Communicating Neuroscience: Mental Health Data Visualization
Meeting Day/Time: Monday and Wednesday, 5:30PM-7:30PM CST 
Instructor: Ashleigh Maxcey, Ph.D.

Software Requirement: Desktop version of Microsoft Excel

Did you know a primary reason people think they are visual learners is because visual memory is far better than memory for words? That means visualizing data is one of the best ways to communicate important information. Did you know that half of teens will struggle with a mental health issue? In this mentor immersion experience, we will combine learning about mental health and data visualization. In this hands-on, interactive mentorship, you will dive into the world of psychology and neuroscience, learning about a new mental health issue each week, reading relevant journal articles, statistics, and diagnostic criteria, and then leveraging Excel to create accurate, compelling, and meaningful data visualizations to professionally communicate the science of mental health to the public. You will develop essential skills and expertise in Excel, a staple tool in college and beyond, as you are challenged to effectively illustrate symptoms, comorbidity, prevalence, treatments, and outcomes related to various diagnoses. Each week, you will master a new type of data visualization, from overlapping bar charts to bump charts, while developing a keen eye for spotting poor data visualizations by analyzing examples of ineffective or inaccurate visualizations and learning how to avoid common pitfalls while maintaining the integrity of the data. By connecting numbers to a narrative, you will craft compelling stories that educate the public about neuroscience and raise awareness of diverse mental health issues. For the culminating final project, you will submit a diverse portfolio of unique visualizations created to compellingly simplify complicated neuroscientific literature accurately. Ultimately, this mentorship will equip you with sought-after data visualization skills and expertise in Excel, giving you a leg up for college, and teaching you skills you can apply to any field outside neuroscience. Your learning journey will be couched in a dynamic and supportive academic atmosphere where collaboration and creativity are encouraged.

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Instructor Bio: Dr. Ashleigh Maxcey (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer & Research Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department. In her laboratory, Dr. Maxcey studies memory and forgetting. She earned her PhD and MA from the University of Iowa in Cognition & Perception and her BA from Purdue University. At Vanderbilt, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods, statistics, positive psychology, political psychology, cognitive psychology, and general psychology. She has a passion for helping students embrace topics they previously found daunting and bridging topics to applications outside the classroom. Outside of class, Dr. Maxcey enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, and walking her dog, Archie.

Dynamic Cells to Disease Cures: Using Stem Cells to Understand and Treat Rare Diseases 
Meeting Day/Time: TBA 
Instructor: Sudiksha Rathan Kumar, PhD

In 2012, Drs. Yamanaka and Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery that mature cells can be converted back to stem cells. More than a decade later, these discoveries have revolutionized the world of science and medicine. Stem cells serve an essential role in development, starting as blank canvasses and differentiating into everything from the firing neurons in our brain to our beating hearts. Now, we can use these building blocks to not only understand development but also study diseases and potentially cure them. In this mentorship, you will learn about the world of stem cell biomedical research, starting from the laboratory, moving to clinical trials, and ending at the patient’s bedside. You will learn about the role of stem cells in human development, moving on to how they are created in the laboratory and how we use them for research. The mentorship will then progress to how we move these therapeutics to clinical trials and how they can be utilized in the hospital. You will also be exposed to various topics essential to research, including ethics, data, scientific literature, and more. During this mentorship, students will also conduct their own research on a rare disease of choice, proposing ways to study and treat it with stem cells and intertwining the worlds of science and medicine.  

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Sudiksha Rathan Kumar is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her passion is using stem cells, gene therapy, and drug development to treat rare pediatric diseases. Originally from Bangalore, India, Sudiksha earned her BS in Biomedical Science and Forensic Science from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she conducted research on molecular biology and viral therapeutics. She then worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center researching rare gastrointestinal diseases and trafficking mechanisms before starting her graduate work. She earned her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Vanderbilt University in 2026, with her dissertation work focusing on using human-derived neural cells to understand and treat hypomyelinating leukodystrophies. Outside of lab, Sudiksha enjoys the outdoors, travel, cooking, reading, and spending time with her dog, Fuzzy. 

