April 2026
Sixteen highly promising undergraduate students participated in the Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop during the 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. The competitive program introduces participants to the field of education research, key areas of inquiry, and pathways for professional development.
Selected through a rigorous application process, this year’s participants were students conducting research with faculty members or pursuing research projects as part of their undergraduate studies. The cohort represented a range of disciplines across the humanities and behavioral and social sciences, including economics, psychology, and sociology. All participants plan to pursue a doctorate degree and focus on an education research topic.
The workshop featured lectures and interactive sessions led by senior scholars on saliant topics such as the use of large-scale federal and state longitudinal data and the connection between research, policy, and practice. Participants also received career advice and had opportunities to engage with graduate students, faculty, and other researchers attending the Annual Meeting.
As part of the program, students presented their work during a poster session, gaining valuable feedback from members of the education research community. Their projects spanned a wide range of topics, including civics education, early childhood literacy, teacher quality, STEM education, and the use of AI in the classroom. Poster titles are listed in the table below. Presentations are currently available in the AERA i-Presentation Gallery for Annual Meeting registrants and will be made publicly available in August.
“The Undergraduate Student Workshop is key to AERA’s efforts to build research capacity and support professional development,” said George L. Wimberly, AERA director of professional development and workshop chair. “These students represent the next generation of scholars advancing rigorous education research.”
AERA will begin accepting proposals this fall for the 2027 Undergraduate Workshop, which will be held at the 2027 Annual Meeting in Toronto. Questions can be directed to fellowships@aera.net.
2026 Undergraduate Workshop Participants
Name
Institution
Poster Title
Liz Andrade Varela
Davidson College
Lived Experiences and the Crisis of (Dis)belief in Education: The Reality at Public Schools in Salvador, Brazil
Salma Baksh
Smith College
Why is Youth Civic Engagement So Low? Civics Amnesia and Other Educational Barriers
Catalina Bonanata
New York University
Everyday Science and Gendered Practices in Latine Families of Young Children
Caludia Castruita
University of California – Los Angeles
En sus propias palabras: Understanding the Postsecondary Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Latinas in California
Sam Ferraez Diaz
“No one wants to be within this system”: The Importance of Critical Consciousness in Reclaiming a Liberated Identity Post Incarceration
LaNaiah Frieson
Duke University
Accessibility as a Determinant of STEM Persistence in Early Education
Cal Kreuter
Occidental College
Mapping Educational Inequality: The COVID-19 Impact on St. Louis Public Education
Iris Lazo-Cruz
University of the District of Columbia
Propelling Youth Towards Anti-Racist Action: The Role of Family and School Ethnic Racial Socialization
Henry Lee
Northwestern University
Different Ways of Coping, Different Ways of Learning: How Adaptation Shapes Transferable Skills in Military Conscription
Evelyn Li
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Navigating Early Language Development: The Role of Maternal Education and Cash Assistance in Low-Income Families
Nora Ngo Mitchell
Harvard University
“The Lifeblood of Our Community:” Understanding Historic Black High Schools & Race-Restrictive Education Policy
Madison Peroutka
Vanderbilt University
Evaluating Approaches to Advising Students’ Studying Experiences: An Application of Language Analysis Techniques
Joanna Rydberg
Exploring Features of Book Difficulty in Read Alouds with Preschool Children
Timothy Sims
They Know What They Need: Student Perceptions of “Good Teachers”
Helena Tran
University of California – Irvine
Using AI to Combat Math Anxiety
Rachel Williams
Texas A&M University
Developmental Language Disorder: Exploring the Diagnostic Accuracy of Parent & Teacher Reports of Bilingual Children’s Language Proficiency