Emerge Scholars

Emerge Scholars 2023 - 2024

Wendy Kiesewetter

Wendy Kiesewetter designed a case study in which she explored how having an intentionally designed personal brand - akin to a fleshed-out corporate brand like Apple or Nike - can help someone get a job. Wendy interviewed experts in design, professional development, psychology, marketing, and more as preliminary research. Afterwards, she designed three brands for three individuals with varying career goals and identities. She met with them throughout the year and designed an in-depth, personalized brand for each of them that reflects their personalities and professional desires. Wendy designed three sets of logos, color palettes, brochures, booklets, business cards, envelopes, letterheads, and social media accounts, each one specifically designed for each person. In addition to this, she painted a wall in the Melvin Fine Arts Gallery which involved hanging large vinyl signs, posters, shelves, and much more hands-on practical gallery installation work. She presented her findings in front of the entire FSC Art Department in front of a creative director judge from Publix.

Ariana Harris

Ariana Harris was nominated for the 2023/2024 Emerge Scholar award by Dr. Patrick L. Smith for her 6 research projects that investigated pedagogical techniques to improve science literacy in adolescents and young adults. These techniques have included content-targeted memes, multisensory learning blocks, trading card games, and modified board games, all of which served as supplements to improve memory retention for various anatomical and physiological materials. Ariana served as a primary investigator on all of these projects and has presented her scholarly work on campus at the Psychology Research Expo, and at off-campus meetings that have included Central Florida Psychology Summit, Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC), and at the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) meeting. Ariana is also an author on a manuscript that is under review by the North American Journal of Psychology while preparing two additional peer-review manuscripts for the Florida Literacy Journal and the Teaching of Psychology journals.

Devin Mantei

Devin Mantei was nominated for the 2023/2024 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Charles Allen for her research examining the Landmine Rotation exercise, its proper techniques, variations, and programming recommendations. Her research alongside Dr. Allen has demonstrated that the Landmine Rotation exercise and its variations would be beneficial for use in strength and conditioning coaching, especially its rotational, total-body, sport-specific movement pattern. This research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Devin has also examined nutrition literacy in dancers through both a review of literature and her own research with the Florida Southern dance department. This research demonstrated that dancers both at Florida Southern College and worldwide exhibit unexpectedly low levels of knowledge regarding appropriate nutrition, highlighting a need for nutrition interventions in dance programs. From these results, future research should be done to examine the most effective intervention programs to enhance dancer longevity.

Demitra Sejka

Emerge Scholars 2022 - 2023

Lawton Bauer

Abbey Hafler

Abbey Hafler was nominated for the 2022/2023 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Erica Marshall for her research examining differences in QT interval recovery between high load resistance exercise and blood flow restriction exercise. She also explored whether there were differences in the QT interval between blood flow restriction exercise performed with two different cuff types, a knee wrap, and a pneumatic cuff. On February 24th, Abbey successfully gave a thematic poster presentation entitled, “Changes in the QT interval following high-load resistance exercise and low-load blood flow restriction exercise” at the SEACSM Annual Meeting. Abbey’s presentation suggested that blood flow restriction exercise performed with a pneumatic cuff lessens prolongation of the QT interval compared to high load resistance exercise. Thus, future research may wish to elucidate whether this modality may produce similar increases in muscle size and strength, but with better cardiovascular outcomes.

Jill Kinstler

Jill Kinstler was nominated for the 2022/2023 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Nancy Morvillo for her original research project isolating bacteria from a commercially available brand of yogurt to determine if the bacteria found in the yogurt were resistant to antibiotics. In her research she isolated the bacteria and identified the genus and species through DNA analysis. Building on her research she examined whether or not these yogurt bacteria could transfer antibiotic resistance to other bacteria, specifically bacteria that normally exists in the human gut. In practical terms, this raises the question of the potential health risks that may exist in manufacturer use of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, and if eating yogurt could cause the naturally existing gut bacteria to become resistant, potentially contributing to the global antibiotic resistance crisis. In her preliminary tests, Jill did not see this transfer.