From Lab to Life: How Psychology Research Connects to our Development as People  
Meeting Day/Time: Wednesdays, 5:30PM to 8:00PM CST 
Instructor: Zachary Stuckelman, Ph.D.  

Developmental psychology researchers investigate all things related to human behavior from the simple motor reactions we have as infants to how we learn second languages as both children and adults to the impact of emotions on our performance in school or work. This mentorship is focused on introducing you to the field of social science research, specifically through the lens of developmental psychology and child development including how psychologists study human development and what the field of developmental psychology has helped us learn about ourselves and others. We will start the mentorship by introducing a variety of theories concerning how we develop our psychology (i.e., our emotions, our personalities, our preferences, etc.). We will then map various research methods involved in studying development and how they apply beyond the research lab context to our lives. We also will evaluate various statistical methods to understand how we transfer raw data in the social sciences to actual analyzable results. After establishing a foundation in developmental psychology research and methods, you will develop your own research study based on questions asked throughout the class. Through your own data collection and analysis, you will learn how psychology research can be used to explain changes throughout life and the role context plays in development. We will learn how discoveries in this field can impact our everyday life. If you are interested in child development, cognitive development, child studies, development psychology, and the practical implications of research on education, this mentorship is for you.  

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Dr. Zachary Stuckelman received his doctorate at Vanderbilt University in 2022 in Developmental Psychology. With a focus on how young children learn from digital media and technology, Zach has gained experience working with companies like Duolingo, Lovevery, and YouTube, among others. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist on the Impact and Innovation team at Great Minds, an organization dedicated to developing meaningful curriculum for teachers and students. He is very excited at the opportunity to teach PTY students!

Neuropsychology & Behavioral Medicine: Understanding the Connection Between Health & Well-Being
Meeting Day/Time: TBA
Instructor: Pietra Bruni, Ph.D.

Physical and emotional health are not two separate systems, as many scientists previously believed but are closely intertwined. This interaction is known as the Mind-Body connection, a relationship so important that it’s responsible for impacting nearly all of our bodily experiences! Our memory, energy levels, behavior, mood, sleep, and even our appetite are controlled by this dynamic and ever-evolving relationship. This mentorship will address the link between neuropsychology and behavioral medicine, focusing on the exciting and complex work that happens at the intersection of mind and medicine. Clinical neuropsychologists focus on the relationship between the brain and behavior, frequently working in the medical field to promote health and wellbeing. This subspeciality often overlaps with Behavioral Medicine, a newly developing area of study that explores the interplay of biological, psychological, medical, and social factors. Since behavioral medicine encompasses a deeply interdisciplinary approach that pulls from various disciplines (such as biology, immunology, neurology, and psychophysiology), you will begin the mentorship by learning about the nervous system and related physiological structures. From there, you will expand your knowledge of the biopsychosocial model, synthesizing relevant literature from the field, and learning more about cutting-edge health research. Specific topics that will be explored include the impact of stress on the body, the gut-brain connection, how neuroplasticity can re-wire our brain, the role of behavioral genetics, chronic pain, and more. This advanced content deep-dive will culminate in identifying your own research question (to be answered through data collection or advanced literature review) resulting in an independent research project that you design and execute yourself. Throughout this mentorship, you can expect advanced lectures, labs, extensive study, an introduction to clinical health resources used in the medical field, and guest lectures from fellow clinicians and research scientists. If you are interested in neuroscience, psychology, and medicine, this mentorship is for you! Together, we will bridge the gap between brain/ body relationships and explore the diverse fields of neuropsychology and behavioral medicine.

