Undergraduate Research Scholarship

Please note: We are not currently accepting applications for the Undergraduate Research Scholarship.

The Department of Linguistics is offering an Undergraduate Research Scholarship of $3,000 for undergraduate Linguistics students conducting or participating in Linguistics research during Spring 2025. This scholarship is funded by a gift to the department from Joan Payden in honor of Kay Devonshire, and was established to support students making meaningful contributions to the department while gaining valuable research experience. Please see the PDF for more information: Linguistics Research Scholarship_FINAL.

Please note that financial awards may impact student financial aid packages, and it is the responsibility of the student to discuss with the Financial Aid Office any potential impacts on their financial aid.

If you (the selected student) are receiving certain financial aid, such as but not limited to the Middle-Class Scholarship (MCS), and are selected as a recipient of this award, the department will need to work with you regarding award timing and processing. In certain cases, payment may need to be delayed or adjusted to avoid impacts to financial aid packages. The department will do everything possible to process the award; however, due to financial aid received and/or availability of department resources, there may be administrative circumstances that will require the award to be granted in name only.

If you have questions, please contact  allie@humnet.ucla.edu.

Undergraduate Research Award Recipients

Renee Ma (2025) — Renee has been serving as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the UCLA Language Acquisition Lab, where she explores how young children perceive and acquire language. The lab focuses on children ranging from 5.5 months to 4 years old, using a variety of research methods including eye-tracking, video presentations, behavioral observations, etc. Their goal is to better understand how early language comprehension develops and how children connect linguistic input to meaning. She is grateful to have received the Undergraduate Research Scholarship for 2025, which has allowed her to contribute to research that helps better understand how language learning begins in early childhood.