Current Students

Yesim Akar Hozman

Yesim Akar Hozman

Email: akaryesi@msu.edu
Cohort: 2024/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Yesim is interested in creating professional development programs for teachers to enhance their digital competencies. She also has an interest in using mixed method research to explore educators’ practices and attitudes in using technology in education.

Aisel Akhmedova

Email: aiselakh@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
She is interested in the influence of social media on teenagers and learning outcomes, creativity, and identity.

Madison C. Allen Kuyenga

Madison C. Allen Kuyenga

Email: allenm72@msu.edu
Cohort: 2019/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Madison’s current research interests are in culturally responsive and sustaining computing. She is currently working on culturally relevant and sustaining design strategies for educational technology and implementations to help all teachers in creating greater experiences of equity in CS education. This includes drawing on the ways of knowing, being, and doing from BIPOC, rural, and low-income communities and providing pathways for including those ways in the CS classroom. Madison has a background in African American Studies and Social Psychology that inform her current research trajectories.

Utku Caybas

Email: caybasiz@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/On Campus
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Utku is broadly interested in how social and contextual factors influence students’ motivation. Specifically, he works to understand how different levels of peer relations, such as peer interactions, friendships, and peer groups, play a role in students’ motivation. He is also interested in how students’ perceptions of economic inequalities shape their motivation.

Goun Choi

Email: choigoun@msu.edu
Cohort: 2019/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Goun is interested in how adolescents’ social exclusion experiences influence their social and academic motivation and behaviors. Her interest also includes building resiliency, empathy, and self-regulation through adverse social experiences. She is also interested in designing more inclusive and safe learning environments through cooperative learning.

Elvin Fortuna

Email: fortun29@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/Online
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Elvin is interested in the development of expertise and adaptability in technology-mediated environments for use in complex and ill-structured domains. He is particularly interested in instructional design principles to prepare learners for realistic and ill-structured problems.

Keywords: Expertise, Adaptability, Technology, Complexity, Ill-structured

Mike Frazier

Email: frazi163@msu.edu
Cohort: 2023/On Campus
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Mike is a former K-12 English teacher and is broadly interested in the intersections of human and machine cognition. Specifically, he studies the impact and emerging best practices for integrating emerging technologies, like generative Artificial Intelligence tools, in learning and instructional contexts.

Briana Green

Email: green209@msu.edu
Cohort: 2019/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Briana’s current research focuses on understanding Black educators and students belonging experiences and utilizing asset-based pedagogies for teacher, student and parent interventions.

Megan Harris

Email: harrimeg@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/Online
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with thoughtful technology usage to enhance student choice and engagement within general education classrooms.

Jingwen He (Jessie)

Jingwen (Jessie) He

Email: hejw@msu.edu
Grad Year: 2023/On Campus

Bio:
Jingwen (Jessie) is interested in using quantitative methods and advanced technology to explore students’ social-emotional learning, such as student-teacher relationships, autonomy support, motivation, and self-regulation.

Anne Drew Hu

Email: annedrew@msu.edu
Cohort: 2020/On Campus
Pronouns: they/them

Keywords:
Critical computing education, K-12 CS education.

Saki Inoue

Email: skinoue@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Relation of intercultural experience and self-efficacy among preservice teachers, international comparison of teacher education

Larissa Jakubow

Email: jakubowl@msu.edu
Cohort: 2020/On Campus
Pronouns: She/her/hers

Bio:
Larissa Jakubow is a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET) program at Michigan State University, advised by Dr. Emily Bouck. Her research interests are focused on United States History curriculum, primary source documents, accessibility for students with disabilities, and inclusivity and equity of voice within history curricula.

Hyein Jee

Hyein Jee

Email: jeehyein@msu.edu
Cohort: 2023/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Interests:
Culturally responsive pedagogy integrated into teacher education, utilizing educational technologies to foster students’ academic, social-emotional, and cultural competence development.

John Keane

Email: jnk@msu.edu
Cohort: 2020/On Campus
Pronouns: he/him/his

Interests:
Motivation in college STEM settings.

Eun Ha Kim

Email: kimeun31@msu.edu
Cohort: 2019/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Eun Ha’s research interests are in promoting adolescents’ academic achievement, classroom engagement, emotional well-being, and high school completion, especially for those students from historically marginalized backgrounds. Specifically, Eun ha is interested in examining how achievement motivation, teacher-student relationships, and resilience relate to these adolescents’ educational outcomes and in developing interventions that increase their motivation, achievement, and academic resilience.