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Instructor Bio: Dr. Pietra Bruni is a geropsychologist at VA Boston Healthcare System and instructor at Harvard Medical School. She specializes in developing, researching, and implementing biopsychosocial interventions for an aging Veteran population at the intersection of physical and mental health. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BPhil/BS in Psychology and Film Studies, before joining the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University and earning her PhD in Clinical Psychological Science. Pietra’s research broadly examines how emotion is felt in the body. As physical sensations are a central aspect of emotional experience, she investigates this connection via embodiment and interoception across domains. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology at VA Connecticut Healthcare System/ Yale School of Medicine. Pietra received a Certificate in College Teaching from Vanderbilt and has assisted in leading numerous college-level courses. She has even won awards for finding creative ways to teach science! Pietra has previously designed and taught numerous courses and mentorships to gifted students through PTY, ranging from Biology of the Brain to Neuroscience 101. She is passionate about learning and finding innovative ways to explain complex topics. In her free time, Pietra enjoys hiking, gardening, and exploring the New England coffee scene.

The Psychology & Neuroscience of Happiness 
Meeting Time: Wednesdays at 5:30PM-8:00PM CST 
Instructor: Ashleigh Maxcey, Ph.D.  

Positive psychology is the study of exceeding baseline human potential. In their academic pursuits, psychologists who study happiness might ask questions such as: How do we define and achieve happiness? What increases the human capacity for joy, meaning, and hope? What are the traits of a positive institution? 

This immersion experience provides you the opportunity to explore positive psychology as an academic field of research while also allowing you the chance to understand and implement habits that can increase their personal joy, meaning, and hope in our post-covid world rich in anxiety and depression. By the end of the mentorship, you will have a better understanding of the academic field of positive psychology, including the peer-reviewed science behind the study of happiness. You will also learn about happiness tools that work based on research, the intersection of well-being and career paths, components of positive institutions, cultural differences in the pursuit of joy, and strategies to incorporate these lessons into college life and beyond. From successful leaders to compelling politicians to empathetic doctors, every future career path is enhanced using this science of happiness. This immersion experience will culminate in a professional presentation where you will select a particular institution or target population of interest and cater a Happiness 101 implementation plan on tangible directions, supported by empirical research, to introduce and implement positive psychology practices for their unique situation. 

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Instructor Bio: Dr. Ashleigh Maxcey (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer & Research Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department. In her laboratory, Dr. Maxcey studies memory and forgetting. She earned her PhD and MA from the University of Iowa in Cognition & Perception and her BA from Purdue University. At Vanderbilt, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods, statistics, positive psychology, political psychology, cognitive psychology, and general psychology. She has a passion for helping students embrace topics they previously found daunting and bridging topics to applications outside the classroom. Outside of class, Dr. Maxcey enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, and walking her dog, Archie.

The Secret Science of Electrochemistry 
Meeting Day/Time: TBA
Instructor: Hannah Richards, Ph.D.

Whether you’re sending a text, playing a video game, styling your hair, driving an electric vehicle, or treating your skin with a facial device, you’re harnessing the power of electrochemical reactions unfolding at the atomic level. From lithium-ion batteries powering Teslas to redox reactions inside your own body, electrochemistry drives much of the modern world—and its innovations are shaping the future of sustainable technology. In this mentorship, you’ll delve into the science behind how electrons move, react, and generate power. Starting with the fundamentals of atomic structure and oxidation-reduction reactions, you’ll uncover how the transfer of electrons governs processes from corrosion to clean energy technologies. Then you will apply your growing expertise to a collaborative project investigating the chemistry behind electric vehicle technology. You will research an electric vehicle manufacturer, design a presentation exploring its chemical foundations, and communicate how it contributes to a more sustainable future. By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of how electrochemistry powers both everyday devices and groundbreaking technologies, along with the ability to analyze and design electrochemical systems yourself. If you’re fascinated by the hidden chemistry that drives innovation and want to understand how electrons shape our modern world, this course is for you! 

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Hannah A. Richards received a B.S. in Chemistry from Austin Peay State University in 2022 and is a 2026 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Her research investigates inflammatory responses using newly developed electrochemical biosensors, with focus areas spanning electrochemistry, microfluidic organ-on-a-chip models, cell biology, and complex reproductive systems. She has over six years of experience teaching and mentoring youth in science and is passionate about educating rising scientists while fostering welcoming and collaborative learning experiences. In her personal time, she enjoys activities with her family and playing with her two yorkies. She is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM.

