Emerge Scholars

The Emerge Scholars Award honors exceptional undergraduate students at Florida Southern College who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in research, scholarship, or creative activity. Each academic year, one student from each School or division is selected for this distinction.

Emerge Scholars exemplify intellectual curiosity, academic excellence, and a deep commitment to advancing knowledge or artistic expression within their fields. Their accomplishments are showcased below and recognized during the Spring Fiat Lux academic showcase.

Faculty and students are invited to nominate individuals whose work reflects the highest standards of undergraduate achievement. Recipients are selected by the faculty members of the Honors Committee.

Emerge Scholars 2024 - 2025

Haley Thomassy

Haley Thomassy is a 2025 graduating senior with a bachelor’s degree in biology. In 2024, she coauthored a publication in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal titled, “Acyclovir Dosing Practices Across a Multicenter Cohort of Neonatal Intensive Care Units.” She also received multiple awards including the Athletic Director Scholars Award (Spring 2024), given to an outstanding student-athlete on each sports team at Florida Southern College for their athletic and academic success; the Lawrence L. Campbell Award (Spring 2023), awarded to an outstanding and promising student-athlete in the Biology Department as a tribute to Dr. Campbell, a student-athlete who understood the commitment and dedication necessary to maintain both academic and athletic success; and the CSC Academic All-District Team (Fall 2022), which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom across four divisions, NCAA DI, NCAA DII, NCAA DIII, and NAIA. Her future include attending medical school in August to become a physician.

Abram Dy

Lamiya Marie Dix

Lamiya Marie Dix is a Spring 2025 graduating senior with a degree in Humanities with an emphasis in art history and English and with a criminology minor. During her time at FSC, she notes that she developed the moral standard to be a voice, when given an opportunity, for those deemed voiceless metaphorically and literally. Notably, she received the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity award (2024) for submitting her work On The Politicized Black Female Body: Looking At Firelei Bȧez’s Mutable Anthropomorphic Form at the Southeastern College Art Conference. She also provided administrative work at a facility for children with disabilities and hands-on learning with marginalized bodies during her appointment as the Black Student Union event coordinator and ambassador for the Polk County Pace Girls Center. She published a creative work with Siren Press titled, “Under the Skin: An Anthology of the Uncomfortable.” Post-graduation she plans to attend Florida State University’s dual Master's and Juris Doctorate program for social work and law. Her long-term goal is to use my academic and professional experience to open a Boys' Center that enhances the livelihood of at-risk youth with education in the arts.

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