Research Projects
Conducting research during my undergraduate studies throughout multiple projects has played an integral role in my exposure to prospective areas of the medical field outside of the clinical setting. Being apart of such academia has paved interest in career paths for me, igniting my interest to become more involved with scientific medical-focused research.
Dr. Erin Saitta's Chemistry Education Lab (CER) at UCF
Student Researcher, Presenter, & Second Author
Spring '24 - PRESENT
This lab focuses on examining instructor beliefs and teaching practices to make chemistry education more equitable, accessible, and effective for all types of learning.
Working closely under PhD candidate Kathleen Lugo, my contributions revolve around data compilation and statistical analysis to identify relationships between Graduate Teaching Assistants' (GTA's) background and their adoption of teachings mapped around the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) within undergraduate chemistry lab settings.
At the current rate of this multi-year spanning study, we've discovered that GTA's inclination to adopt UDL strategies seems to be most heavily influences by their personal backgrounds in social factors like disabilities. This allows us to understand that fostering learning environments that are more personal to student experiences should be something we aim to focus and expand on in further phases of this project
Poster Presentations:
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Florida Undergraduate Research Conference 2025
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UCF Student Scholar Symposium 2025
Poster Presentation at UCF's 2025 Student Scholar Symposium
Applied Research Methods in Health Sciences
Student Researcher, & Presenter
Fall '24
HSC 4730 - Applied Research Methods in Health Sciences is a required course for Health Science students revolving around teaching students how to design, conduct, and present health research and encouraging professional writing, data analysis and other relevant techniques. Students are to create full research proposals concerning health-related topics of interest.
For this course, my group's research project focused around a chosen topic that has always held significance to me in the field of women's health - the scientific implications yielded in menstrual blood, more specifically dealing with the stem cell material found in menses.
Our abstract was titled, "Assessing the Attitudes of Female Young Adults in Florida Surrounding Exploration of Menstrual Blood-Derived Stem Cells"; the project's approach aimed at gaining the opinions reserved by young women in Florida regarding the plausibility, awareness, and potential medical applications of menstrual blood-derived stem cell research (MenSC). This topic of interest is something I hope to expand more on in my continued education, as recent supporting studies are discovering that MenSC potential yields prospective implications for medical advancements in aspects like medications, vaccines, Alzheimer's prevention and cancer treatments.
Poster Presentation:
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UCF Health Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium - Fall '24
Poster Presentation at UCF's Fall '24 HSUR Symposium
Senior Health Seminar - Schizophrenia Focus
Student Researcher, & Presenter
Spring '25
HSC 4930 - Health Sciences Senior Seminar is another required course for Health Science students. This course prepares senior-level undergraduates for further professional development in areas and skill sets vital to healthcare careers. This involved conducting a clinical trial group analysis on treatment for health disparities
The focus of my group's clinical trial examined the mental disorder of schizophrenia, and assessed the effectiveness of cognition treatment through administration of nicotine patches.
In analyzing the Phase 4 study, "The Effects of Nicotine on Cognition in Schizophrenia", we deduced that nicotine patch treatment for cognition-related schizophrenia symptoms is not recommended due to little effectiveness compared with other existing treatments.
Studies like these highlight the need to raise awareness for patients suffering from mental disorders with indefinite answers, as finding proper care for these patients often goes unprioritized with how much grey area exists in the disorder.
More Projects to Come in the Near Future!