Alexa Garcia

“A favorite moment from my experience was working with infants in the lab."

Alexa Garcia is a Sullivan high school senior and was a member of Dr. Guy’s lab for the six week summer ETHOS program. Garcia and her partner Elizabeth Rocha investigated the attention and memory of the brain in the early childhood stage. “The goal of the lab is to increase understanding of infant processing of faces in contrast to non-social stimuli, such as everyday objects and abstract patterns,” Garcia said.

Before being accepted to the program, Garcia attended every after-school workshop and said she found the topics very interesting. “I thought it was going to bed like a boring textbook lecture or something, but the activities were super fun and I really liked it,” Garcia said.

During her lab experience, Garcia said she especially enjoyed working with the infants. Garcia said, “All the infants we had in the lab were very well behaved.” Garcia reflected on the readings and complex terminology she was exposed to during her research and recognized that it posed a challenge for her. However, she said her mentors Dr. Guy and Cindee were able to answer any questions necessary about the readings and supplementary work. 

Garcia said some things she learned while in the lab were the importance of working with others and the value of productive work. “Being able to work efficiently — getting everything done on time is really important for the mother and the baby,” Garcia said.