Sterling named Merrill Presidential Scholar, Jeff honored as mentor

UMD's most successful seniors and their faculty mentors.

Congratulations to undergraduate linguistics major Sterling Mullenix, who has been named a Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar, one of only 19 in the University. The award "honors the University of Maryland’s most successful seniors and their designated University faculty and K-12 teachers for their mentorship." Honored as Sterling's university mentor is Jeff Lidz, with whom he has worked in the Acquisition Lab. About his high school and university mentors, Sterling writes:

"The mentorship of both Dr. Jeffrey Lidz and Ms. Jenny Mey has had an incredible impact on my life as a university student. In high school, I took biology and AP biology with Ms. Mey. I loved my time in those classes, and in my senior year, I was a teaching assistant for her class. Despite there being dense material to get through, Ms. Mey always made those classes engaging and fun with the different hands-on experiments. Those classes are a major part of why I am doing research in college now. Using the scientific method and learning the iterative process of solving problems was at the center of what we learned. Dr. Jeffrey Lidz, my professor and research advisor, has further fostered that interest in scientific research by creating an environment and culture within the child language acquisition lab that puts those same processes at the forefront of research. Being able to openly share and receive feedback from so many different perspectives in the lab allows all us to move forward at the slow, methodical pace that good research requires."