Meet The Socioemotional Lab Alumni

Maribel García is a first-generation, Hispanic, second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of California, Riverside. Maribel graduated with her B.A. in Psychology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Spring 2022. She was a research assistant for the Socioemotional Lab from when the lab was established in Spring 2021 until Spring 2023. During her time at CPP, Maribel was the Social/Conference Chair of the PsiChi chapter, was an intern for mental health services at Pomona Unified School District, and worked as a teaching assistant at CPP as well. Maribel also conducted her senior research thesis in 2022 which was titled, Experiences of high school teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic: Teaching Methods and Mental Health. Currently, as a Ph.D. student in School Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, she plans to research and learn more about young children in special education programs. Outside of academia, Maribel loves Disney, traveling, hiking, and boba. Her most recent goal is to travel to at least one national park each year, if not more.

Omar Mendez is a first-generation 1st year doctoral student at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He served as a research assistant in Cal Poly Pomona's Socioemotional Research Lab from Spring 2021 to Spring 2022, as a peer mentor for the Male Success Initiative/Project SUCCESS, as a behavior interventionist for children with disabilities, and as an intern for the mental health department at Pomona Unified School District. Omar was also a member of Psi Chi and a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, where he researched Community-Cultural Wealth among First-Generation BIPOC English Language Learners in Higher Education. He hopes to complete his Ph.D. in School Psychology and work as a bilingual school psychologist. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music, traveling, and off-roading.

Luisa is a California Polytechnic State University, Pomona Alumni. She received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology in Spring 2021. However, Luisa continued her connections with CalPoly Pomona in 2022 as a Research Assistant in the Socioemotional Lab under Dr. Pumaccahua's leadership. She was also a Research Assistant for Dr. Fuqua, researching the effects of Faculty Learning Communities and HyFlex courses. She has presented at Lowell Overton, Pacific Sociological Association Conference, and Western Psychological Association Conference. Her enlightenment on child and parental resilience, social connections, developing children, and evidence-based programs have motivated her to pursue a graduate degree in School Psychology at CSU San Bernardino. She is currently growing her skills at Central School District as a practicum student.  During her free time, Luisa loves riding her bike, going to the beach, or spending time with family and her two kids.

Christian is a former Research Assistant of the Socioemotional Lab at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He received his B.A. in Psychology (class of 2021). He was born in Los Angeles but raised in Pomona for his entire life. Joining Dr. Pumaccahua’s lab was his first time being part of a research lab. He enjoyed the lab’s focus and was grateful to be under Dr. Pumaccahua’s mentorship. He would like to earn his M.S. as a stepping stone to building competence for a doctoral program. His terminal goal is to earn a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. After completing his education, Christian would like to get licensed as a psychologist and conduct research at a university. Some of his research interests include parental influence, multiculturalism, youth resilience, and protective factors. His current employment is working for the non-profit organization Just Us 4 Youth under the On-Point program. He focuses on providing mentorship to at-promise youth. He is grateful to be part of the Just Us 4 Youth team and all the incredible work they do for Pomona. In his free time, Christian enjoys playing soccer, watching movies from the drama section, and spending time with his significant other.

Evelyn was a research assistant in the Socioemotional lab at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona from the first day the lab was established in 2021. Evelyn was born and raised in Ensenada, Mexico until the age of 12. She was raised and has lived in Pomona, California since she was 15-years-old. She is a first generation student who majored in psychology, with the aspirations of pursing a PhD in graduate school for clinical or counseling psychology. Evelyn was a McNair Scholar and worked on her own research project that focused on DREAMer’s mental health challenges, supportive factors, and resiliency in higher education. In addition to her research involvement, Evelyn volunteered at the non-profit organization, Psyches of Color, where she was the youth lead chair for the Mentoring POC program. The program focused on providing mentorship to the Black and Latinx youth in a variety of areas such as their mental health, academics, self empowerment, and racial identity. Evelyn also completed a school applied practice at the Pomona Unified School District (PUSD). As part of this experience she provided family, school mental health, and student support services with a PUSD mental health supervisor. Additionally, from the beginning of Fall 2022, Evelyn became a Sally Casanova Scholar. Evelyn’s goal is to become a culturally aware trained therapist to provide mental health resources in marginalized groups. Throughout her academic journey and her personal life she hopes to be an advocate and bring light to the importance of mental health. In her free time, she likes to visit new coffee places, go hiking, and spend time with her friends and family.

