Recently, McNair scholars Arcelia Madrigal and Sylvia Kennerly had the opportunity to present their research to the EWU Board of Trustees, to offer examples of the breadth and depth of undergraduate research being done at Eastern Washington University.
Arcelia, a first-generation college student, will graduate from Eastern Washington University in Spring 2023 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Special Education, as well as a certificate in Social Emotional Learning for Educational Equity. Arcelia completed her 2022 Summer Research under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Ruby. Arcelia has received the Frances B. Huston Medallion Award and the Soaring Eagles Scholarship. This fall, she will attend the University of Washington Tacoma‘s Educational Specialist in School Psychology Program (EdS). She presented her research on Impacts of Cultural Identity and Experience on Perception of Social Emotional Learning.
Sylvia Kennerly is an aspiring researcher majoring in Biochemistry at Eastern Washington University. Driven by her curiosity, Sylvia has engaged in a research project with Dr. Burgis in winter quarter of 2023 exploring the expression of variant ITPase on human neuron cells. For the Board of Trustees meeting, she presented her preliminary research with faculty mentor Dr. Jason Ashley on Overexpression of Fringe Protein in Osteoclast Macrophages. As a student with strong interest in pursuing a career in biochemistry, Sylvia has set her sights on earning a PhD in biochemistry.
While in entirely different academic fields, Arcelia and Sylvia both embody the qualities that take undergraduate research to the next level, already creating original contributions to their fields of study. We are so proud of them for representing the McNair Scholar Program and EWU’s amazing undergraduate researchers!
