Pre-Grad Events Fall 2023

Mitali Temurnikar (she, her)

Mitali is a current doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology program at Boston University (BU). She earned an M.Phil.Ed. in Professional Counseling and an M.S.Ed. in Counseling and Mental Health Services from the University of Pennsylvania. Her professional background spans various sectors in India and the US, including hospitals, non-profits, and recruiting firms. During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, Mitali was involved in areas such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Psychological Safety, Trauma-Informed Counseling, and Career Counseling. She was recognized with the Excellence in Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award in May 2023. Mitali’s current Ph.D. research at BU focuses on technology-driven global career counseling modules, increasing mental health awareness in underserved communities, while also alongside getting trained to be a Licensed Psychologist. 

Siling Guo (she, her)

Siling is a second-year Ph.D. student in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine specializing in the area of Human Development in Context. Siling’s primary focus is on understanding how early interventions designed to improve children’s skills or environment will make persistent changes in their learning and developmental outcomes. Siling’s passion for early education and development led her to earn a master’s in Human Development from Penn Graduate School of Education. Past experiences with various educational interventions exposed Siling to the links between school-based interventions, child development, and education policy, especially for underserved children. Furthermore, Siling’s academic work is built upon her undergraduate pursuits in early childhood education and psychology, during which she gained classroom experience and background as a teacher, researched teacher-child interaction, and designed early education curricula.

Lakshay Sharma (he, him)

Lakshay is a current third year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, specializing in autonomous high speed robot navigation. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2021 with a BSE in Computer Engineering and Physics, an MS in Physics and Astronomy and an MSE in Robotics. Penn was the perfect place for him to explore his varied interests in observational astrophysics, high power rocketry, sleep research, human machine interfaces, and autonomous robotics. While the expansive range of research, class and club projects helped narrow down his interests, Penn’s Graduate and Professional Advising resources helped consolidate his application to grad school. His current projects focus on perception-aware motion planning for social robot navigation and off-road ground robot navigation.

Sarah Payne (she, they)

Sarah is a second-year Ph.D. student in Linguistics at Stony Brook University, where they hold the Institute for Advanced Computational Science Graduate Research Fellowship and an NSF GRFP fellowship. Sarah graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2022. At Penn, Sarah majored in Linguistics and CIS with a minor in Cognitive Science. They were heavily involved in research as an undergrad, participating in the PURM program and presenting their work at several conferences. Sarah also enjoys teaching and worked as a peer tutor at the Marks Family Writing Centre, a TA for several CIS courses, and a TA trainer in SEAS. Outside of academics, Sarah was heavily involved in activism at Penn: she was the Chair of Penn’s Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) group and held a seat on the University Council, through which they advocated for policy reform around issues of sexual and interpersonal violence.

Roseanne Davila-Rivera (she, her)

Roseanne graduated in 2018 with a BS in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla Campus. During college, she did research for two years thanks to Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP). She was involved in several outreach initiatives and community service through her participation in different associations including American Chemical Society (ACS), National Biological Honor Society-βββ Zeta-Lambda Chapter, Medicine, Education and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere (MEDLIFE), American Red Cross and Childhood Cancer Association (CCA). Roseanne started to develop a passion for teaching and mentoring, which she had the opportunity to put in practice by volunteering in the ACS Schools Visits Committee and in #PrettyIncredible: “Inspiring girls to change the world through STEM” social action committee. During summer 2017, she completed a summer internship with Short Term Research Experience for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Baylor College of Medicine and participated in Texas Children’s Hospital Summer Volunteer Program. When she graduated, Roseanne joined the NIH Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program in the University of Georgia where she worked for one year. Then, she applied to graduate school and started her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. She works in the laboratory of Dr. Michael S. Marks in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As a graduate student, she is committed to increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in science. Therefore, she has been involved in initiatives such as Project SHORT (Students for Higher-Ed Opportunities and Representation in Training) and Road2Research (R2R). In addition, she has developed teaching and mentoring skills through programs such as Polygence and UPenn Biomedical Research Academy. Finally, Roseanne had the opportunity to participate in the Career Exploration Fellowship (CEF) program in 2023, where she was mentored by Dr. Ariana Alexander at UPenn Career Services to explore a career in academic advising. This led her to apply to the Ph.D. Professionalism Fellow position to lead the CEF program 2023-2024, which she is currently assuming.