Robert Haluska ’17 – BIOLOGY

Matthew Pegorari ’09 – BIOLOGY

Zachery Lancto ’15 – MATH
Jessica Young ’15 – MATH
Rachael Fountain ’15 – MATH
Jacob Goodreau ’16 – MATH

Anthony Rascati – ECONOMICS AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Susan Cody – COMMUNICATION

Christine Andrews – MOVEMENT SCIENCE

Ruby Metz – BIOLOGY

Faculty Scholarship 2015:

Joseph A. Camilleri, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Psychology Department

Catherine E. Johnson, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Nursing and Allied Health

Shirley Acquah, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Communication Department

Heidi Bohler, Ed.D. – Assistant Professor, Movement Science, Sport and Leisure Studies Department, Physical Education Teacher Education Program

Sophia Sarigianides, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of English

Karen Works, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Information Science

Christopher T. Gullen, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Communication Department

Megan S. Kennedy, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Education Department

Michael Filas, M.F.A., Ph.D. – Professor, English Department

Andrew W. Habana Hafner, Ed.D. and Floris Wilma Ortiz-Marrero, Ed.D. – Assistant Professors, Education Department.

She needn’t have worried.

Not only did the junior history and political science double major receive an A+ on the paper, “he succeeded beyond all my expectations,” she said.

The research paper served as a launching pad of sorts for Carlson, who was invited by Dodge to revise his paper into a manuscript worthy of being submitted to an academic journal. This is only the second time she has asked an undergraduate student to take that extra step. In the spring semester, Carlson worked eight hours a week on his paper, which involved conducting lots of additional research, interviewing scholars and visiting the Fall River Public Library collections and other repositories.

Dodge also invited Carlson to serve as an intern this past spring for the Historical Journal of Massachusetts, a peer-reviewed journal published twice a year by Westfield State’s History Department.

Carlson chose the topic of his research paper because he has lived in Fall River most of his life and his ancestors worked in the textile industry there. The ancestors on his mother’s side of the family were unskilled workers who immigrated to Fall River from Ireland in the mid-1850s at a time when the city was��industrializing. His ancestors, including some on his father’s side of the family, worked as weavers, loom operators and as general laborers.

Through his research, Carlson concluded that “Ultimately the fall of the industry was connected to mill owners’ failure to capitalize on advancing technology, along with overproduction and competition from the south.”

“The history of Fall River, though mostly forgotten, is a proud history. The people of the city worked hard and turned their community into one of the world’s leading textile communities,” Carlson said. “This was built on the backs of the hardworking laborers, such as my ancestors. I feel great pride in that fact.”

Carlson presented his research, titled “Spindle City to Forgotten City, A Story of a Century, 1865-1965” at the 22^nd annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Massachusetts in April.

After graduating from Westfield State, Carlson plans to attend law school and ultimately teach at the collegiate level.

“The best part about attending Westfield is the fantastic faculty here has helped me��identify my passions and what I want to do with the rest of my life” Carlson said.

As an honors student in those majors, she has reaped the benefits of living in honors housing, being the first to register for classes, and enjoying smaller class sizes. Plus, she has the opportunity to learn from honors faculty like Gretchen Konrad, Vanessa Diana, and Glen Brewster.

“Being a part of the honors program has absolutely helped to enrich my college experience,” she said.

And there’s more.

During her first year, Tessitore got to expand on an assignment she wrote for her honors Introduction to Criminal Justice class. The result was a research project she chose to pursue on the many misconceptions about how addiction works and how it affects those with drug problems.

“After learning more about this topic my own opinions and assumptions about addiction have changed, and I decided that I want to use this new knowledge to help those who suffer from addiction,” she said.

The basis for her research was a book from her Criminal Justice class titled, “Chasing the Scream,” by Johann Hari. After each section of the book, students were asked to research a topic that interested them.

“I chose to research different studies conducted on addiction, specifically ones that offer new insights into how addiction really works,” she said. “My research focuses on how addiction is more psychological than physical.”

Vanessa Diana, English professor, who served as Tessitore’s project mentor, said her student researched social, legal, and biological perspectives on addiction, demonstrating that an interdisciplinary understanding of this complex problem is necessary to finding treatment solutions.

The opportunity to engage in a research project her freshman year added to her already top-notch experiences at Westfield. Tessitore presented her research at the 22^nd annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Massachusetts in April.

“Presenting their work in these professional venues gives students the opportunity to develop professional communication skills, to network, and to learn about the latest developments in their fields,” Diana said.

Even though she is early in her undergraduate studies, Tessitore is already looking beyond her Westfield State experience.

“I would love to have a career that involves reforming the drug laws that we currently have in place as well as helping with the recovery and rehabilitation of those who are addicted to drugs,” she said.

Not only did she present a poster on “Carbaryl Toxicity on C6 Astrocytes” at the April conference, she was one of a number of participants to win a poster award among 130 presenters.

What was so special about Jung’s research is that she took a topic and made it her own. Specifically, she is the first to characterize astrocyte cell death as a result of carbaryl exposure. For the uninformed, this is important stuff.

Her independent research project focuses on how pesticides, such as carbaryl, affect neuronal support cells called astrocytes. Jung was the one to come up with the idea to test pesticides, said Robin White, Westfield State assistant professor of biology. While carbaryl is found in a number of household products, it is also used by the food industry on fruits and vegetables.

In the lab, Jung introduced carbaryl to the astrocytes, and used a fluorescence microscope to confirm that the pesticide did indeed kill the astrocytes. The health of astrocytes is important because they play a key role in normal brain function, Jung noted.

