Dr. Jessica Caporaso in the Department of Psychology has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in the professional track faculty category.
Caporaso, who is an academic professional assistant professor, serves as co-primary investigator of the Development and Understanding of Children’s Knowledge Lab in collaboration with Dr. Stuart Marcovitch and Dr. Janet Boseovski. She specializes in experimental research with young children, studying the development of children’s regulatory capacities and how it relates to peer conflict resolution, moral reasoning, and temperament. She also leads a research collaboration with the Greensboro Science Center to explore how parents and children interact and learn about STEM-related topics in informal learning centers and experiences.
Students working with Caporaso gain experience in community outreach, study recruitment, literature reviews, conducting testing, and data entry and analysis. She also encourages them to present their work, resulting in 5 national and international conference presentations thus far.
“I tackle each day with the belief that every student deserves opportunities to succeed, regardless of life circumstances or privileges,” she says. “One of the most important lessons I have learned at UNCG is that maintaining high standards is not incompatible with meeting students where they are. Many students are willing and eager to rise to expectations when those standards are balanced with empathy, understanding, and flexibility.”
Caporaso is passionate about research and involving undergraduates in research. “Research training develops not only skills necessary for graduate school, but also the ‘soft skills’ every employer seeks in a college graduate,” she says.
She serves as director of advising in psychology and teaches the department’s Careers in Psychology class, where she helps students build their academic and research skills. In addition to mentoring her own student researchers, Caporaso has become her department’s unofficial research “matchmaker,” connecting undergraduates seeking specific research experiences or with specific interests with the appropriate faculty mentors.
By Sangeetha Shivaji
Photo by Sean Norona