Livi Schalk

Livi Schalk was nominated for the 2022/2023 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Leilani Goodmon for her five research projects spanning a variety of topics including perceptions of bullying, locus of control and religiosity, and pedagogical techniques to improve learning in children. Livi served as the lead investigator on all of these projects. Each of them represents unique contributions to the field of psychology as these are original research projects that fill a gap in the respective research literature. In addition, Livi presented two of her scholarly projects on campus (FIAT lux and Psychology Research Expo) and has given four conference presentations (SEPA and FURC). Livi’s off-campus conference presentations included several group poster presentations at the 2023 Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) in Miami titled, “Brain blocks: The effects of tactile stimuli to facilitate neuroscience learning in children with dyslexia”, “Locus of Control and Religious Coping” and “Not my child: Perceptions of bullied students with behavioral differences and teacher responses.” She also co-presented a poster titled, “Not my child: Perceptions of bullied students with behavioral differences and teacher responses,” at the Southeastern Psychological Association Convention (SEPA) in Hilton Head, SC. Livi also is the first author of a manuscript under peer review to the Florida Undergraduate Research Journal.

KG Uslan

KG Uslan was nominated for the 2022/2023 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Jenny Moffitt for KG’s creative and scholarly output during their undergraduate career has been outstanding. As a double-major in English and theatre arts, they have skillfully navigated two disciplines, authoring academic papers; authoring and directing plays; and serving as a dramaturge. KG’s innovative and positively-received capstone project in theatre, “The ShakesQueer Experience,” adapted monologues from Shakespeare’s plays to foreground LGBTQ perspectives. In December 2022, they directed a stirring live performance for students and faculty in the Buckner Theatre. KG’s capstone project in English was equally impressive. They composed a smart, well-researched essay that utilizes feminist and queer theory to examine constructions of drag and drag culture in documentary film, literature, and reality television. The paper, titled “Living the Fantasy: The Commodification of Drag Through Popular Media,” has been accepted for publication with the UK-based literary magazine "Queerlings." And in January 2022, they co-presented a paper at Florida Southern College’s Early Modern Manuscript Conference titled “The Myth of Narcissus: How Drama Romanticizes the Sense of Self and Unrequited Love.” For their Honors thesis, KG is writing and directing an original play - “Labeled: A Personal Exploration of Gender Theory.” KG has also authored another original play, which they are producing and directing for the Orlando Fringe Festival in May of 2023: “Mushy.”

Emerge Scholars 2021 - 2022

Brooke Lierman

Brooke Lierman was nominated for the 2021-22 EMERGE Scholar Award by Justin Heacock, Director of the Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. Brooke is the founder of OvertheShoulder, a runner alert device that that creates a safe running experience for women by monitoring what's behind them with smart sensors. Brooke has been pursuing this unique startup project since fall 2020 and ended up becoming FSC's first statewide entrepreneurial award winner in Fall 2021 where she won the USF Daveler Entrepreneurship Award Competition. She was one of 4 winners out of 20 students entrepreneurs from all across the state and walked away with $4,000 in prize money. Brooke has been pursuing this idea as a scholarly activity through the Seed-to-Scale program provided by the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurship. She was also accepted into FSC’s new Seed-to-Scale Accelerator for Spring 2022 as one of six student startups looking to dedicate significant time and effort applying her academic & entrepreneurial skillsets to her venture, which she came in first place for a prize of $11,000.00

Abby Tarleton

Daniela Rincon Garcia

Daniela Rincon Garcia was nominated for the 2021-22 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Erica Marshall for her work exploring exercise recommendations for individuals with hypertension and orthostatic intolerance as partial fulfillment to her course EXS 4500. During this course Daniela utilized exercise equipment such as the electrocardiogram (ECG), inversion table, handgrip dynamometer, and sphygmomanometers, to learn various stressor and orthostatic tests, such as the head up tilt test. During the head up tilt test, the patient first assumes a supine position before the table is inclined to a 70-degree angle. Once the position is attained, the patient becomes reliant upon nervous system activity in order for blood to return from the lower extremities to the upper body, mainly the heart and brain. Individuals with orthostatic intolerance cannot meet this physiological change due to disruptions within the nervous system, the result is syncope (i.e., fainting). Daniela presented the orthostatic test, procedures, and interpretation at the 2021 Spring Fiat Lux Symposium

Madison Meares

Madison Meares was nominated for the 2021-2022 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Patrick Smith and Dr. Leilani Goodmon. Madison served as the lead investigator on a project designed to determine the effect of drawing associations on memory. This year-long project required extensive planning and designing and the data collection portion was quite complicated. She presented the results of this drawing effect study at the 2021 Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) conference. Madison also presented the results of her project on study materials and memory at the 2022 Florida Undergraduate Research Conference. In addition, Madison was the principal investigator on a project designed to determine if a specific rhythmic pattern of music induced mood and arousal levels in order to then boost spatial-cognitive abilities. This work will be presented at the 2022 SEPA conference. Madison also was one of the lead investigators investigating how internet memes serve as pedagogical aids when studying neuroscience-based content.

