Perri McElvain ’25
Psychological Science major with Data Science Sequence
As a Psychological Science major at CMC, Perri McElvain ’25 delved into research much earlier than they thought possible thanks to the encouragement of their professors.
“After my first year, I participated in the Summer Research Program,” McElvain said. “I worked alongside Professor Alison Harris and my lab mate in the Decision Neuroscience Lab, running EEG experiments related to body movement perception.”
After working in a few different labs throughout the years, McElvain is back in the lab with Professor Harris, working on their thesis. They have definitely found their calling. “I aspire to attend graduate school and pursue a career as a researcher, with the goal of becoming a professor.”
With interests in social, cognitive, and computational neuroscience, McElvain has acquired some teaching experience over the past three semesters and been the course mentor at the Quantitative and Computing Lab (QCL), tutoring students in Statistics for Psychology.
“I get a lot of joy out of helping students understand the theory and getting them up to speed in preparation for exams. Working at the QCL makes me excited to go into academia,” said McElvain, who also helps engage 8th-grade to high school students in interactive math lectures led by 5C faculty as part of the Gateway to Exploring Mathematical Sciences (GEMS) program.
Meanwhile, McElvain discovered a new academic interest that they say will help in their future education and career. “I entered CMC with no background or interest in computer science, but I quickly became captivated by my G.E. intro course in Python. Because of these experiences, I can leverage computational skills for research in graduate school. At The Claremont Colleges, you have lots of opportunities to explore and develop passions you may not have discovered before college.”
Since then, McElvain has completed an independent study with Mathematics Professor David Bachman at Pitzer College, creating machine learning tools with neural cellular automata. Currently, they are the code lead in their data science capstone group, and they’re taking a mathematical modeling and neuroscience course at Pomona College.
McElvain has taken to heart CMC’s mission of responsible leadership. “To me, responsible leadership means recognizing opportunities to improve your community and make it more accessible and inclusive.”
With that in mind, McElvain, who had learned Braille last year out of personal interest, came up with a plan to improve the Braille signage on campus. They reached out to the accessibility and civil rights departments last January and proposed an initiative to label faculty offices in Braille.
“They were very supportive, and over the summer I 3D-printed hundreds of ADA-compliant Braille labels for faculty offices. I just finished installing them. If it benefits even one individual, that would be enough for me.”
One of the reasons McElvain chose CMC is its small student body of about 1,300 undergraduates. “The school’s size makes it easy to ask questions during class or office hours, find research and campus job opportunities, and access resources like the QCL, Center for Writing and Public Discourse, and Soll Center for Student Opportunities. I remember one day walking into the Soll Center without a clue how to create a resume, and walking out with one ready to submit for applications.”
In their free time, McElvain enjoys the 5C Ping Pong Club, playing piano at Scripps, and riding their motorcycle around Claremont. They also love the Athenaeum. “It feels like the heart of the campus, hosting everything from departmental events and speaker series to concerts and Ath tea. It’s where students connect with faculty and engage in meaningful conversations.”
Those connections happen all across campus, McElvain pointed out: “CMC feels like a family, and I have made friendships that I know will last a lifetime.”