What should (A)I do? Artificial Intelligence at Intersection of Moral Psychology, Law, Medicine, and Ethics 
Meeting Day/Time: Wednesdays from 5:00PM-7:30PM CST 
Instructor: Nicolette Granata Biskup, Ph.D. 

One of the biggest hypothetical dilemmas in psychology, philosophy, law, medicine, and ethics is the “the trolley problem,” introduced by Phillipa Foot (Thomson, 1985). Essentially, a trolley driver faces an impossible decision when their trolley track is inevitably headed straight toward five workmen but is then presented with an alternate route: a track with only one workman on it. Whichever decision is made by the trolley driver, to stay the destined course or swerve, will kill the men/man on that track…”Is it morally permissible for the driver to turn the trolley?” This is a question that has spurred decades of debate and arises once again with undeniably life-changing implications for society as we know it. Autonomous (self-driving) vehicles, diagnosis of fatal medical conditions, diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities, and chatbots that promise to alter the course of your life for the better, all utilize artificial intelligence trained by human beings with the goal of making human-like decisions. The question begs, is it possible, or even just plain ethical, for an AI model to make human-like decisions? Ultimately, such a question gets to the core of our humanness – flawed, imperfect…but moral? 

Moral development is a fascinating and rich area of psychology where research has suggested that even infants demonstrate moral decision-making based on factors, such as intent, motive, and uncontrollable vs. controllable external factors (i.e., freedom of choice) (Joseph, 2016). The field of moral psychology has informed law (e.g., the merit of legal testimonies), medicine (e.g., medical malpractice), and technology (e.g., social media controls) in significant ways. In this mentorship, we will explore one of the modern world’s most embraced recourse and debated topic, artificial intelligence, in all these areas and more, using decades of moral psychology research to inform our conclusions on its strengths and limitations. You will be empowered to choose an AI advancement in an area that you are passionate about and become a content expert in its design, implementation, and ethics. If you want to become savvier in arguments related to artificial intelligence (one of the top college majors and competitive employment areas today) and enjoy diving into research on what makes humans “human”, this mentorship is for you! 

Note: Multiple perspectives (both popular and unpopular) will be examined and discussed for the purpose of building critical thinking skills and understanding or critiquing multiple viewpoints and data as well as incorporating and responding to classmates’ views and ideas. The ideas, readings and discussions are not necessarily the expressed views of the instructor, PTY, or VU. While we encourage students to engage in the orderly and civil exchange of diverse ideas and opinions, we expect that they will do so in a respectful way so that all participants feel welcome and safe.

Dr. Nicolette Biskup (recently married, with published research and other credentials under “Nicolette Granata”) is a proud “Triple-Dore”, successfully completing her Bachelor’s (magna cum laude and with highest honors), Master’s (during her PhD), and PhD from Vanderbilt University, with degrees in Psychology, Child Development, and Special Education. With a strong talent for teaching students at all levels, Dr. Biskup was invited to be a teaching assistant as soon as her second year of undergraduate and never turned back. She was later selected to teach other doctoral students best practices in college teaching for the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. She has attended and presented at national teaching conferences and guest lectured for multiple Vanderbilt courses. Dr. Biskup is a seasoned PTY instructor with glowing student feedback, often being asked to write letters of recommendation for multiple students per course. As a research scholar, Dr. Biskup is first author on nearly half a dozen scholarly articles in the field of developmental and moral psychology and recently published a first author paper in one of the highest calibers and most competitive journals in the field, Child Development. Dr. Biskup is the second or third author on many more highly cited papers by her longtime advisor, Dr. Jonathan Lane. Today, Dr. Biskup is a quickly emerging leader in the nonprofit space, invited to the Board of Directors for one nonprofit in the healthcare space, and currently working in leadership roles across two departments at another nonprofit, supporting grant writing, data collection, and direct service efforts to support adults with disabilities with advanced degrees in obtaining competitive employment. With more than a decade of experience teaching neurotypical and neurodivergent students, Dr. Biskup has a knack for supporting every learner and their individual needs. Dr. Biskup would be honored to bring her expertise and support to your academic journey!