Jadin Dewith

Jadin Dewith was nominated for the 2021-2022 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Sara Terrel. Jadin’s honor’s research examined how softball pitcher’s strength changes over a season. This study attempted to measure isometric muscle strength of key muscles utilized in an underhand pitching motion throughout various time points (off season, pre-season, in-season) and determine if there is a relationship of isometric strength to pitch count and shoulder pain. Jadin’s study is the first-ever athlete monitoring research study conducted with Florida Southern College Softball pitchers throughout a calendar year. Jadin conceptualized, formulated, executed, and sustained all parts of her research study over the last 2 years. She learned new laboratory skills in order to execute this project, such as manual muscle testing using a hand-held dynamometer. To assist in her testing techniques, Jadin collaborated with our Physical Therapy program to assist in checking our testing skills (check reliability on testing procedures). She also conducted multiple piloting sessions to continue to refine her skills.

Emerge Scholars 2020 - 2021

Sarah Bliss

Andrea Frias

Andrew Paul McIntosh

Emerge Scholars 2019 - 2020

Bethany Blevins

Publications

National Association of Professional Development Schools

Project Description

In the summer of 2018, Bethany worked collaboratively with Dr. Lori Rakes and Dr. Rebecca Powell, researching the relationships between cooperating teachers and preservice teachers, the impact the relationships have on their work, and how the cooperating teachers view the role of mentorship. The research question studied was, "How do cooperating teachers view their roles and responsibilities?" She completed a literature review matrix on the topic, and analyzed a large data set, including surveys from preservice teachers and mentor teachers. Using one subset of data from this research, Bethany co-authored and published an article, Using Videos to Strengthen Mentor Teaching in Stories from the Field, a publication of the National Association of Professional Development Schools. In her freshman year in the School of Education, Bethany presented original research on the relationship between home life and school success, and in her junior year, she participated in a research panel presentation on phonics interventions for striving readers.

About her work, one professor said, "Bethany Blevins is an outstanding student, emerging scholar, and citizen. Not only was Bethany involved in collaborative research with faculty, she also engaged across campus in leadership roles. As a member of the Student Government Association, she served as an Education Senator, on the Honor Code Incident Review Board, and as a member of the Sustainability Committee, working to make the campus more environmentally friendly. Her passion for the environment continued as she worked alongside her mentor teacher, Lana Allen at McKeel Academy Central, to plan and execute an environmental club for students in grades 3-5, the Wildcat Wilderness Warriors, during her final internship."

Zachary Fralish

Conferences

American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting

Project Description

Zachary completed a few projects: he worked with three chemistry faculty on a project to focus on the development of metal organic materials to deliver molecules in the retina. This work involved development of three separate projects that worked synchronously to allow for work towards addressing diseases of the eye, very difficult to deliver drugs. His most significant work is working with Dr. Shelby and Dr. Berend on the development of a material that would allow for the development of material impregnated with with an antibacterial agent that could be slowly released in wounds. This work is leading to a patent. His work won him the Goldwater Scholarship. Additionally he applied for the NSF fellowship, and his work appeared to be well received. Zachary helped to develop a novel antibiotic-eluting hemostatic agent. (A material that's used post surgery to stop bleeding in the wound and we made it to have a controlled release of antibiotics that lasts over 4 weeks). He was able to confirm the concentrations of antibiotics released at each time point, confirm efficacy of the antibiotics after release, and confirmed the ability of the hemostatic agent to swell when combined with the antibiotic. The product he helped to produce has the potential to be utilized during surgery and significantly decrease the rate of infection in patients following surgery.

"Zachary is extremely driven to succeed in and excited by science, without being obsessed. He is diligent, creative and intelligent. He has an intellectual curiosity I have seen in very few students. He has a desire to make the world a better place, but unlike every other student in the science he wants to do it through scientific research and not just as a practitioner."

Sydney Johnson

Project Description

Sydney completed a descriptive study looking at the role peer support plays in the management of college students living with type 1 diabetes. She looked at comparing students in a peer support group with students not in a peer support group. She then looked at comparing students in face-to-face versus online peer support groups. She created an online survey comprised of demographic questions and 2 questionnaires used frequently with individuals with type 1 diabetes. She analyzed her data using SPSS.

As a testement to her success, one professor said, "Sydney created a research project from scratch. She completed a great literature review, compiled an online survey, reached out to many colleges and online support groups to recruit participants. She also learned how to analyze descriptive data using SPSS. She has type 1 diabetes but was able to distance herself from the findings to examine them objectively. She was not able to recruit the number of participants that she wished but this study is a great starting point to complete future research projects."

