LVC Student-Faculty Research Shapes Future Career

Sara Dintiman ’26 arrived at Lebanon Valley College as an English major with a concentration in Secondary Education. With an interest in adolescent development, she added a second major in Psychology as a sophomore. At the same time, she began conducting research in the department’s Baby Lab, run by Dr. Rachel Albert, Professor of Psychology.

Two years later, Dintiman is in the midst of an international research project related to conversations between educators and infants in early childcare centers. Albert traveled to Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, on sabbatical during the Fall 2024 semester, where she gave talks as a visiting scholar and dove into their previously collected dataset on the topic. Albert’s collaboration led to the publication of “Beyond the Dyad: Infant Vocal Cues Organize Conversational-Turn Taking in Infant-Toddler Classrooms” in the journal Infancy in summer 2025.

It also served as a springboard for Dintiman, who, along with Albert, received an Elyse E. Rogers ’76 Research Fund grant from LVC to support continued research this past summer. They are investigating how language unfolds outside parent-infant interactions, a timely topic, as most children in the U.S. spend a significant amount of time in childcare.

“This has become a beautiful illustration of student-faculty research with an international collaboration lens,” said Albert. “We also collaborated with [Dr.] Sean Droms in the Mathematical Sciences Department. With his computer science background, he automated data analysis processes, enabling student projects to take place in a calendar year so we can accomplish more research quickly.”

Albert hopes the combination of the existing dataset, Droms’ expertise, and Dintiman’s hard work will lead to Dintiman’s submitting a manuscript for possible publication this year. The team also submitted the work for multiple conference presentations.

“For students who want to go on to grad school, it’s almost necessary for them to get professional credentials to showcase their experience,” said Albert. “I think that’s a big differentiator for students when they apply to graduate programs.”

Dintiman, who looks forward to a career as a school psychologist, appreciates Albert’s mentorship and acknowledges how this project elevated her research skills to a higher level.

“The Psychology Program has provided me with the skills to take on big challenges,” said Dintiman. “Not only have I been practicing my design and analysis skills, but I have had the opportunity to work with my peers and faculty across different LVC departments. It’s exciting to see all the work that I’ve put into my classes come alive in this project, and I’m hoping to take these skills with me as I pursue a graduate degree.”