Writing Program Teaching Professor, UC Santa Cruz

Interests: Spanish heritage language acquisition and pedagogy, English for Academic Purposes, Latin@ academic achievement, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy 

Bio: Dr. Helmer holds an MA TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) from the University of Arizona. She is the recipient of two distinguished teaching prizes from the University of Arizona and John Jay College, CUNY, and authored the book Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom: Engaging Mexican-Origin Students.

"Working with upper division undergraduate scholars has been transformative. As an applied linguist specializing in L2 writing, I typically guide first-year multilingual students, many pursuing STEM degrees. In contrast, the Explore Program has connected me with linguistics students who share my passion for language—a collaboration both intellectually rewarding and fun. Explore Fellows have accelerated my research progress beyond expectations. I'm deeply grateful to the program for facilitating these valuable partnerships with such talented students." 

Undergraduate Student UC Santa Cruz (College 9 affiliate, Cognitive Science B.S., Linguistics B.A.) 

Interests: My main research interests lie in Writing, Cognitive Neuroscience, Consciousness, and Psycholinguistics. I like birds and comic books too. 

Bio: I am a recent UCSC graduate and this will be my second year working with Dr. Helmer as both a research and writing assistant. There has been so much joy in working with students, hearing their stories and thoughts, transcribing their interviews, and discovering all the small intricacies of their responses. I am profoundly grateful to have had the chance to work directly with students as they navigated the Happiness Project, and am excited to see how the project evolves over time! As I exit this project, I hope to leverage the skills I've gained here to pursue a career in publishing, copywriting, or data analysis.

Undergraduate Student UC Santa Cruz (Merrill Affiliate, Linguistics B.A., Spanish Studies B.A. ) 

Interests: Passionate about language studies, sociolinguistics, and cultural identity, with personal interests in language learning, traveling, soccer, and card games.

Bio: I’m a fourth-year, first-generation Mexican student passionate about supporting my community and advancing research in language and education. As part of the Happiness Project research group, I analyze international and Gen 1.5 student feedback to help improve teaching practices while building data analysis, discourse analysis, and cross-cultural research skills. I’m committed to using language research for community empowerment and excited to keep growing through meaningful, student-centered projects.

Undergraduate Student UC Santa Cruz (Kresge College affiliate, Linguistics B.A. & History of Consciousness Minor '26) 

Interests: Cognitive and linguistic diversity, multimodal and accessible communication, bugs and rats

Bio: Having worked as a tutor and classroom aide for over 5 years, I've observed firsthand just how impactful adaptive, student-serving pedagogy can be. I am thrilled to begin working with this team, and get to know/hear the needs of the Happiness Project student body.

Undergraduate Student UC Santa Cruz (Merrill College affiliate, Linguistics B.A. & Spanish Studies Minor '27) 

Interests: Child language acquisition, L2 acquisition, psycho and neurolinguistics, yarn crafts, baked goods, my pink Nespresso machine

Bio: I am thrilled to participate in this project, and to listen to and learn from international and Gen 1.5 students here at UCSC. My hope is that as a research assistant for the Happiness Project, I can help further the pedagogy Professor Helmer is developing and support the needs of current and future students. Given my personal interest in the course content and mindfulness at large, I am really enjoying the experience of immersing myself in the critical feedback provided by past students. This is my first experience in a research environment and I am beyond excited to acquire proficiency in conversation analysis, data compilation, and more!