Hannah Kiester

Emily Ready

Project description

Emily had conducted numerous projects. However, her manuscripts for peer-review publication investigated how homonegativity is seen in the workplace and how it can be negatively associated with a company's "brand image." The latter has just been accepted into the North American Journal of Psychology for publication. Outside the above mentioned manuscripts, she has made poster and presentations at the Southeastern Psychological Association, the Florida Summit for Undergraduate Research (where she won an award for her poster), the Council for Undergraduate Research, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, which is rare for an undergraduate to be accepted to present.

"Emily wants to pursue a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology in order to create inclusive environments for all members of organizations regardless of race, gender, sexuality, etc. Her work epitomizes the QEP in terms of scientific inquiry and in terms of improving the cultural horizons of businesses and organizations."

Emerge Scholars 2018 - 2019

Gianna Appolonia

Conference

The American College Dance Association Southeast Conference

Project Description

Gianna created her choreographic work "Vide Noir" during DAN 3663 Choreography III to reflect the vastness of space and the unknown in life. To begin her research she posed questions to the dancers and began forming their responses into movement. Her outside inspiration came from the work of Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company and used movement workshopping methods to create choreography that relayed deep meaning and emotional content. To set this tone, Gianna chose not to set the piece to traditional music and instead use a recording of electronic sounds that resemble the wind howling through trees. Through her research, Gianna created a sophisticated and well-designed piece of choreography that not only reflects a mood and tone but also demonstrated how movement alone can communicate ideas, emotions, and aesthetics in a surprising and innovative manner.

As a tribute to her success, one professor said, "Gianna's created a very strong choreographic work. Her project grew tremendously from the initial proposal to the final performance due to Gianna's research about her topic and creativity using already established and newly created choreographic methods. She has an aptitude for choreography and the research required of dance artists."

Alec Bigness

Conference

The American Chemical Society National Meeting

Project Description

During his freshman and sophomore years, Alec worked with professors on computational chemistry. This work resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in a peer-reviewed journal (Bigness A, Montgomery J. The Design and Optimization of Plasmonic Crystals for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Using the Finite Difference Time Domain Method. Materials. 2018;11(5):672. doi:10.3390/ma11050672) and an oral presentations at regional meeting. Alec has not only conducted research at FSC but was also selected to participate in two REUs: Florida State University (summer 2017) and Toulouse Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, Occitanie, France (summer 2018). In the spring of his junior year, he joined my research group to develop his honors thesis. Alec wanted to blend his computational experience to optimize metal organic materials (MOMs) with the aim to seek applications on drug delivery. He has synthesize three new MOMs and is studying theirs stability and will use a model pharmaceutical compound to test the ability of these compounds as drug delivery agents. ± 2.30 in. There was no significant relationship between BF% and VJ (r = -.050) or FMS and VJ (r = -.246). Freshman had lower BF% than returners. Movement quality scores indicate athletes achieved composite scores above injury risk. Vertical jump ability was higher in returners yet both freshmen and returners had lower than recommended reactive power. BF% or movement quality did not correlate with VJ performance.

Alec is one of the most talented and creative students I have had the privilege to work with. He is an independent thinker capable of bridging several areas of chemistry and science in general.

Charles Gotsch

Conference

Academy of Business Research Fall Conference

Project Description

The expansion of nontraditional equity investing platforms and peer-to-peer lending platforms has created a financial disruption the private sector’s financial services industry. As the practice and number of platforms continue to expand, so do the associated concerns and reservations about supply-side investor risk, fraud, and money laundering. Charles' research focuses on conceptualizing and scrutinizing online equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending utilizing data about investor perception of risk. His analysis will quantify investor risk perception about the different conceptual spaces within the business life cycle in addition to the ease of entry and convenience associated with the practices. Also, it explores the current regulatory environment and use the critical application of accounting principles for an examination of fraud and culpability concerns within online equity crowdfunding and peer-to peer (P2P) lending structures.

Research Questions:
1. Does the stage of business development lifecycle affect microinvestor perception of risk?
2. Does ease of access/convenience of nontraditional business investments decrease risk aversion?
3. Does regulatory oversight have a positive effect on nontraditional business microinvestor risk assessment?
4. Is there sufficient legal oversight of microinvestor activities?

As a testament to his success, one professor said, "Charles' work is unique and has leveraged interest from Linkedin Influencers on the topic of micro and peer to peer lending.

