Breanne Beard '17
To see more photos from the event, click here.
Saints from all of Siena’s academic programs showcased their research talents on Friday, September 16 at the fifth annual CURCA Summer Research Symposium. Siena’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA) allows students of all majors to engage in hands-on learning through research and other scholarship opportunities. Siena students gain an advantage due to the experience and exposure this program provides.
Erwin Premchan ’17, marketing major with an entrepreneurship minor, focused his research on excessive social media consumption, emotional health, and productivity. The poll he distributed focused on the question of whether or not people get depressed, anxious, or stressed due to their use of social media. His mentor for this project was Raj Devasagayam, CURCA director.
“A good bulk of my respondents were Siena students, which showed me that Siena students are not that depressed and that they must be doing more than just sitting on social media,” Premchan said.
Based on the data he collected, he believes that Siena students are doing something differently, whether it is the activities Siena offers or some other aspect of life at the College.
“I’m a curious individual and I want to continue to learn more. Research is something that interests me and I would definitely work in a field similar to this later on.”
Biology major TJ Sullivan ’17, focused his research on Pheromone Communications in parasites specifically located on pigeons. He worked with his mentor, Christopher Harbison, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, in a lab where they observed groups of pigeons with lice and without. They observed that the lice would eat on the body feather and then conjugate on the wing feathers of the pigeons. Sullivan thought pheromones played a role in this and wanted to find out why the lice always stayed together.
He explored the ability of bird parasites to communicate through pheromones using a Y-tube olfactometer. He found that feather-feeding lice are strongly attracted to pheromones produced by either sex. In the future, Sullivan and Harbison are going to do further research on what the chemical identity is of the pheromones that the lice are emitting.
“I want to go to medical school so this is a good start,” said Sullivan. “There is definitely an advantage to doing research at Siena because it helps you get exposed to research outside of the classroom.”
Kirstiana Brickman ’17, psychology major and DAKE fellow, has been inspired to become a health studies minor through her research on female veterans’ health resources with Karen Boswell, Ph.D., professor of psychology.
From the beginning of her research, Brickman knew she wanted to study veterans. A veteran peer specialist at Disabled American Veterans (DAV) helped her focus her research on the mental health resources and policies for female veterans. She came across three highlighted requests in her literature review: private rooms in emergency departments at veteran’s hospitals, separate classes on military sexual trauma, as well as an option to a have a female or male mental health professional.
The most staggering statistic she came across was in 2014 only 1/3 of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers that were reviewed had a gynecologist on staff.
“Albany Stratton Veterans Administration has done a lot to fix this issue to meet the needs of the female veterans within the community, which I think is a wonderful thing that Albany has done,” said Brickman.
She believes that students given the opportunity to do any kind of research should fully embrace it.
“Any opportunity that a student can get to get out of the classroom and do work in the community will benefit them,” said Brickman. “This has been a very enriching part of my time here at Siena and I am very happy that I have been able to do this.”
