A Few of the Undergraduates Professor Bottoms has Worked with...

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• Serene Abuzir

• Kavya Vaitla

• Kendal Sykes

• Sabrina Bellamy

• Siobhan Midgley

• Kristina Todorovic

• Jasmina Ejupovic

• Samantha Dabah

• Alicia James

• Taylor Borgmann

• Amani Elayan

• Jess Cunningham

• Laura Santoyo

• Jessica Spanton

• Jessica Walker

• Gretchen Kemner

• Ana(stasia) Bora

• Amber Larkin

• Nick Flores

• Insiya Valika

• Bernard

• Kamlika Chandla

• Irene Hao

• Leena Ansari

• Chelsea Noblitt

• Letitia Murray

• Hanna Wen

• Sheri Joscelyn

• Taylor Duke

• Giselle Hernandez

• Alaine Kalder

• Justyna Kapustka

• Saba Khan

• Maria Szczech

• Maria Vargas

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Awards & Accomplishments of Former Undergraduate Research Assistants

Most of undergraduates who work in Dr. Bottoms' Lab and apply to graduate programs are successful. Dr. Bottoms works closely with students to prepare them for graduate work and to make their applications strong. Former undergraduate assistants have entered the following graduate programs in the following disciplines:

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Psychology

• University of California at Davis

• University of Northern Iowa

• Illinois Institute of Technology

• San Diego State University

• University of Denver

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Illinois State University

• Sam Houston State University

• Washburn University

• Loyola

• University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana

• Northwestern University

• University of Georgia

• University of California at Davis

• College of William and Mary

• SUNY at Stony Brook

• University of Miami

• Chicago School for Professional Psychology

• Illinois School for Professional Psychology

• Fuller Theological Seminary

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Law

• Wisconsin-Madison Law School

• Loyola of Chicago

• Hamline University School of Law

• George Washington University

• Nova University;

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Criminology

• Simon Fraser University

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Medicine

• Rush,

• UIC

• Loyola

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Social Work

• University of Chicago

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Dr. Bottoms encourages undegraduate students to apply for all possible awards and provide them strong recommendation letters as appropriate. Here are just a few examples of the accomplishments of undergraduates who have worked in Dr. Bottoms' lab in recent years.

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Krissie Fernandez, a student from Dominican University who volunteered in Dr. Bottoms' lab, finished her Ph.D. in psychology at Sam Houston State University. She received two awards for research on minority issues at the American Psychology-Law Society conference.

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Cristina Gonzalez, a student from Puerto Rico worked in the lab via the Summer Research Opportunities Program, is now a graduate student in psychology at the University of Miami.

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Giselle Hernandez entered a graduate program in social work at the University of Chicago, on a prestigious scholarship. While in my Laboratory in Social Psychology class, she developed an interesting research project, which she conducted for a senior honor’s thesis in my lab, allowing her to graduate with High Distinction. She received a Kabbes Research Award for the study ($1000), which she published as first author. 

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Alaine Kalder worked with Dr. Bottoms for two years. She completed an Honor’s Thesis, which allowed her to graduate with High Distinction. To support her research, upon Dr. Bottoms nomination, she won the Phi Kappa Phi research grant ($700), the Kabbes Scholarship for Undergraduate Research ($1000), and the Gender and Women’s Studies Prize ($250). Her final paper won third place in our department’s Hirshberg Memorial Award competition for best undergraduate paper. She also won the Mary Bialas Award for commitment to women’s and children’s issues, and served as Undergraduate President of the Division 37 Section on Child Maltreatment. She was  profiled in the UIC News and was President of our chapter of Psi Chi, the Psychology National Honor Society, whose essay contest she won last year. She has co-authored several presentations with Dr. Bottoms and a publication, and attended graduate school at the University of California, Irvine.

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Barbara Oudekerk worked in Dr. Bottoms' lab for two years. Dr. Bottoms supervised her Honor’s Thesis, which was awarded our department’s highest honor for undergraduate research (the Nancy Hirschberg Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research in Psychology), as well as the 3rd place prize when she presented it at the UIC Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the American Psychological Association travel award when she presented it at the national APA conference. Upon Dr. Bottoms recommendation, she won the Phi Kappa Phi research grant ($700), the Sara Madonna Kabbes Scholarship for Undergraduate Research ($1000), the Chancellor’s Student Service Award, the Jeff E. Lewis Award ($1500), the Thomas Eakman Scholarship ($1500), and the Phi Beta Kappa Chicago Chapter Prize ($500). She was the President of our Psi Chi chapter, and the undergraduate Student Representative to the Executive Committee of the American Psychological Association’s Division of Child, Youth, and Family Services, a position Dr. Bottoms created for undergraduates. She graduated with High Distinction and accepted a $20K fellowship to attend a leading clinical psychology doctoral program at the University of Virginia, working with Dr. Dickon Reppucci. As shown below, Barbara moved to the NIJ Department of Justice as a special APA Science Fellow, and now works there full time.

 

Science Policy Insider News | August 2013
APA science fellow to work at National Institute of Justice
Community psychologist Barbara Oudekerk selected as 2013-2014 fellow.
Barbara Oudekerk, PhD, who is the American Psychological Association’s 2013-2014 executive branch science fellow, arrives in September to spend her fellowship year working at the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the Department of Justice. Oudekerk is a community psychologist who received her doctorate and completed a research post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia. Her research interests include risk and resilience among adolescents who commit crimes, the intersections between adolescent sexual activity and the legal system (e.g., statutory rape, underage prostitution), adolescent decision making in the context of romantic relationships and teen dating violence. 
Oudekerk was selected for the highly competitive APA fellowship program, which is designed to give psychological scientists experience working in federal agencies. She will join APA's two incoming congressional fellows and a larger class of colleagues affiliated with the Science and Technology Fellowship program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For more information on this issue contact Heather O'Beirne Kelly.