February 09, 2025 – Angelika Santero has joined iRT as the newest member of our team of interdisciplinary research scientists, research assistants, web developers, multimedia designers, and more. iRT is pleased to welcome Santero as an intern through the Karen M. Gil Internship Program, which iRT has supported and participated in for several years.

Santero is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, double-majoring in psychology and data science. Her interests lie in social and organizational psychology as well as using data science to support meaningful causes. She is passionate about the power of mentoring for positively impacting young people’s lives and their pursuit of futures in STEM.

“In the past, I have been able to find informal and formal mentorship through my time at Central Piedmont Community College,” Santero says. “I was a part of the Ruth G. Shaw Leadership Program and the Honors Program, which allowed me to be connected to so many supportive women who have helped me along my academic and professional journey. They have helped me in realizing my own interest in STEM especially in working in research and analysis.”

As an intern at iRT, Santero will support iRT’s efforts to better understand the needs of and develop resources for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) mentoring programs. Through her internship, Santero will conduct interviews with staff members of STEM-related organizations and examine how informal STEM organizations support mentoring youth.

“I am excited to learn more about applying research to real-life contexts,” Santero says. “I hope to gain new skills and understandings of what this process may look like, and understanding how informal STEM settings can encourage youth to pursue a career in STEM.”

Santero’s skills, passions for social and organizational psychology, and readiness to explore STEM organizations makes her an invaluable new member of iRT’s team. iRT values each new, unique perspective that research interns bring to our team and strives to use our team’s diverse backgrounds and expertise to conduct high-quality research and develop cutting-edge products that positively impact youth, families, organizations, and communities.

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