| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Applicant Name | Jasmin Guevara |
| Applicant Email | Email hidden; Javascript is required. |
| Training Level | Predoctoral Intern |
| City of Residence | Gainesville |
| Distance to Chicago, IL | > 2 hour flight |
| Age | 29 |
| Gender identity and pronouns | Woman, She/Her |
| Have you ever attended an AACN annual meeting? | Yes |
| The following list includes characteristics of historically underrepresented groups. Please select all characteristics that represent you and/or describe other diverse facets of your identity in the “Other” option. |
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| Funding Opportunitites | |
| I would like to be considered for the following funding opportunities. |
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| If selected for both Student Leader/Assistant and SPS Conference Mentor, I would prefer: | SPS Conference Mentor |
| Application for Student Assistant | |
| By applying to be a student assistant, you agree to the following responsibilities/commitments: |  I carefully reviewed the above responsibilities/commitments and agree with all of them. |
| Would you like to be considered for complimentary lodging? | Yes, please. |
| In-Person Volunteer Slots |
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| Application for Conference Leader | |
| Application for Scholarship | Travel scholarship awardees are provided with free conference registration and reimbursement of up to $550 of travel expenses to support conference attendance, including meals, hotel stay, and airfare. |
| Please provide a paragraph describing an example of your commitment to service. | As I conclude my predoctoral internship and work towards establishing my career as a neuropsychologist, I am eager to get involved in service opportunities on the national level. Throughout my training, I have sought out opportunities to expand my community involvement, especially with underserved populations. For example, I helped organize two community outreach events at senior centers in rural towns in Utah with limited access to psychological facilities. At each event, I gave a comprehensive presentation on brain health and aging to older community members and their families. Under the supervision of a licensed neuropsychologist, my fellow neuropsychology trainees and I also administered cognitive screening measures and provided brief feedback to community members. |
| Please provide a paragraph describing an example of your ability to persevere or achieve despite barriers. | As a first-generation student from a working-class immigrant family, I did not have strong membership during my college years. It was not until an upper-level psychology course when my classmates were talking about their research experiences did I truly understand my unfamiliarity with the world of academia. I had not known working in a lab was an available option for me, nor its importance for building a future career in psychology. I knew I was far behind my peers, so I immediately reached out to lab directors and applied to several summer internship programs, quickly earning a research assistant position in two psychology labs and becoming a fully-funded summer intern with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. I learned to navigate the process on my own, relying on my own self-determination to decipher the unwritten rules of higher education and to carve out opportunities to advance my career. |
| Please provide a paragraph discussing the potential benefits of your conference attendance to you and the professional community. | Attending the 2025 AACN Annual Meeting would offer me critical opportunities for professional development. First, attending the offered programs will help me expand upon my neuropsychology knowledge and allow me to stay up to date on current research in the field. Second, at the time of the meeting, I will be beginning my postdoctoral fellowship and seeking to make connections for future employment as a first-year neuropsychologist. The conference will give me a chance to network with other trainees and established professionals in the field to foster new connections and collaborations. I hope my attendance at the 2025 AACN Annual Meeting will also foster new mentorship and collaborative relationships with other trainees. One area I am especially passionate about is mentoring underserved individuals in the field, and I am actively seeking opportunities to continue engaging in this work. |
| Application for Conference Mentor Award | |
| In 500 words or fewer, please describe (1) your prior mentorship experience and what you feel you can offer mentees from historically underrepresented backgrounds at the AACN annual meeting, and (2) how this mentorship experience will contribute to your professional goals. You also may describe the ways in which attending the AACN Annual Meeting would represent a financial hardship for you without this award. | Because I am a first-generation student who initially lacked strong mentorship and guidance in higher education, I feel a personal connection to mentorship initiatives. While I eventually found my footing, I acknowledge that my success in gaining admission to graduate school was largely due to the guidance and insight provided by a mentor while I was a post baccalaureate working as a research assistant. I therefore hope to provide this same support to other underrepresented students and have made outreach and mentorship to underrepresented students a major goal of my career. I have previously served roles as president and vice president of a University organization called Diversity Graduate School Application Advisory (DGSAA) that matches graduate student mentors with undergraduate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds who are interested in applying for graduate school in the social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, geography, and public policy). In addition to organization and management, I worked one-on-one with a total of 8 students, sharing my own insights on the unwritten rules of academia that I had deciphered over time as a first-generation student. In many of these experiences, I helped guide students through the graduate school application process and into their first year of training. In one case, I helped a post baccalaureate student obtain a clinical research assistant position as a first step toward future graduate training as a researcher. At the 2025 AACN Annual Meeting, I believe I can offer mentees from historically underrepresented backgrounds support and insight towards their future clinical and research goals. I can continue to offer practical advice on overcoming barriers such as access to resources, network building, maintaining resilience, and gaining confidence as a new member of the field of clinical neuropsychology. As I progress in my own career, I hope to maintain my involvement in mentorship of individual students and contribute to larger programs that foster mentorship on a larger level. The connections I make through the SPS/N2N student mentorship program would help me to advance towards this goal and continue integrating mentorship and advocacy into my long-term professional identity. As I will be completing my predoctoral internship and preparing for my next long-distance move for my postdoctoral fellowship, I am already managing a significant financial burden. Unfortunately, my attendance at the 2025 AACN Annual Meeting will not be possible without financial assistance through a Conference Mentor Award. I would be especially grateful to obtain travel funding, as it would allow me to participate in this important professional development opportunity and in turn support other trainees. |
| Tiebreaker | 1 |
