Congratulations to this year's Psychology Undergraduate Award winners!

July 11, 2023

Congratulations to this year's Psychology Undergraduate Award winners! These awards honour psychology students for their academic excellence, outstanding leadership, and service within the community.

 

Erika Binder

Erika recently completed her B.A (Honours with Distinction) in Psychology, with minors in Counselling and Human Development and Learning and Developmental Disabilities. She is currently a research assistant in Dr. Tanya Broesch’s Culture and Developmental Lab and Dr. Yuthika Girme’s SECURE Lab. Under Dr. Broesch's supervision, Erika defended her honours thesis where she investigated caregiver responses to infant distress in three non-western societies. Throughout her studies, Erika was also a member of the SFU Track and Field team and volunteered as a peer mentor for the Autism Mentorship Initiative, as a Student-Athlete Learning Coach, and was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In the future, Erika aspires to attend grad school for a masters in School Psychology. 

 

Juliana Valerio

Juliana is completing her BA Honours in Psychology. Since joining SFU in 2019, she has worked closely with Dr. Steve Wright as a research assistant and as a USRA recipient. Most recently, she successfully defended her Honours thesis under Dr. Wright's supervision. Her Honours project investigated how levels of support for women's hockey changed across different perceptions of women's hockey. Juliana plans to continue investigating gender inequalities in sports in Dr. Wright's lab as she completes her undergraduate degree. She hopes to continue exploring diversity and equality in graduate school upon finishing her Bachelor's degree.

Janaki Patel

  • Lorne M. Kendall Memorial Award in Psychology

Janaki recently completed her B.A. (Honours with Distinction) in Psychology with a minor in Health Sciences. Under the supervision of Dr. Lara Aknin, her honours thesis explored the idea of prosocial fantasies (instances in which people imagine themselves helping others), and whether learning about them can positively impact people’s views of humanity. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she has volunteered as a research assistant in multiple labs, mentored rural BC youth to help them navigate life after secondary school, and presented her honours work at psychology conferences. She currently works as a lab manager for Dr. Aknin’s Helping and Happiness Lab, and as a behaviour interventionist for a BHCOE accredited practice.

Jaymie Cristobal 

  • Mary Batchelor Memorial Award

Jaymie recently completed her BA (First Class with Distinction) in Psychology. She currently works as a research assistant and knowledge translation manager at the CORTECH Lab and as a volunteer research assistant at the Helping & Happiness lab. Throughout her time at SFU, she has been involved in various community engagement roles, most notably as a FASS Connections Peer Mentor and a Pathways to Education Tutor supporting inner-city youth in the Guildford & Whalley community.  Jaymie hopes to extend her work in knowledge translation in different domains of health research and later on pursue a graduate degree in biomedical communications.

Kyle Bergh

  • Crocker Family Award in Psychology

Kyle recently completed his BA (Honours with Distinction) in Psychology, with a minor in Counselling and Human Development. While at SFU, Kyle worked as a research assistant in the Helping and Happiness Lab and the Measurement and Modelling Lab. Additionally, Kyle has served as an assistant captain for the Men’s Hockey Team the past two years, capturing back-to-back provincial championships during this time. He also works as a youth hockey coach at North Shore Winter Club, where he won a provincial title in 2023. Kyle leveraged his experiences in sport by completing his honours thesis on recently concussed athletes' attitudes and perceptions toward concussion assessment tools under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Fouladi. In the fall of 2023, Kyle will begin his masters degree in Applied Sport Psychology at the University of Ottawa.

Aman Grewal 

Aman recently completed her BA (Honours with Distinction) in Psychology, completing her honours project under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Spalek in the Spalek Laboratory of Attention Memory and Perception. Aman’s honours thesis examined how visual alerting cues presented at different time points affect performance on visual search tasks. During her time at SFU, she has been involved in four labs: Spalek Laboratory of Attention Memory and Perception, Human Neuropsychology Laboratory, Close Relationships Research Lab, and SECURE Lab (Singlehood Experiences and Complexities Underlying Relationships). Aman has also volunteered as a FASS Peer Mentor and an undergraduate editor at the SFU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology. In the future, she plans to complete my M.A and Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology. 

Elaina Buenaventura

  • Mary Batchelor Memorial Award

Elaina is a queer, second generation Filipinx living below the Mountain of Lheḵw’lhúḵw’ay̓tn. They recently completed their Bachelor of Arts Degree (First Class with Distinction) with a major in Psychology and a minor in Dialogue in Communication. With a passion for environmental justice, they volunteered as a research assistant for the Sustainability, Identity, and Social Change (SISC) Lab. During their degree, Elaina volunteered as the Vice President of Administration and a Co-President for the SFU Ban the Bottle Club to support environmental actions relating to water resources and single-use plastics at SFU. They also worked as an Event Planner with the Burnaby Neighbourhood House to make space for re/connection in the South Burnaby community. Currently, they work as a Community Liaison Worker with North Shore Restorative Justice Society's to increase awareness of restorative justice and to evaluate programming initiatives on the North Shore. Moving forward, Elaina aspires to develop a personal and professional mindfulness practice and learn more about their Filipinx roots with family and community.

Learn more about our undergraduate awards here. 

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
SMS
Email
Copy