Twenty-eight Stanislaus State students — 12 graduate assistants and 16 undergraduate assistants — have been awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 from the University’s Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (SERSCA) Program.
The grants allow the students to work alongside faculty and engage in meaningful activities, such as research, creative projects and professional development. Projects the students are working on cover a wide range, from financial analyses to psychological studies to genetic research on ground squirrels.
Victoria Coffey, a graduate student in biological sciences, is studying marine bacteria to determine which bacteria species is best at breaking down PHB plastic, a newly developed bio-derived and biodegradable material.
“A lot of companies are looking into PHB plastic for packaging, toys and other everyday items,” said Coffey, who is from Oakdale. “This research is focused on making sure it will degrade in a marine setting because one of our biggest environmental issues is plastic buildup in the oceans.”
The study is a collaboration between Stanislaus State and Chico State. It requires Coffey to travel to the Northern California coast about once a month to collect marine water, then isolate bacteria from the water samples and apply them to PHB plastic in a lab. When a specific bacterium is shown to break down PHB rapidly, it is analyzed for its DNA sequence and included on a list of successful bacteria.
“If PHB is mass produced, the goal is to have a home treatment that can be used in the compost container or trash can to start the degradation right then and there,” Coffey said. “That would prevent waste buildup and a lot of pollution issues could be solved.”
While Coffey studies bacteria from the sea, graduate student Derielle Coleman is focusing her sights overseas as she prepares to travel to West Africa to train social work professionals on the most effective ways to work with interns.
Coleman, who is working on a master’s degree in social work, will help facilitate trainings in June at two universities in Accra and Kumasi in the Republic of Ghana. The professionals she helps train will be eventually accepting interns from both universities and prepare them for their careers in social work.
“In the training, we’ll cover how to engage with students and how to create a setting for them to learn about ethics and practice techniques,” said Coleman, who is from Patterson. “These professionals will be helping students gain an understanding of what the social work field is like, but they might have no experience doing this or know exactly what type of experience to provide to the students.”
As she prepares for the trainings, Coleman is learning about curriculum creation, travel logistics, international standards of social work, establishing her authority when communicating with others and how to coordinate with a group of people to meet deadlines and keep a project moving forward.
A descendant of slaves from four countries along the coast of West Africa, Coleman expects the trip to Ghana to be an emotional one for her. She hopes to do as much sightseeing as possible, with a visit to the country’s slave castles high on her sightseeing list.
“The trip will be about the training, but it will also be about the experience of being there and feeing a connection to the country,” she said. “It’s going to be a really well-rounded trip.”
Stan State students who received SERSCA grants as graduate and undergraduate assistants:
Graduate Assistants
Derielle Coleman
Major: Social Work
Project: Field Supervisor Training in Ghana 2020
Adriana Yepez
Major: Social Work
Project: Simulation Partnership Between the Master of Social Work and School of Nursing
Kenneth Boettcher
Major: History
Project: Graduate Teaching Assistant
Katherine Russell
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: How Behavioral Profiles Co-Vary with Body Condition and Parasite Load in California Ground Squirrels
Daniela Brar
Major: English
Project: Evaluating the Impacts of the Digital Humanities in the Hybrid Multicultural Classroom
Mst Masuda Jahan
Major: Criminal Justice
Project: The Predictive Strength of Core Criminogenic Risk Factors in Collective Societies
Rachel Nannini
Major: Psychology
Project: A Longitudinal Study Exploring Family Interactions in Young Children With and Without Disabilities
Monica Gudino
Major: English
Project: Burly Bagpiping Millers and Eunuch Tenors: Gender and Music in Chaucer
Zachary Gurr
Major: Social Work
Project: Examining Food Insecurity Among University Students: Experiences of Participatory Action Researchers
Wenhui Liu
Major: Business Administration
Project: Influence of Asset-Liability Ratio on Company Performance
Victoria Coffey
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: Degradation of Bioplastics with Marine Bacteria
Mariam Ohanlelham
Major: Sociology
Project: Graduate Teaching Assistant
Undergraduate Assistants
Elizabeth Cole
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: Detection and Extraction of Microplastics From the Pacific Mole Crab, Emerita Analoga
Dustin Costello
Major: Communication Studies
Project: Desoxyn: A Deconstruction of the ‘Hard-Drug, Soft-Drug’ Paradigm
Austin White
Major: Kinesiology
Project: Epidemiology Chatbot Development and Evaluation
Meghan Williams
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: Kinship Analysis in California Ground Squirrels Using Seven Genetic Markers
Danielle Simpson
Major: Psychology
Project: Healthy Aging: Exploring the Relationship Between Self-Reported Exercise, Objective Exercise, and Cognitive Function
Amy Hill
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: A Sustainability Study Into Aquaponics
Olivia Blea
Major: Sociology
Project: Veterans’ Attitudes Toward Occupational Hazards
Felice Angelica Dacpano
Major: Chemistry
Project: Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Heterogeneous Catalysts
Ruben Hernandez
Major: Physics
Project: Modeling Gamma Ray Bursts’ Afterglow Using Python
Juan Parra
Major: Physics
Project: Modeling Gamma Ray Bursts’ Afterglow Using Python
Raymond Quinones
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: Analyzing Commercially-Available SNP Genetic Data
Ruben Hernandez
Major: Chemistry
Project: IBU Analysis of Beer with Pre-Separation
Lynsey Hillberg
Major: Chemistry
Project: IBU Analysis of Beer with Pre-Separation
Ashley Bustamante
Major: Biological Sciences
Project: Synthesis of Anomoian B
Samuel Kara
Major: Physics
Project: Dark Matter Data Analysis
Alejandro Caballero Hurtado
Major: English
Project: Decanonization in the Post-Me Too Era