Mentoring

Notable Team Alumni

Alexis Harvey

Alexis graduated from FSU in the spring of 2022. She will be continuing her education at Alabama A&M University's graduate program.

At A&M, she is pursuing a Master of Social Work degree. Her degree concentration is in Community Health. She plans to obtain her licensure to become a clinical social worker. Her long-term career goal is to work with the incarcerated population by providing services related to re-entry, mental health, and substance misuse treatments. On José's team, she helped examine how adversity in early childhood is associated with the decisions that people make as adults and on several other projects related to individual differences in leadership.

Alexis worked with José's team from 2020-2022.

Sofia Schultz

Sofia participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at Florida State University from 2021-2022. While in UROP, she joined José's team to examine how adversity in childhood is associated with the long-term decisions people make in adulthood. Post-UROP, Sofia is continuing her undergraduate education at FSU. She is pursuing a degree in psychology, with a minor in art entrepreneurship, and a certificate in interdepartmental developmental disabilities. Outside of the classroom, Sofia is a registered behavioral technician (RBT). As an RBT, Sofia works with children with autism spectrum disorder by providing applied behavioral analysis (ABA). Sofia will continue building upon the skills and experiences she gained through UROP and as an RBT – her long-term goal is to work with children, both in the lab as a researcher and outside the lab as an applied scientist and practitioner.

Alena Wohl

Alena graduated from FSU in the spring of 2022 with degrees in psychology and criminology. Beginning in the fall of 2022, she will be continuing her education at San Jose State University's graduate program.

At SJSU, she is pursuing a Master of Science in Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology degree. Broadly, she is interested in how different leadership styles impact group and organization productivity. On José's team, Alena worked on several projects related to social hierarchy and how different kinds of leaders (e.g., dominance- versus prestige- oriented) interact with and respond to group members and subordinates. Her long-term career goal is to pursue a career in human resources management with a focus on recruitment in organizational contexts.

Alena worked with José's team from 2020-2022.

Madelynn ("Maddy") Dittman

Maddy is graduating in summer 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a minor in statistics, and a SAS data analysis and visualization programming certification.

Beginning in the fall of 2022, she will be working as a clinical research coordinator.

During her time on Jose’s team, Maddy served as a project coordinator for a number of José’s projects. The work Maddy supervised include projects on individual differences that predict leadership selection, and how adversity in childhood is associated with decision-making in adulthood.

Maddy worked on José's team from 2020-2022.

Emma Robbins

Emma participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at FSU from 2021-2022. While in UROP, she joined José's team to examine how adversity in childhood is associated with the long-term decisions people make in adulthood.

She is broadly interested in human social behavior. At FSU, Emma is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree. She hopes to use her degree in conjunction with a pre-law track for entertainment law as a music supervisor in the film industry.

Resa Nabal

Hi, my name is Resa Nabal. I am a recent graduate of Florida State University, where I received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in family and child sciences from the College of Arts and Sciences. I am currently a research assistant at the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) where I am assisting on several projects studying linguistics and literacy in young children. I worked with José's team on several projects examining the antecedents and consequences of costly, altruistic punishment in groups.

I will be applying to graduate school, where I plan to pursue a clinical Psy.D degree. With a Psy.D, I plan to pursue a future career in clinical therapy and counseling with children.

Notable members of the current team

Yunsu Lee

Yunsu is a senior at Florida State University, where he is majoring in psychology with a minor in general business. His long-term goals include going to graduate school for a social psychology PhD.

Yunsu is most interested in the dynamics of how people interact and how such interactions can have downstream consequences for their future. During the summer of 2022, Yunsu was a retail management intern at CVS pharmacy. During his time as an intern with CVS, Yunsu implemented several practices (e.g., poster designing and the use of positive reinforcement techniques) to encourage postiive interactions and greater involvement from his colleagues at his CVS branch store. Consequently, his branch store saw an increase of 10% in sales and paid membership programs.

Yunsu has been on José's team since the summer of 2022. During his time working with José, he has assisted on projects assessing peoples' life goals and their goal's time horizons and on projects examining the motivations for punishing wrongdoers.

Hannah Gendusa

Hannah just completed her sophomore year in the Honors College program at FSU, and will be a rising junior in the fall. Hannah is participating in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at FSU this year.

While in UROP, Hannah has worked on José's team to test competing hypotheses pertaining to the cognitive processes driving punishment behavior. Post-UROP, Hannah plans on continuing research with José to ultimately apply the psychological principles she learns through his research to her dream career as a critical care physician's assistant.

Along with completing prerequisites for the PA master's program, you will find Hannah volunteering with FSU's Medical Response Unit or re-watching Criminal Minds for the fifteenth time.

Lucas Prodromou

Hello! My name is Lucas, and I am a current senior at FSU studying psychology with a minor in childhood development, and I am pursuing a career in clinical psychology. I am a research assistant on José's team and in the Schmidt lab where I am studying the causes and consequences of anxiety. I am also a Learning Assistant (LA) for college algebra in the department of Mathematics at FSU. Outside of the lab, I love spending time with my cats, a good walk outdoors, and great conversations!

Sophia ("Soph") Persichini

Sophia joined José's team during her freshman year at Florida State University as a resarch assistant through her participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) in the fall of 2022.

During her time on José's team, she has assisted on several projects examining the antecedents and consequences of costly altruistic punishment decisions. This semester (spring 2023), she is working with José and her UROP group to create a presentation for FSU's spring research symposium. Moreover, Sof was one (of two) presenters at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC); you can find a summary and picutures of her time there below.

Sophia is majoring in political science with plans to receive an additional bachelor's degree in philosophy. Her long-term, post-graduation goal is to attend law school and pursue entertainment/art law. When Sophia is not on campus, she maintains a passion for the fine arts. She hopes to use her artistic skills and her research experiences examining social decision-making throughout her studies and career.

Sarah Jenkins

Hello, my name is Sarah! I am a sophomore at FSU, studying cell and molecular neuroscience with a minor in biological science. Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), I am examining factors within the person (e.g., dominance and prestige) and situation (public versus private contexts) interact to predict unique punishment decisions among people working in groups. I also have interests in the downstream consequences of childhood experiences when it comes to decision-making in adulthood. My long-term goal is to attend medical school and pursue a career in neurology. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer, walking my dog, and being with family and friends.

Danielle Cruz

Danielle is currently finishing her second year at Florida State University, where she is double-majoring in Psychology and Criminology on a Pre-Law track. In the future, she hopes to pursue law school and practice civil rights law, to which she plans on using her knowledge in psychology to thrive in this field.

She participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) at Florida State University from 2023-2024. While in UROP, she joined José's team to study how certain decision-making mechanisms can affect cooperative behavior in groups. She plans to continue working in José’s lab under Direct Independent Study (DIS) in Fall 2024 so as to further her knowledge of underlying motives within groups and to better evaluate human social behavior.

Danielle believes that motivations play a big part in the legal system, and her passions reside in gaining psychological insight on such decision-making factors in order to tie study analysis into real-life problems/solutions in her career journey. Some of her current outside involvements include Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity, Florida Student Public Interest Research Group, & FSU’s 76th Student Senate.