Undergraduate Research Assistants
Jule Boeckmann
Jule is our newest lab member! She was born and raised in Germany. Because she loved learning English in high school and did competitive rowing since the age of 12, she decided to study in the US where she could row on a varsity team and study at the same time. Enter Rutgers! June is currently a senior in psychology with a minor in cognitive science. Since transferring to Rutgers, she has become more interested in the study of the mind and language. Her goal after graduation is to gain practical experience through internships in research institutions/clinics, and then to pursue a Masters degree in either childhood and developmental learning or psycholinguistics. Outside of school, Jule loves baking all sorts of things, crafts, and going to concerts.
Maya Brisman
Maya is a junior at Rutgers University pursuing a major in linguistics and a minor in psychology, and a speech and hearing certificate. She aspires to become a speech pathologist and work in a hospital, and hopefully one day create her own private practice. She loves working with kids. She has worked at day cares and day camps for the past 4 years working with ages 3 months to up to 5 years old, so she is very excited to take a deep dive into researching language development. On campus Maya is the secretary of the speech and hearing club, secretary and recruitment chair of Rutgers Jewish Experience, the parents and alumni chair of her social sorority Phi Sigma Sigma, and a scarlet ambassador. You might spot her conducting tours for prospective students. Outside of school, Maya loves traveling, Starbucks, and bar method.
Vaishnavi Elanchezhian
Vaishnavi is a junior majoring in Cognitive Science and Linguistics, as well as minoring in Korean. She is interested in language acquisition, specifically the relationship between syntax and semantics, and hopes to pursue a career in computational linguistics. She is a member of the Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club and hopes to join other clubs as well. Outside of school, Vaishnavi enjoys baking, writing, and spending time with her dog Simba.
Alanna Goodger
Alanna a senior majoring in Cognitive Science and Linguistics and minoring in Psychology. She is one of six children and is an identical twin. (We can never distinguish her from her twin in pictures! We've tried!) In her free time, Alanna loves to drink tea and harass her cat Stink for affection (though she admits, he's usually not very enthusiastic about her advances). Alanna's research interests include child language acquisition and the semantics-pragmatics interface, and she has a deep passion for teaching and working with children and have done so for several years. After graduation, her goal is to obtain a position as an RA or lab manager in a linguistics lab to gain more experience in the field before eventually applying for a Ph.D. in Linguistics.
Deshik Iyengar
Deshik is a junior triple majoring in Linguistics, Philosophy, and French and minoring in Cognitive Science. He is interested in child language acquisition and second language acquisition, specifically within the domains of pragmatics and semantics. He hopes to one day earn a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Outside of classes, Deshik is part of SageTech, an ed-tech startup working on developing VR supplemental lessons for high schoolers. He is also in a multi-genre Indian band called Swara where he plays tabla, and is a member of the IDEA program at Rutgers. Deshik enjoys playing/listening to music, reading, creative writing, and watching tennis in his free time.
Hanna Murphy
Hanna is a senior pursuing a double major in Cognitive Science and Linguistics with a Certificate in Speech and Hearing Sciences. Hanna does not shy away from challenges. She is currently writing her senior honors thesis. She is on the Rutgers Women's Rowing team. She won the B1G Championships her freshman year, becoming part of the first boat in the history of Rutgers University to accomplish this title! After graduation, Hanna plans to attend a graduate program in Speech Language Pathology with the goal of becoming a Speech Language Pathologist.
Jamie Oliver
Jamie is a sophomore double majoring in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, and may take on a minor in History or Mathematics. She has a dog named Cooper that her family adopted from a high-kill shelter in North Carolina. In her free time, Jamie loves to hike, make ceramics, and learn to play the guitar. After her time at Rutgers, she hopes to attend graduate school, earn a Ph.D. in Linguistics or Cognitive Science, and continue to learn and research all of the facets of language, perhaps one day teaching at a university.
Khushi Shah
Khushi is a junior double majoring in Psychology and Cognitive Science and minoring in Linguistics at Rutgers. She's mainly interested in cognitive development and plans to pursue a PhD in the area. Outside of classes, Khushi is on the executive board of the Cognitive Science club and is preparing to teach her own class in Cognitive Science as a peer instructor. She's also currently preparing for her senior honors thesis on numerical cognition. In her free time, she's an amateur poet who dabbles in a little bit of singing and has been getting back into reading.
Madison Skibicki
Madison is a senior majoring in Linguistics with the Speech and Hearing Certificate and pursuing a Psychology minor. After graduating, she plans to go to graduate school to become a Speech-Language Pathologist and work with children or adults, and maybe have her own private practice one day. Madison has spent her summers worked as a sleepaway camp counselor for children, and continues to involve herself at Rutgers through her sorority, the sign language club and the speech and hearing club. Outside of academics, you can find Madison going on walks, participating in yoga, or painting and drawing.
