Gil Interns

Our Karen M. Gil Internship in Psychology has accepted 13 Gil interns for Spring 2023! Learn more about our current class of Gil Interns and their placement sites below.

Easwar, Vishal
Class of 2024
Behavioral & Integrative Neuroscience Intern
UNC Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratories
warvish@email.unc.edu

Vishal Easwar is a junior from Greensboro, North Carolina pursuing a B.S. in psychology and neuroscience as well as a creative writing minor in the fiction concentration. He has been a research assistant in Dr. Kurt Gray’s Deepest Beliefs Lab, where he analyzed trends in supernatural attributions in cross-cultural ethnographic records, and with Dr. Brenna Maddox and Dr. Clare Harrop in studying biomarkers of suicide risk in female autistic adolescents. Over the summer, he also worked as a behavior technician to learn about applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy. Through these experiences, Vishal has developed a passion for delivering individual needs-based therapy, particularly with children on the autism spectrum and with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Drawing from past personal experiences, he recognized a gap in scientific literature and therefore is also currently working on an independent research project with Dr. Jeffrey A. Greene to untangle the effects of socioeconomic biases on beliefs of intelligence in students and teachers. In the future, he plans to attend graduate school to further his research on the track of academia. In his free time, Vishal enjoys reading and writing fiction, spending time outdoors, playing badminton, and spending time with his family.

Foglesong, Mia
Class of 2024
Behavioral & Integrative Neuroscience Intern
RTI International
miaf116@ad.unc.edu

Mia Foglesong is a junior from Durham, North Carolina. They are double majoring in psychology and neuroscience. Mia is a research assistant in both the Herman Lab led by Dr. Melissa Herman working on a psychedelic, psilocin, to see how alterations in inhibitory networks contribute to psychiatric disorders as well as the Positive Emotion and Psychophysiology Lab led by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson working on the relationship between positivity resonance and macrosystems as well as interoception and nutritional quality. In addition, they help with the QUEST project led by Dr. Hill Hall that is interested in the trajectories of queer experience outcomes of coming out and mental health challenges. They are particularly interested in how our neurobiology can explain the relationship between our socioeconomic environments and emotions and social behaviors. They intend to pursue a Ph.D. Outside of academics, they enjoy playing piano (classically trained), playing ultimate frisbee, and photography.

Giulumian, Gabriela
Class of 2025
Clinical Psychology Intern
Holly Hill Hospital
ggiulumian@unc.edu

Gabriela Giulumian is a sophomore (junior standing) from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, double majoring in psychology (B.S.) and mathematics (B.A.) with a minor in neuroscience. She is interested in determining the mechanisms behind physical and behavioral manifestations of psychological disorders, specifically, eating disorders and mood/personality disorders. In summer of 2022, she worked at Camp Akeela in Vermont, a camp for kids who have been diagnosed with the autism spectrum disorder or have generalized struggles making meaningful social connections. There, she worked alongside passionate staff members to help guide and support the kids in their social development process, while ensuring a safe and comfortable environment for them. Here at UNC, she is involved in eating disorder advocacy, attempting to increase the support and resources available to students struggling with disordered eating thoughts and/or habits. Unfortunately, several eating disorders go unidentified due to dangerously normalized diet culture promoted by hyper-productivity and perfectionism. Her goal is to help reduce the risk of onset here at Carolina and start conversations on this campus about the triggers and detrimental effects they can produce. In the future, Gabriela hopes to aid in finding generally successful treatment methods for mental disorders that currently lack in sustainability. Further, she wants to pursue a career in healthcare where she can analyze and treat patients.

Journeycake, Jack
Class of 2024
Clinical Psychology Intern
Lepage Associates
jcake22@ad.unc.edu

Jack Journeycake is a junior from Mendham, New Jersey majoring in psychology and minoring in cognitive science. He is currently working as a research assistant on two separate studies under Jonathan Abramowitz’s Anxiety Lab. The first is a meta-analysis investigating predictors of the different dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the second investigates the relationship between a therapist and their client as well as how that benefits the outcome of the overall therapeutic process. Besides research, Jack also volunteers at the UNC Hospital. There, he interacts with adolescent psychiatric inpatients during therapeutic activities and assists the patients with basic needs and support. With psychology being an immense passion, Jack aspires to go to graduate school and obtain either his Ph.D. or Psy.D. in clinical psychology to further his passion and to strive to break the negative stigma surrounding mental illness. Jack is completely fascinated with the therapeutic process and how research-based treatments can allow individuals to overcome internal mental struggles. In his free time, Jack enjoys being active with friends, playing basketball, playing soccer, and watching funny movies!

