NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on Brock’s 2025-26 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship recipients. Read other stories in the series on The Brock News.

Two Brock University graduate students are leveraging their lived experiences and drive to help others to deepen understandings of how people think, learn and develop.

Master of Science in Psychology student Mimi Juffe (BA ’25) and PhD Psychology student Andrew Sheehan (BSc ’23, MA ’25) are among the recipients of this year’s Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship, which recognizes emerging researchers who have overcome personal, systemic or societal barriers in their academic journeys.

For Juffe, the scholarship brought both financial relief and validation.

“As an international student, there’s always stress around funding,” she said. “It made me feel like the things I’ve gone through to get to this point meant something.”

Juffe’s research explores working memory and attention, specifically how people prioritize information and direct cognitive resources toward what matters most. Using electroencephalography (EEG), she studies how the brain allocates attention over time.

The research is deeply personal. Juffe, who has ADHD, said her experiences navigating attention and focus challenges helped shape both her academic interests and the strategies she uses to succeed.

“Understanding more of the mechanisms behind attention really helped me understand myself as well,” she said.

Through her work at Brock’s Student Accessibility Services, Juffe saw how many students struggle with attention and cognitive load, regardless of diagnosis. She now applies her research not only in the lab, but also in her everyday life through organizational systems such as visual task boards, calendars and breaking projects into smaller steps.

Juffe hopes her research will spark curiosity and encourage broader interest in cognitive science.

Sheehan is researching prenatal alcohol exposure and its effects on social behaviour using animal models. His work examines how alcohol exposure during pregnancy may shape behavioural development during adolescence and contribute to characteristics associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Sheehan said he was drawn to the field after realizing how understudied FASD research remains compared to other neurodevelopmental disorders.

“There’s a stigma around fetal alcohol spectrum disorder because there’s a tendency to blame or shame parents and families,” he said.

As a result, his work focuses on improving understanding and support for affected children while encouraging more open and non-judgmental conversations around diagnosis and care.

Throughout his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral studies at Brock, Sheehan balanced multiple jobs while pursuing research full time. Receiving the Horizon Scholarship helped ease some of those financial pressures.

“I’ve always had three or four jobs trying to make all my payments,” he said. “So just having this award kind of support and help me out a little was very relieving.”

Sheehan credits Brock faculty members, including Professor of Psychology Cheryl McCormick and Associate Professor of Psychology Charlis Raineki, for fostering a supportive research environment that encouraged him to continue into graduate studies.

“Having that close relationship with my supervisors has made all the difference in keeping me motivated and interested in the research,” he said.

Now in a senior lab role, he hopes to mentor younger researchers and help them avoid the pressure of taking on too much too early.