“It is important to know how pesticides affect the brain so that proper food safety regulations can be put into place,” she said. “I have always been interested in how pesticides work, but more importantly, how can or do they affect other aspects.”

Jung, who has worked with White since the summer of 2014, has “really taken ownership of her work,” White said.

“She has learned and honed her technical skills, in addition to her ability to design experiments,” White said.

Jung presented her research at the 22^nd annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Massachusetts in April and the Westfield State University Celebration for Undergraduate Research and Creative Work in May.

After all of Jung’s classroom and research experience at Westfield, she has a couple of takeaways for future students. First, don’t feel overwhelmed or intimidated about conducting research because “all of the professors at Westfield State University are always willing to help and can tailor an independent research project based on your major and interests.”

And as important, independent research can help “make you a more competitive applicant when applying to graduate schools and other graduate programs,” Jung said.

Jung has her sights set on applying to veterinary college, all while she continues to work as an emergency/intensive care unit technician at a 24-hour animal hospital. She believes the research experience she gained in and out of the laboratory at Westfield State will give her an edge in the future.

“This experience has helped me not only gain laboratory setting experience, but also has helped me work on my public speaking skills,” Jung said. “Most importantly, it will make me a more competitive applicant when I apply to veterinary schools.”

Well that’s what Westfield State University biology major James Scripter got to study when he collaborated with Robin White, assistant professor of biology, in a spin-off of her doctoral work. White describes the research as “a very technically complex project.”

“James’s amazing laboratory skills have helped him be very successful.��In addition, he is incredibly knowledgeable about biology and asks great questions,” she said.

White’s research papers helped Scripter better understand the concept, which he admits took him quite a while to fully understand, as well as its importance. But once he grasped the meaning, Scripter was instantly hooked.

In his own words, this is how he explains the research: “In context, during development of the brain, migrating immature neurons rely on astrocyte precursor cells for guidance to their final destinations in the brain. These precursor cells, called radial glial cells, express high levels of a protein called brain lipid binding protein at the same time providing a scaffold for neurons to migrate across. In the structure of a neuron, there are axons and dendrites. Axons are the part of the neuron that passes the electrical signal to other neurons by chemical neurotransmitters. The dendrites are the opposite as they receive the signal from other neurons. In research, it is difficult to distinguish between an axon and a dendrite in a microscope, so we just call them neurites.”

Not surprisingly, Scripter never worked with neurons or astrocytes before this project, but he still found it appealing.

“The one thing that interested me the most is the fact that we were able to cause the neurites of neurons to grow longer by just adding a piece of DNA. That’s just unbelievable,” he said.

From Scripter’s results, he found a statistically significant increase in neurite length. That means in cases like spinal cord injuries, or neuronal diseases, the length of neurites help in the healing process to reclaim those previous connections.

Scripter presented his findings at the 22^nd annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Massachusetts in April and the Westfield State Research Conference in May.

“It is incredibly important for students to present their work at conferences.��Oftentimes, we focus on the lab work, but being able to present and share findings is an important part of the process,” White said. “The students get the opportunity to improve their presentation skills and learn about other areas of research.”

After graduation, Scripter planned to find an entry-level job as a laboratory technician—or even better—an entry-level microbiology lab technician, in order to gain more experience before he decides that’s the career for him. Ultimately, he hopes to apply to graduate-level studies in microbiology.

She notes that apps like Snapchat, Yik Yak and others can eat away at students’ free time.

“If so many of us complain about social media, then why do we keep using it day after day? Why not just stop��using it?” she wondered.

With a reliance on social media seemingly increasing, Camp, a psychology major with a minor in communications, started questioning if it’s taking a toll on their��experiences as students, or worse yet, harming their psychological well-being.

Camp took her curiosity to the next level and began investigating the impact of social media on college students. Initially using an online survey, she conducted a study that examines links between social networking sites and social media applications and well-being. Specifically, she looked into the effects of social media apps accessed through a smartphone.

Survey participants were undergraduates from a liberal arts state university who completed a self-report survey that covered questions about whether the amount of time spent on Mobile Social Media Applications (MSMAs) is linked with mood, burnout and well-being. Camp created the questionnaire on SurveyGizmo, an online survey software tool.

Assistant psychology professors Rebecca Burwell, PhD, and Summer Williams, PhD, worked with Camp on her research. Burwell praised her for bringing a level of autonomy to the project by setting up the online survey on her own.

“Alecka has been very passionate about the topic…and has brought enthusiasm, energy, and insight into the project, and commitment,” Burwell said. “And a keen desire to better understand connections between MSMA’s and student well-being.”

Williams added, “Alecka combined her interests in psychology and communications to develop her ideas for her current research. She has great curiosity about mobile device applications and their connection, if any, to student health-related outcomes.”

Having just finished data collection, Camp presented her findings to date as an e-poster at the 22^nd annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Massachusetts in April.

That opportunity boded well for Camp, who described herself as “very quiet and soft-spoken” when she first started at Westfield State. That in-the-background persona meant she would avoid class presentations and not raise her hand in class—even if she knew the answer. Acknowledging that she needed to work on a having a comfort level with public speaking, Camp now feels that the conference presentation will help prepare her for her career.

“Every time I am faced with a bigger and bigger crowd to present to, I get nervous��beyond belief, but I end up pulling��myself together,” she said. “I think that my poster��presentation at the conference, while one of the��scariest presentations I’ve come to yet, will��absolutely prepare me for years to come.”

Anthony Rascati ’15
ECONOMICS AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

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Christine Andrews ’15
MOVEMENT SCIENCE

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Ruby Metz ’15
BIOLOGY

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