Kunchanapalli, Samanyu
Class of 2024
Cognitive Psychology Intern
UNC Kenan-Flagler (Kuhnen Lab)
samanyu@email.unc.edu

Samanyu is a junior from Apex, NC studying neuroscience and statistics. He found his interest in merging math and neuroscience through the data analytics work he did with AMPLab. In the future he hopes to continue to apply math to neuroscience. This is the type of work he is undertaking at Kenan-Flagler through the Gil Program where he applies these methods to study economic decision making. In his free time, he is interested in watching sports and playing the piano.

Leon, Yulee
Class of 2023
Quantitative Psychology Intern
innovation Research & Training (iRT)
yulee@live.unc.edu

Yulee Leon (she/hers) is a senior from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina majoring in psychology (B.S.) with a data science minor. In fall 2021, she studied abroad through the Honors Semester in London program. While there she interned at the National Literacy Trust where she helped conduct research on multilingual readers and writers in the UK. This past summer, Yulee was an intern at the Carolina Population Center where she worked with the Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity and Socioeconomic Status team. She is interested in creating better metrics to measure human attention online and how to ethically make use of existing online data for psychological research. Yulee is currently on the Student Advisory Council for the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid where she gives feedback on student experiences and is helping create personal finance tools for students. In her free time Yulee enjoys reading, riding her bike, playing chess with her roommates, and occasionally painting with oil or watercolor.

Li, Tianyi
Class of 2023
Clinical Psychology Intern
UNC Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Community Clinic
tianyiii@live.unc.edu

Tianyi Li is a senior from Liaoning, China double majoring in psychology and statistics. She has been a research assistant in the Child Imaging Research on Cognition and Life Experiences Lab since Spring 2021, where she helps with studies focusing on how exposure to early life adversity impacts child development. During her time in the lab, she was responsible for various tasks including coding parent-child interaction videos and recruiting participants. She received the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2022 for a research project on the concurrent associations between parenting behaviors and child psychopathology. She then continued pursuing her research interest in the parental influences on child development and is currently working on an honor thesis project studying the longitudinal impacts of preschool parenting behaviors on adolescent psychopathology and the moderating role of early adversity experiences. After graduation, Tianyi plans on further exploring her research interest and eventually pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology specializing in child and adolescent psychopathology.

Mani, Amrita
Class of 2023
Clinical Psychology Intern
Threshold Clubhouse
amrisus@live.unc.edu

Amrita Mani is a senior from Fayetteville, North Carolina. She is pursuing a B.S. in psychology with minors in Spanish and chemistry. Since 2021, she has served as a research assistant in the Carolina Affective Science Lab (CASL), led by Dr. Kristen Lindquist, where she explores how emotion and affect interact with the relationship between perceived discrimination and cardiovascular/mental health. She also works closely with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities like Angelman Syndrome through clinical trials at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. These roles were instrumental in directing her interests toward a future in pediatrics where she aims to work toward bettering health outcomes for all children, especially by targeting language and disability accessibility. In her free time, Amrita takes her cat, Frankie, on walks (Frankie’s absolute favorite activity), crochets, and convinces her friends to watch the latest thrillers with her at Silverspot.

Miskolczi, Abigél
Class of 2023
Developmental Psychology Intern
UNC Mother Infant Research Studies
miskoabi@ad.unc.edu

Abigél Miskolczi is a senior from Budapest, Hungary, majoring in psychology and biology with a minor in chemistry. She has been interested in psychology and the human brain since high school. She is passionate about two distinct areas in psychology. She aspires to discover brain circuits that underlie potentially abnormal behavior observed in patients with a variety of psychological disorders. More specifically, she hopes to find biological circuit lever markers for neurodevelopmental conditions. Her desire to contribute to treatment further sparks her interest in clinical psychology. While she is motivated to explore biological causes of behavior, she is also dedicated to providing treatment in the form of therapy as well. To gain a better understanding of the brain, she became a research assistant at NIRAL, where she assists in the processing of MRI scans of children. Her fascination with the brain served as a catalyst to apply to graduate school where she hopes to explore and dissect brain circuits or alternatively, become a therapist. Outside of school, she enjoys rock climbing, playing volleyball, and spending time outdoors. Finally, she considers herself an artist who loves playing the piano (which she learned completely by herself) and drawing.

