In Their Words: Yu Zhang

Psychology graduate student Yu Zhang is the 2016 recipient of the Frank X. Barron Creativity Award. The award, which is based on academic merit alone, is open to undergraduate and graduate students is any major or field of study at UC Santa Cruz, who are researching areas broadly defined by Barron's work. Barron helped establish UC Santa Cruz as a campus where creativity research is a respected enterprise, and where students and faculty alike understand that human creativity can contribute to psychological health, personal freedom, and social well-being.

Name:  Yu Zhang      

Department: Psychology

What Scholarship did you receive?

I received the Frank X. Barron Creativity Award.

What year are you (1st year, 3rd year)? I am in my 3^rd year as a Developmental Psychology PhD student

Where do you call home? China

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out? Peaceful environment, and lovely people

What is your field of focus? I focus on how parents from different cultural background interact with their children and how parents use analogies to help their children understand certain concepts.

What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz? I hope to become a faculty member at a four-year university so I can continue on my research and teaching.

What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here? I was able to present my research project at an international conference in developmental psychology and get to know the researchers who are interested in the same field of research. I couldn't have done this without the support from people here.

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research? This scholarship will help me implement my research ideas into an actual study, and the results of this project will help me understand how different types of analogies (e.g., far vs. near analogy) would help children solve problems creatively. In addition, this scholarship will greatly help me recruit more participants and being able to compensate for their participation.