Students’ Academic Research Showcased at Annual Undergraduate Symposium
On April 15-16, 85 Assumption students presented their original academic research projects during the 25th Annual Undergraduate Symposium. This annual event highlights the scholarly achievements of Assumption students and demonstrates the collaboration that occurs between Assumption students and faculty members on campus.
“The development of students’ critical thinking skills is the foundation of a liberal arts education,” said Louise Carroll Keeley, Ph.D., provost and academic vice president. “The annual Symposium provides undergraduates an opportunity to showcase the knowledge they have learned in the classroom and demonstrate how they have expanded and applied those new insights to a comprehensive research endeavor. Student presentations are wide-ranging in theme and disciplinary method, but all provide thought-provoking analysis and insight that can advance knowledge and improve the world in which we live.”
The following is a list of student projects presented during the 25th Undergraduate Symposium (in order of presentation):
Self-Organization of Cosmic Elements during Stellar Evolution: Comparison Between First and Subsequent Generations of Stars (Travis Butler ’20)
Innocent Victims: Exploring Opioid Exposure in Infants (Devon Joyce ’19)
Community Service Learning Project at AIDS Project Worcester Enriches Immunology Course (Alyssa Masciarelli ’19)
Seasonal Prevalence of Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis in Central Massachusetts L. catesbeianus Tadpoles (Thomas Barringer ’19)
The Role of Interferon-β in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (Cameron Young ’19)
A New Perspective on Female Viking Warriors (Gabrielle DeLo ’19)
Medieval Women as Warriors (Bryce Thomas ’20)
Disability in Viking Culture: The Case of Ívar the Boneless (Orsolina O’Neill ’20)
Nodi Virumque Cano: The Man of Twists and Turns (Jakob Pohlman ’22)
Norman Thomas: The Fire of a Pacifist (Michael Turaj ’20)
A Voice that Will Last a Lifetime (Zachary Sneeringer ’19)
The Factors that Influence the Selection of Literature in a High School English Language Arts (ELA) Curriculum (Maura Geoghegan ’19)
A Comparative Analysis of Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America (Carolina Munoz ’19)
The Immigration Crisis in Italy: A New Crisis Caused by the Convergence of Pre-Existing Crises and What it Means for Globalization (Emma Salachi ’19)
An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Class, and Gender (Daniella Pitruzzello ’19)
An Appeal to Heaven wWthout Bringing about the Wrath of God: A Thomistic Appeal to Heaven through Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Katie Samalis ’19)
Factors for Charitable Giving (Alex Richardson ’19)
Dealing with a Child with Intellectual Disabilities (Ben Alzamora ’19)
Teachers’ Beliefs about Behavior Management in Alternative Schools (Justin Hansen ’19)
Studying Family Connections in Policing (Alexandra Youssef ’19)
Situational Stress on Law Enforcement Officers and Coping Mechanisms (Taylor Burke ’19)
Are Juvenile Detention Centers an Effective or Humane Way of Correcting Criminal Behavior? (Alana Caraballo ’19)
Conducting Research with the Boston Chronicle, an Eighteenth-Century Newspaper (Gabriella Kamyck ’22, Antonia Kosnoski ’22, and Alyssa Szymkowicz ’19)
Marketing the Slave Trade in Eighteenth-Century America (Ethan Canove ’22, Grant Fabbri ’22, Tyler Moreau ’22, and Colin Orleman ’22)
The Influence of Advertisements in Eighteenth-Century American Newspapers (Alison Fitzpatrick ’22, Gina LeDonne ’22, Shannon McLaughlin ’22, and Isabella Ruane ’22)
Hands-On History: What we Learned from Participating in a History Lab (Genevieve Duff ’22, Jamison Naylor ‘22, and Skylar Wolfe ’22)
