HSU Students Excel at Student Research Competition

Humboldt State students took home two first-place awards and one second-place award at the 34th Annual California State University Student Research Competition held virtually at CSU East Bay this year.

Michael Academia won first place for an undergraduate student in the Biological and Agricultural Sciences category. Academia, a Fisheries Biology major, won for his project “Food Provisioning, Prey Composition, and Nesting Success of Ospreys in Northwestern California.” He is advised by Fisheries Biology Professor Jose Marin Jarrin.

Watch Academia’s presentation (video).

M. Gohazrua Butler also won first place for an undergraduate student in the Biological and Agricultural Sciences category. Butler is a Biochemistry major, and won for his project “Transgenic Zebrafish Labeling Chloride Transporters, Key Regulators of Brain Activity and Behavior.” He is advised by Psychology Professor Ethan Gahtan and Biological Sciences Professor John Steele.

Watch Butler’s presentation (video).

Carrie Tully and Cody Henrikson won second place for graduate students in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category. Tully is an Environment and Community major, and Henrikson is a Marine Biology major. They won for their project “Imagining an Indigenized Campus.” They are advised by Native American Studies professor Cutcha Risling Baldy.

Watch Tully and Henrikson’s presentation (video).

In total, 12 students represented HSU at this annual statewide competition, which involved more than 200 outstanding student researchers from the 23 CSU campuses who competed for research awards in discipline-based categories.

“These outstanding students are all passionate about their research, which represents the academic rigor of all three colleges at HSU,” says Kacie Flynn, Interim Executive Director of the HSU Sponsored Programs Foundation. Flynn also praised the students’ faculty advisors. “HSU faculty are dedicated to integrating research into the students’ education and serve as mentors to our students. Even with the added challenges this year has brought us, they remain committed to ensuring our student researchers succeed.”

The other students who competed in the 34th Annual CSU Student Research Competition were:

Karin Chao-Bushoven, Graduate in School of Education
“Why People Donate? Motivation in Major Donors in Higher Education”
Faculty advisor: Eric Van Duzer, Chair, School of Education

Ciara Emery, Graduate in Environment and Community
“Bringing Climate Change Home to Meet Your Viewshed: Stakeholder Perceptions of Offshore Wind Energy in Humboldt County, California”
Faculty advisors: Laurie Richmond, Associate Professor, Environmental Science and Management, and John Meyer, Chair, Politics

Irene Gonzalez-Herrera, Graduate in Psychology
“Bully-Victimization, Depression, and School Connectedness in Early Adolescent Students”
Faculty advisor: William Reynolds, Professor Emeritus in Psychology

Sarah Holden, Undergraduate in Anthropology
“A Symbol of Hope: An Ethnographic Analysis of Religion and Disaster Following the Camp Fire”
Faculty advisor: Mary Scoggin, Professor in Anthropology

Haley Huffaker, Elizabeth Osuna, Undergraduates in Child Development
“An Autoethnographic Exploration of Resilience among Student Parents in College: Voices of Latina
Student Mothers”
Faculty advisor: Meenal Rana, Associate Professor in Child Development

Brandon Light, Undergraduate in Biological Sciences
“Loss of LGL 1 Affects Akt and Girdin in Murine Neural Progenitor Cells in a mTOR Dependent Manner”
Faculty advisor: Amy Sprowles, Chair, Biological Sciences

Erin Trent, Graduate in Biological Sciences
“Detection, Isolation, and Characterization of Rickettsia Species Phylotype G022 from Ixodes pacificus”
Faculty advisor: Jianmin Zhong, Professor in Biological Sciences