Anna Griessler

Conferences

Southeast American College of Sports Medicine Regional Conference (SEASCM);
American College of Sports Medicine National Conference (ACSM-National)

Project Description

Theme:
The Physical and Athletic Performance Characteristics of Division II Collegiate Women Soccer Players.

Questions:
1. Is an athlete’s body composition related to her expression of power (i.e. a higher percent of adipose tissue correlates with a lower power output)?
2. Is an athlete’s movement quality score related to her expression of power (i.e. higher movement quality correlates with a higher power output, etc.)?

Techniques:
1. Body fat percentage (BF%) was measured utilizing air plethysmography and Bioelectrical Impedance.
2. Vertical jump and reactive power was measured using a Just Jump Mat.
3. Functional movement screening (FMS) was measured using an FMS kit.
4. Data was assessed using SPSS software (version 25.0).

Results:
Team BF% was 19.99 ± 4.39% with freshman (n=10) BF% recorded at 18.73 ± 5.07% and returners (n=12) at 21.0 ± 3.62%. 95% of the team achieved a 15 or higher composite score on FMS screening. Team VJ was 19.28 ± 2.61in with freshman VJ of 18.56 ± 2.88 measuring lower than returners VJ of 19.88 ± 2.30 in. There was no significant relationship between BF% and VJ (r = -.050) or FMS and VJ (r = -.246). Freshman had lower BF% than returners.

Anna found that movement quality scores indicate athletes achieved composite scores above injury risk. Vertical jump ability was higher in returners yet both freshmen and returners had lower than recommended reactive power. BF% or movement quality did not correlate with VJ performance.

As a tribute to her success, one professor said, "Anna is the first student in the Exercise Science Program program to be accepted to the SEACSM regional conference- this is setting a tremendous example for younger majors about the value of research and presenting your work professionally. Over the course of the past two years she has been involved in research projects involving women’s soccer that have resulted in four abstract acceptances for regional, national, and international meetings. She is intellectually curious."

Kenzie Hurley

Research

Kenzie worked with the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) June 2018 on a project to help identify the characteristics of sexual harassment perpetrators. As part of a joint FSC-DEOMI research team, Kenzie helped develop a survey instrument which was administered to FSC students as part of a pilot study. Kenzie was instrumental not only in the creation of that survey instrument, but also in obtaining approval from the military to conduct the research, and with the data analysis and report writing. In fact, Kenzie took the lead in analyzing the data (N = 1,850) that was collected from military members from September – October 2018. Kenzie also helped present the results of the FSC pilot study at both the Southern Criminal Justice Association and the Southeastern Psychology Association annual conferences, and submitted the results for publication at the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychologists conference. Importantly, Kenzie’s research continued through the Summer of 2019. Kenzie was selected for a prestigious internship through the Office of Naval Research and spent her summer studying sexual harassment issues. Kenzie is now attending the University of West Florida for her graduate studies.

As a tribute to her success, one professor said, "Kenzie is the most impressive student I have ever worked with in almost 13 years of teaching. She is the epitome of a well-rounded student having an outstanding GPA while serving as the Secretary and, then, the President of Psychology Club. In a short two year period of time she has published in a peer-reviewed journal, presented 18 posters at regional and national conferences, and was selected for a prestigious research internship through the Department of Defense."

Ann Kast

Conference

National Association of Professional Development Schools

Project Description

Ann's project dealt with how to increase writing proficiency for students with reading difficulties. She developed five different lessons where she used art to develop students writing. The students are in sixth grade at the Roberts Academy. The results showed that the students writing was enriched with descriptive language.

As a tribute to her success, one professor said "Ann Kast has presented at NAPDS for the past two years. She has also presented at Fiat Lux, in 2018 and her poster, on using graphic novels to increase fluency in reading was displayed in Convo. She is a Southern Ambassador and shows leadership and creativity in everything she does."

James McKenna

PUBLICATIONS

Jim's work has been featured and published in a number of literary journals, both those aimed at undergraduates and others which accept work from writers at all stages of their careers.

Project Description

Jim has been working with me for a year on generating a manuscript of original poetry partially focused on his own navigations of racial identity and sexual politics. A number of his poems have been accepted or are under consideration by nationally-recognized literary journals, and he has applied to a number of graduate programs to continue this work after his graduation from Florida Southern.

As a tribute to his success, one professor said, "In addition to his personal accomplishments in his own field, Jim has been a tireless ambassador for FSC since his first year on campus. He leads tours, meets with prospective students, assists professors with academic showcases and meetings with interested students and family members, manages the literary magazine (a powerful recruiting tool for students), and will represent the college extremely well as he moves forward with the next phases of his academic and artistic career."