Using Advertisements and Shop Signs to Explore Colonial American History (Zachary Dubreuil ’21, Alexander Olmsted ’22, and Daniel Rodriguez ’22)
Predictors of Police Misconduct (Joseph Kim ’19)
Effectiveness of Different Policing Strategies (Robert Vozella ’19)
Student Leadership in Faith-Based Programs (Hannah Avard ’19)
Police Officer and Student Opinions on Body Cameras (Jake Shetrawski ’19)
Who Gets Bail? (Catherine Mullaney ’19)
Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System (Jose Palomino ’19)
The Importance of Advertisement in the Era of the American Revolution (Samantha Surowiec ’21)
When Life Gives you Lemons: Fruit and Status in Colonial and Revolutionary America (Olivia Burke ’20)
Using Newspaper Advertisement to Examine Consumer Culture in Colonial America (Chloe Amour ’21)
What I Learned as a Guest Curator for the Adverts 250 Project (Matthew Ringstaff ’21)
What I Learned From Being a Guest Curator for the Adverts 250 Project (Luke DiCicco ’21)
Stress among DCF Social Workers (Allyson Thomas ’19)
Police Effectiveness in Preventing Crime (Goran Krasic ’19)
Determinants of Custody in Low-Income Families (Eric Van Laarhoven ’19)
Factors that Influence Property Crime (Evan Cristy ’19)
Comparison of Attitudes between Police Officers and College Students on Civilians Recording Police-Civilian Interactions (Stephen Lauria ’19)
Homelessness: The Effects on Children (Meghan Guarino ’19)
Newspaper Advertisements in Colonial America (Aidan Griffin ’20)
Using Advertisement to Examine Daily Life 250 Years Ago Today (Patrick Waters ’19)
Advertisements from 250 Years Ago and What They Tell Us about Life in the Colonies (Sean Duda ’21)
My Experiences as a Guest Curator for Public History Projects about Advertisements (Bryant Halpin ’21)
Doing History by Studying Colonial Advertisements (Zachary Dubreuil ’21)
Utilizing Phenotypic Characteristics and Genetic Sequencing to Identify an Unknown Bacterium Isolated from a Paper Towel Dispenser at Assumption (Lauren Andre ’20)
The Microbial Community of Kitchen Sponges: Experimental Study Investigating Bacterial Number, Resistance, and Transfer (Sydney Knoll ’19)
Arsenic in Rice (Annie Collins ’19)
The Role of Pigments in DNA Repair and Protection in a Novel Halophilic Archaea (Samantha Tepper ’20)
Water Quality in Lake Quinsigamond (Erin Drumm ’21)
Fairness and Inequity in Cooperative Tasks (Adriana Savage ’20)
Comparison of Growth Rate and Lipid Content in Desert and Polar Algae (Aleeza Isaac ’20)
Optimizing the Pulldown of the Exocyst Complex Using α-GFP Nanobodies (Adrienne Bertothy ’19)
Memory Self-Efficacy and False Memory Susceptibility (Alysha McGovern ’19)
Examining the Relationship Between mtUPR and Synaptic Remodeling in C. elegans (William Armstrong ’20)
In Depth Analysis of Neuronal Dendritic Spines in C. elegans (Heather Bates ’20)
Determining Novel Integrin Ligands that Impact Dendritic Spine Formation (Emily Norman ’20)
Investigating How Regenerating Axons are Guided to their Target Cells (Immaculate A. Ugwumba ’19)
The Impact of Stress on Cognitive Functioning (Gabrielle Jasmin ’19)
Young Adults’ Perceptions of Co-parenting Dynamics in their Families of Origin (Hannah Fung ’20 and Meghan Foster ’20)
Symmetry and the Perception of Houses (Matthew Fogarty ’19, Katelyn Anderson ’19, and Meghan Sampson ’19)
Investigating DNA Repair and Protection Mechanisms in the UV-Resistant Haloarchaea, Halobacterium (Isabella Cafaro ’19 and Alyssa Masciarelli ’19)
The Role of Priority and Coping in the Relationship between Optimism/Pessimism and Academic Performance (Anthony Mastrocola ’19, Esperanza Jiminez ’19, and Hannah Krueger ’19)
Identification of an Unknown Bacterium Isolated from Assumption’s Testa Science Center (Christina Forrest ’19 and Brooke Mullen ’20)