Emily Serrano is a second-year first-generation college student, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Child Development and Family Studies, at California State University, Long Beach. In Fall of 2024, Emily was accepted into the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), where she discovered and became a research assistant at Dr. Kimberly Kelly’s Child Language Interactions and Memory (CLIaM) lab. She joined lab to enrich her research experience in psychology and discover how parent-child interactions influence learning and memory in informal science learning environments. She has worked with children previously, both inside and outside of the classroom through the afterschool program, Beyond the Bell, LAUSD. Additionally, she earned a certificate for completing the Educators of Tomorrow (EOT) program with her school district, LAUSD, after two years of dedicated participation. She also passed both the District Proficiency Test and the Instructional Assistance Test. She hopes to earn a doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology, focusing on children’s behavior and development to understand upbringing influence their social interactions, emotional regulation, and daily functioning.  In pursuit of this goal, Emily plans to use her degree to become a play therapist and possibly open a private practice. She wants to provide individualized care for children navigating emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges. She co-presented at the UROP 2025 Symposium and will be presenting an individual study at this year’s Spring 2026 symposium. She also co-presented a poster presentation at the 2025 Society for Research Child Development (SRCD) conference in Minneapolis, MN. In her free time, Emily enjoys watching movies, spending time with loved ones, and going on hikes.