Students Present 2025 Summer Research at Poster Session

Many students choose Emmanuel College for its unique Summer Research Fellows Program that nurtures intellectual growth and curiosity, shapes professional journeys, enriches personal development, and creates lasting relationships with faculty members that continue well beyond graduation.

In 2025, 41 students conducted summer research with faculty on the following projects: 

School of Business & Management 
 

Samantha Marasca ’26

 “Leveraging Distance Metrics to Distinguish Understanding in Student Coding Assignments”

Faculty Advisor: Mark Sherman

School of Education 

Alita Larriel E. Robinson ’26 

“Reimaging Education: Designing a Hypothetical School Grounded in Transformative Change”
Faculty Advisor: Christine Leighton

 

School of Humanities & Social Sciences 
 

Loliana Morales ’26, Alex Gencarelli ’26, Mia De Camillis ’26, and Sara Bufano ’27 

“Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Oral History Project”

Faculty Advisors: Kelly Basile, Susan Benzie, Katrin Kriz, and Violetta Ravagnoli

 

Isabella Vierek ’27, Antoine Aoun ’26, Neve Sheckelles ‘27, and Martin Mont ’26 

“Looking Towards Peace”
Faculty Advisor: Lenore Martin 

Taryn Vuk ’26

“Relatable, Reasonable, and Righteous: How Evangelical Influencers Normalize Extremism through Divine Authenticity”

Faculty Advisor: Caitlin Lawson

Abigail Bettencourt ’27

“Remembering Deer Island: A History of Mourning and Cultural Empowerment”

Faculty Advisor: Javier Marion

School of Science & Health 

Max Popolowski ’26, Catalina Lujan-Rodriguez ’26, and Lane Couturier ’26

“Hrp1 promotes early transcription termination via binding to attenuator RNA”
Faculty Advisor: Jason Kuehner

Evie Holt ’26 and Kiana Rodriguez ’27 

“Mitosis Madness: Investigation of GEF function in the mitotic exit network in S. cerevisiae”
Faculty Advisor: Anupama Seshan

 
Lauren Novo ’26 and Madison Sherman ’28 

“Spectrophotometric Exploration of the Mechanism of Dichloroiodate (ICI2-) Formation from Nal, NAOCL, and HCL”

Faculty Advisor:  Nathan Lau

Hovanes Aroian ’28 and Aaliyah Martinez-Ulloa ’26 

“Understanding the Molecular and Genetic Mechanisms of Drosophila RSF1 in vPRC1.1”

Faculty Advisor: Janel Cabrera

Jacob Proulx ’26 and Lydia Vann ’26 

“Analyzing Migration Patterns of Northern Pacific Humpback Whales Sighted Off Guatemala”

Faculty Advisors: Benjamin Allen, Yulia Dementieva, and Christine Sample

Trinity Harrison  ’26  and Sabina Alvarez ’27 

 “Voluntary intake of alcohol in male and female mice: Does housing or caffeine impact alcohol drinking?”
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Crofton

Ada Nicodemus ’26 and Autumn Ruggles ’26 

“I Don’t Have Much of a Safety Net” Stressors in Established Adulthood” 

Faculty Advisor: Clare Mehta

Ada Nicodemus ’26 and Autumn Ruggles ’26 

“Am I Gonna Fit in My Pants?” Body Image in Established Adulthood” 

Faculty Advisor: Clare Mehta

Caroline Abbott ’28 and Amanda Stone ’27

“Exploring Alcohol-Associated Mutagenesis in Various Cancer Types through Mutational Signature Deconvolution” 

Faculty Advisor: Vincent Cannataro

Rebecca Justiniano ’27 and Estella Del Moro ’26 

“Two-Hit Model of Developmental Stress and its Effects on Glucocorticoid Receptor and PSD-95 Expression in Adult CD-1 Mice”

Faculty Advisor: Melanie Leussis

Radi Sullivan ’27 

“Role of ANK3 in stress-susceptibility and psychiatric disease risk in mice; impact of voluntary exercise” 

Faculty Advisor: Melanie Leussis

Storme Ray ’27

“Analyzing the Role of BCOR in Drosophila v PRC1.1”
Faculty Advisor: Janel Cabrera
 

Aaliyah Martinez-Ulloa ’26 

“Investigating the Role of vPRC1.1 Complexes in the Ovarioles of Drosophila Melanogaster”
Faculty Advisor: Janel Cabrera
 

Jillian Tierney ’27 

“Introducing the Alternative TurbolD Tagging Method in vivo”
Faculty Advisor: Janel Cabrera 
 

Aiden McCarthy ’26 

“Battle of the TFs: How SKN-1 and KLFs Regulate Fat Metabolism in C. elegans” 
Faculty Advisor: Natalie Karagodsky 
 

Sophia Trindade ’27 

“Social Connection, Social Norms, and generative AI Use”

Faculty Advisor: Linda Lin

Astrid Esperanza Noriega ’26 

“Amyloid aggregation in bacteria”
Faculty Advisor: Padraig Deighan
 

Georgia Kazis ’27 

“DNA Origami as a Biomimetic Scaffold for Calcium Phosphate Mineralization”
Faculty Advisor: Aren Gerdon 
 

Lana Dang ’28

“Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) Analysis of Collagen Mineralization in Dynamic Recirculating Solution Conditions”
Faculty Advisor: Aren Gerdon 
 

Ann-Lee Coriolan ’28 
“Mineralization of Calcium Phosphate with Different Sized and Aptamer Attached Gold Nanoparticles” 
Faculty Advisor: Aren Gerdon