Garam Lee

Cohort: 2019/On Campus

Qiyang Lin (Minnie)

Qiyang (Minnie) Lin

Email: linqiyan@msu.edu
Cohort: 2021/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Minnie is interested in the intersection of cognitive flexibility and multimedia. Particularly, how the role cognitive flexibility plays in learning, motivation, and adaptation to diverse real-world scenarios. She explores how cognitive processes in learning can enhance our capacity to adjust knowledge to novel situations. Additionally, she examines the potential of educational games as effective learning tools. How can multimedia learning in online instruction and virtual environments? She wants to know strategies that optimize learning experiences in these digital realms, ensuring that learners are not just informed, but also adaptable and agile in their knowledge application.

Keywords:

Multimedia Learning, Complexity, Game-based Learning, Virtual Reality, Motivation

Sheza Mansoor

Email: shezam@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/Online
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Sheza Mansoor is currently a Ph.D. student of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Boston University. Her research interests have to do with understanding the psychological and motivational processes that young children undergo during learning. She is passionate about learning how mindsets can boost children’s literacy skills and engagement from the lens of cognitive neuroscience and development. She is also interested in how students of color and English Language Learners’ experiences are shaped in the classrooms.

Gerardo Melgar

Gerardo Melgar

Email: perezre1@msu.edu
Cohort: 2024/On Campus
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Gerardo’s interests are professional development, and student motivation and engagement in the classroom.

Samuela Mouzaoir

Samuela Mouzaoir

Email: mouzaoir@msu.edu
Cohort: 2020/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Samuela is interested in understanding how students respond to academic challenges. Specifically, she works to identify which obstacles students routinely face and how they understand and engage with the process of “bouncing back” from those challenges. She is also interested in how students’ racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds impact their experiences of adversity and resilience in the classroom.

Olamide Ogungbemi

Email: Ogungbe1@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Olamide is interested in integrating computational thinking in K-12 education and teachers’ professional development, as well as cultural responsive computing.

Megan Ray

Cohort: 2022/Online

Sarah Reiley

Email: reileysa@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/Online
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Sarah is interested in reading comprehension and language development in adolescent emergent bilingual and multilingual learners. She is a K-12 English and social studies educator, currently based at a dual-language school in Argentina.

Stephanie Shin

Email: sshin@msu.edu
Cohort: 2019/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Stephanie is broadly interested in understanding how social and contextual features of learning environments influence student motivation, engagement, and social-emotional development. Specifically, her research is focused on exploring the ways by teachers’ instructional practices the learning conditions shape students’ motivational beliefs such as self-efficacy.

Brooke Starks

Email: starksb4@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/On Campus
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
I am interested in Adult Basic Education (K-12 curriculum for students who are 18 or older), and the use of technology to increase student engagement and help students to gain employability skills.

Jennifer Sutcliffe

Email: sutclif9@msu.edu
Cohort: 2022/Online
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Interests:
Game studies, game-based learning, social media, online learning communities, informal learning, electracy

Marissa Rivas Taylor

Marissa Rivas Taylor

Email: rivastay@msu.edu
Cohort: 2024/Online
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio:
Marissa Taylor’s research delves into the dynamic interplay between learner motivation and self-knowledge, concentrating on the strategic application of developmental tools (e.g., StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, KIA Score) to bolster self-awareness and intrinsic motivation. Her work investigates the integration of these tools into AI-driven learning platforms to facilitate autonomous learning and sustained engagement. Additionally, Marissa examines how online social communities and AI technologies can enhance learner motivation through personalized and socially embedded learning experiences. She holds a master’s degree in design thinking and library information science from the University of Michigan School of Information and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and rhetorical communications from Wheaton College (IL). She is also the Assistant Director for Technology and Communication Strategy at the University of Michigan Center for Educational Outreach.

Lyle Tavernier

Email: taverni6@msu.edu
Cohort: 2023/Online
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Broad research interests include pre-service teacher education, effective reflection practices, and educator professional development. Specifically, Lyle is interested in how professional development impacts upper elementary teachers’ attitudes and practices related to integrating block-based coding activities into STEM instruction for students in groups traditionally marginalized and underrecognized in those fields.

William Van Luven (Billy)

William (Billy) Van Luven

Email: vanwill1@msu.edu
Cohort: 2023/On Campus
Pronouns: he/him/his

Bio:
Billy is interested in multicomponent interventions that can be used by educational practitioners to support students within their classrooms. He’s also particularly interested in students’ sense of belonging, how it correlates to teacher practices, and how it contributes to achievement motivation.

Xinyue Zhou (Kiera)

Kiera Zhou

Email: zhouxi66@msu.edu
Cohort: 2024/On Campus

Bio:
Kiera’s research focuses on technology-enhanced education, exploring innovative approaches to learning in both formal and informal settings. Her work spans various areas, including STE(A)M education, educational gamification, mobile learning, and the integration of VR/AR in education. She is also passionate about maker education, aiming to foster creativity and hands-on learning through technology.

Last updated February 2025