Morneau, Julia
Class of 2023
Clinical Psychology Intern
3-C Family Services
juliaem@live.unc.edu

Julia Morneau (she/her) is a senior undergraduate student from Wilton, Connecticut majoring in psychology with a minor in chemistry. At UNC, Julia has been involved with adolescent mental health research as a research assistant at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. During summer 2022, she gained experience in clinical and developmental psychology as an intern at the Child Mind Institute in New York City. Motivated by personal experiences, Julia first became involved in child and adolescent mental health in high school, where she started a non-profit focused on mental health education and stigma reduction in Wilton, CT. Julia also leads the Roosevelt Policy Club’s Healthcare sector, where she is currently advocating for improvements to the structure of mental health resources at UNC. Beyond her clinical interests, Julia loves to paint and try new foods. After completing her undergraduate degree, Julia hopes to attend medical school to become a dual pediatrician-psychiatrist to help children living with mental health disorders receive the care they need to thrive.

Sidelinger, Lauren
Class of 2023
Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience Intern
Teledyne Scientific
lside@live.unc.edu

Lauren Sidelinger is a senior from Shallotte, North Carolina majoring in Neuroscience with minors in Chemistry and Computer Science. Since her freshman year, she has been working under Dr. Flavio Frohlich in the Carolina Center for Neurostimulation. Her previous research has investigated the stability of resting-state brain activity biomarkers using a consumer-grade neuroimaging device. She is currently pursuing an honors thesis project looking at the effects of neurostimulation on brain dynamics and reward-seeking behavior in patients with major depressive disorder. Lauren is interested in studying the cause of psychiatric and neurological disorders and the development of neuroscience-based treatments for these diseases. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school to study neuroimaging techniques and treatment development for neurodegenerative disorders. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, watching scary movies, and going to concerts and shows.

Thiongo, Sandra
Class of 2024
Clinical Psychology Intern
UNC Tobacco Treatment Program (via Cancer Center)
sthiongo@email.unc.edu

Sandra Thiongo is a junior at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in psychology (B.S.) and minoring in statistics and analytics. Her parents are Kenyan, and she grew up in a large Kenyan American community back home in Atlanta, GA. Her primary involvement at the university includes serving as the Finance Chair for The Organization For African Students’ Interests and Solidarity and dancing for Zankiliwa’s (UNC’s African dance team) general and competition team. Regarding research, she is most interested in pursuing projects in clinical and cognitive psychology, with a focus on minority populations. She currently interns for the Grady Trauma Project based at Emory University School of Medicine. Her current team is studying the effects of pregnancy on post-traumatic symptoms and fear physiology in traumatized African American women. Past research she conducted included studying the effects of medical marijuana on neurological disorders (2017); studying whether eyewitness testimony should determine the fates of those accused in the criminal justice system, focusing on the impact of memory and perception (2018); and studying the effects of visual and auditory sources of misinformation on explicit memory in adults (2018-2020). In her free time, she enjoys yoga, dancing, discovering new music, and watching basketball (UNC basketball of course!).

Tuinstra, Natalie
Class of 2024
Social Psychology Intern
CareYaya
njt0811@email.unc.edu

Natalie Tuinstra is a junior from Wilmington, North Carolina pursuing a B.S. in information science and psychology, with a minor in cognitive science. Her main interest lies in industrial and organizational psychology and studying how to improve the life satisfaction of employees and the efficiency of organizations. Since summer 2021, she has worked on several different studies in Dr. Sara Algoe’s Emotions and Social Interactions in Relationships (EASIR) Lab. She was a lead research assistant for the First Year and Beyond (FAB) Study, which investigates first year students’ personal, social, and academic experience on campus. In her sophomore year, she developed an independent research proposal with this lab questioning how an empathy intervention may be an effective strategy for improving interpersonal relationships and job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Currently, she is a research assistant in Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology (PEP) Lab, where she codes for instances of positivity resonance in romantic couples. In this lab, she has also completed an independent research project on how prioritizing positivity impacts our well-being. Natalie’s family is from the Netherlands, and she is interested in understanding why they are some of the happiest people in the world. Over the summer, she took a course on mindfulness and compassion-based interventions at the University of Amsterdam. In the future, she hopes to pursue a PhD in industrial-organizational psychology, with a specific focus on applied positive psychology. In her free time, Natalie enjoys going to concerts, baking, and watching documentaries.