Johanna Flores is a recent psychology graduate with an emphasis on child development. She grew up in East Los Angeles and has always been interested in child development, working with kids, and helping her community. Now, her interests have only grown, and she is hoping to pursue a career in the School Psychology field, where she plans on using her skills to help underserved and underrepresented families and children. Since she wants to make a significant impact in helping underserved and underrepresented peoples, she became interested in research and seeing how she could use this tool to amplify and shed light on certain communities and topics. So she became a McNair scholar. Her research study for the prestigious McNair research program focused on amplifying Latinx/a/o Parents’ voices in Social-Emotional learning research. In addition, she was part of two social science labs where she worked on research projects related to social-emotional aspects, prosociality, well-being, and social justice, to name a few. Her goal is to be able to be in a position where she can make real change for the betterment of families and children, specifically in the school system.

Gabriela Sican obtained her bachelor of arts degree in Psychology in Spring 2022. Some of the courses taken in her undergraduate studies were children and adolescent development, basic counseling, foundations of teaching and learning, and multicultural psychology. Her background in the science of human behavior allowed her to work in a variety of settings, including Free Arts, a Los Angeles non-profit organization that she has volunteered since 2018. The organization strives to support the at-promise youth community by teaching art-based mental health lessons. She considers creativity as one way to practice healing others from the difficulties faced in life. The positive and crafty encounters within the organization motivated Gabriela to aim to work with the youth population. Not only does she want to support this specific population, but she acknowledges the need to teach them about emotional intelligence. She believes teaching emotional intelligence would benefit children with their daily challenges. Gabriela was also a research assistant for Dr. Pumaccahua’s Socioemotional Lab at Cal Poly Pomona. A couple of Gabriela's research interests include the school-to-prison pipeline, youth healing, student resiliency, social and emotional learning, community outreach, reflective teaching, and art therapy approaches used in classrooms. In 2021, Gabriela worked along with other students to create a new chapter called Student California Teacher Association at Cal Poly Pomona. This chapter is a statewide union that advocates for students' and educators’ rights in school. She is the former vice president and scheduler of the chapter. 

After receiving her AA.T in Psychology, Rio transferred to California Polytechnic State University, where she is currently completing her last year as an undergraduate student. In addition to formerly being involved in the Socioemotional Lab, Rio was also a McNair scholar and researched the influences on biracial/ multiracial adolescent's racial identity development in higher education. Her previous research experiences also included attending a summer research program in Colorado, where she explored the efficacy of bright light therapy for treating depression in the Veteran population. Ultimately, she wishes to obtain her B.A. in Psychology in hopes of eventually attending graduate school. In graduate school, Rio wants to pursue a focus in Clinical Psychology. She has previous experience working as a teacher’s assistant, and wants to continue to work with children and adolescents in a clinical or research setting. More specifically, Rio wants to work with children and adolescents from underrepresented communities that are struggling with depressive and anxiety disorders. Rio has a strong passion for connecting with and helping those who may have trouble advocating for themselves. Thus, Rio would like to further her education and research experience in Psychology so she can create a safe, and helpful environment for those who need it.

Kitty Zhang is a proud first-generation Chinese psychology student who received her AA.T degree from East Los Angeles College, as well as her B.A. in Psychology in Spring 2022 from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She was born and raised in Guangdong, China before immigrating to the US at the age of 10. Her personal and academic experiences have shaped both her clinical and research interest. She is a former research assistant of the Socioemotional Lab at Cal Poly Pomona. Some of her research interests include multiculturalism, youth resilience, and protective factors. She intends to continue her schooling to become a school psychologist. She is proud of her roots and seeks to assist others that came from similar backgrounds in reaching their full potential. In her free time, Kitty enjoys discovering new music, traveling, and exploring new dishes from various cultures.

Nora Aquino is a first-generation, Mexican American student attending California State Polytechnic, Pomona majoring in Psychology. She is a transfer student from Citrus College where she graduated with an AA-T in Psychology and an Associate of Science in Pre-Allied Health. She aspires to obtain a Master’s in School/Counseling Psychology and plans to work with children in a school setting, helping to guide them through their school years. She is a former research assistant in Cal Poly Pomona’s Socioemotional Research Lab (SEL). She has experience working with children and adolescents, she used to be a Behavioral Therapist where she worked with children on the autism spectrum, by helping them treat behavioral issues with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). She also worked with accompanied children with Team Hope as a Youth Care Worker. Finally, she worked as a Program Leader with Think Together for Sierra Vista Middle School. Some of her hobbies include reading books and playing board games, her favorite genres of books include fantasy/horror, romance, and mythology.