Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Resources

We have multiple ways that the Child Study Center provides support to students. Some methods of support are limited to Psychology students.

  • Breakfast with Child Study Center speakers. We have a group of four to seven graduate students join our speakers for breakfast at the Nittany Lion Inn. Not limited to Psychology students. Contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu for more information.
  • Families Interested In Research STudies database. The FIRSt Families database was conceived as a university-wide vehicle for Penn State researchers to recruit infant and child study participants. If you are a researcher at Penn State University and would like more information about the FIRSt database, a copy of the FIRSt guidelines, or an application to use the FIRSt database for recruitment purposes, please contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu.

The following options are only available to Psychology students:

  • Travel, research and training funding. Endowments to the Child Study Center allow us to provide funding to Psychology graduate students whose research focuses on child psychology for: travel and other costs related to research conference attendance; masters and dissertation research costs; and travel and other costs related to training workshops. Contact Nancy English at  for an application.
  • Strumpf Scholars Award.  The Strumpf Scholar Award recognizes outstanding performance and excellence in graduate studies in Psychology in areas of research aligned with the Child Study Center.  It is designed to promote graduate research productivity by supplementing graduate assistantships and providing selected students with additional support to enhance their research and professional development.  Recipients of this award receive two years of support.  This support includes an award similar in amount to summer wages for two years to allow students to focus fully on their research during the summer, and an additional $2,000 to support research-related costs. Contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu for more information.
  • The Irene E. Harms Graduate Scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts. This award recognizes the outstanding academic potential of students who strive for academic excellence in one or more of three areas of child psychology: translational science, community-engaged research, and outreach to communities. Translational science includes research that bridges basic science and real-world applications and includes policy research. Child Clinical and Developmental graduate students in the Department of Psychology can apply for this award. The Irene E. Harms Award can be used for a variety of research-related activities and costs for translational research, community-engaged research, or community outreach. This includes but is not limited to: collecting or analyzing data; eliciting expert consultation; article or grant writing with community partners; covering a portion of the student’s summer salary; professional development workshops or events; conducting focus groups; collecting qualitative data; software packages for analyzing qualitative data; paying wages for an undergraduate coder; etc. Contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu for more information.
  • CSC Graduate Research Assistantship. The Child Study Center Graduate Research Assistant provides a Psychology graduate student with the opportunity to observe and contribute to research infrastructure activities, including support for faculty grant development, thus providing a unique and valuable professional development experience.  The position is intended for outstanding graduate students who have career aspirations in areas of interdisciplinary research and translational science. This is a one-year Research Assistantship, carrying a stipend and tuition remission. Contact Laureen Teti at Lot1@psu.edu for an application.