 from 2-4 p.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 and Linda Mayes, MD, along with PhD student Kathy Ayala. Postgraduate Associate Kayla Delapenha (’22) is in her second year serving as the assistant director of the internship, and Linda Isakson provides administrative support.

“This year, the internship program conducted its first targeted outreach to HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] and MSIs [Minority Serving Institutions] in an effort to increase representation and inclusivity. As a result, over 20% of our applicant pool were from HBCUs/MSIs, and 16.7% of our 2023 interns are from such institutions. We hope to increase this targeted outreach in future years and continually increase the numbers,” commented Dettmer.

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

• Sofina Behr, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Nancy Borstelmann
• Chandler Brown, Alabama State University; Mentor: Uche Aneni
• Christie Cambridge, Howard University; Mentor: Ellen Hoffman
• Nicholas Clate, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Kartik Pattabiraman
• Kara Cooksley, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Erin Warnick
• Julian Esmer, UMass Amherst; Mentor: Karim Ibrahim
• Victor Esparza, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Amanda Dettmer
• Martha Goldsmith, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Kieran O'Donnell
• Moon Gomes, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Sarah Lichenstein
• Christopher Le, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Dustin Scheinost
• Marina Lieberman, UC Santa Cruz; Mentor: Denis Sukhodolsky
• Kylea Michael, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Karen Hanson/FBR MDO
• Madison Reid, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Emily Olfson
• Shara Reimer, Northwestern University; Mentor: Jamie McPartland
• Ashlyn Richards, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Mike Crowley
• Isabel Rodden, Williams College; Mentor: Amanda Lowell
• Annabelle Ross, Davidson College; Mentor: Chris Cipriano
• Mary Sommer, St. Mary's Univeristy (Texas); Mentor: Chris Cutter
• Gennessee Torres, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Carla Stover
• William Trosch, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Denis Sukhodolsky
• Kelly Walker, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Declan Barry
• Mark Wilson, Sewanee: The University of the South; Mentor: Michael Bloch
• Fiona Wu, Vanderbilt University; Mentor: Craig Bailey
• Mara Xiong, Cornell University; Mentor: Wan-Ling Tseng