OUR Podcast Sharing the research stories of University of Kentucky undergraduates

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;24
Unknown
Hello and welcome to the OUR Podcast. We are proud to announce the partnership with the University of Kentucky and the office of the Vice President for research. I'm deep, and I'm Diksha. And join us in welcoming Abraham Alhamdanii to the podcast. Hi. Thank you for having me today. Yeah. Thank you for joining us. So tell us a little bit about yourself, Abraham.

00;00;26;27 - 00;00;53;22
Unknown
So I am, you cannot do that. You're going to be a senior next year. I am from Frankfort, Kentucky, and now I am a pre-med student neuroscience at U-K, hoping to go to med school next year. So, yeah. And you're a senior, right? Yes. Yes. So you've been in labs since your freshman year? I have, yes. Did you do research as a high school student?

00;00;53;24 - 00;01;22;04
Unknown
I did not know, but I, when I was in high school, I, I that's when I was actually introduced to research because I had, a lot of peers going to, participating in research, actually, through the program. They through the Gatton Academy program at WKU. That's how I first got introduced to it. I actually applied and I got gotten in, but I decided not to go because I was I'm a very, like, family oriented person.

00;01;22;05 - 00;01;45;18
Unknown
Yeah, it was very hard for me early family and it was more of my decision to just stay in high school. Kind of enjoy my time there before college. But that's kind of when I learned about me. And that's about research, what it could do, how you could participate. And so I actually came into UK already having this interest in research and kind of through the under Office of Undergraduate Research, I got connected with my mentor.

00;01;45;20 - 00;02;05;24
Unknown
I learned how to reach out to them and I actually started participating the spring semester of my freshman year. You started doing research your spring semester. Freshman year? Yes. So how was your introduction into research, even though. Well, it's that you had knowledge of what the field was like. Yes. But you didn't have actual hands on experience, right?

00;02;05;25 - 00;02;33;23
Unknown
Yeah. So how was your transition into jumping into a laboratory? And whose laboratory was it? What who was your mentor and what was that relationship like at the beginning? Yeah. Well, I, I yeah, when I came, I didn't have a hands on experience with research, but I actually took an introductory lab class. I went on it was a biology lab designed to get you introduced into research opportunities with a biology and science department.

00;02;33;23 - 00;02;58;08
Unknown
And I had actually taken that my freshman year. The idea of it was to kind of build up this kind of get students used to laboratory like research, like work. And so at the end of the semester, it was kind of a custom for people to either do a like a structured, second semester, which was called by 1 in 9, or you would actually email API and you would officially join the lab.

00;02;58;08 - 00;03;17;12
Unknown
And that's the route I took. And so I went through neuroscience stuff, and I emailed a lot of them and a lot of the research staff, I emailed all of the email. They actually didn't take me because at the time, this was fall of 2020. So Covid was a really big problem for the university and for, research in general.

00;03;17;12 - 00;03;41;10
Unknown
It was hard to bring new students in. But my mentor, who has and the neuroscience and biology department, doctor Julie Pendergast, is who actually accepted my, my email and actually eventually took me on into her lab. So that's kind of how I got there. And could you describe briefly what your, project with Doctor Pendergast was?

00;03;41;13 - 00;04;14;05
Unknown
So essentially what my research focuses on is the, and our lab, we look at even, we look at it's essentially a combination of circadian rhythm research. So essentially the 24 hour cycles of your body, how those operate and metabolism research specifically focusing on obesity. So what we look at in the lab is how high fat diet intake essentially disrupts the timing at which mice will actually leave their meals or eat their food.

00;04;14;06 - 00;04;32;19
Unknown
So we study lab mice in the lab. And those and the mice are actually supposed to be like, turn off, and they're supposed to eat primarily in night time. But what we've seen in certain turn, my specifically male mice of certain strains, when we feed them high fat diet, they are actually, their eating behavior rhythms become disrupted.

00;04;32;19 - 00;04;59;25
Unknown
They start eating throughout the day and throughout night time at an equal distribution. And essentially there they are. Their eating behavior rhythms become disrupted. And we've seen that. Then this might make them more prone to obesity. So so basically, if you don't sleep according to your like circadian rhythm or like naturally like your tendency is again like your circadian rhythm, like it might mess with your like metabolism.

00;04;59;29 - 00;05;19;27
Unknown
Well, sleep plays a part in that. But what we look at is specifically if you're eating a lot of high fat diet, the idea is possibly in humans that might translate over and affect meal timings in humans. Yeah, we're starting human studies in the lab, though I'm not doing them. But it's definitely something our lab is looking into.

00;05;19;29 - 00;06;01;28
Unknown
And you have a second position, in a different, research area. Right. Could you elaborate more on that? Okay. I'll start from where I was in the Pendergast lab freshman year. I was learning the ropes and getting adjusted to that. But at the same time, I was actually volunteering with, with an organization on campus called Campus Kitchens, which we essentially, we essentially take, food that's about to be thrown, food that's still, edible, but but past the expiration date, we actually take that food, use it to make, meals for people in need, people who are in food insecure in the Lexington and UK communities.

00;06;02;00 - 00;06;23;18
Unknown
And so I was actually doing this volunteering while I was doing research at the time, and I'd been doing this for about eight months, and my supervisor for Campus kitchens actually came up to me and offered me. I would talk about my research a lot, talk about because it's something that's close to my heart. I talk about it, I like mentioning things about it.

00;06;23;18 - 00;06;49;06
Unknown
And so she eventually came up to me and asked, hey, would you be interested in doing research with us? And trying to learn more about our organization and trying to help us implement new interventions for food insecurity? I seemed really interesting to me, so I ended up accepting that position. And so now a lot of my work is, understanding some of the factors contributing to food insecurity.

00;06;49;08 - 00;07;14;10
Unknown
Specifically, this work is with my supervisor for campus kitchens, Kendra Narasaki, who is, a PhD student at UK. But and then my actual P.I. is Doctor Tammy Stevenson and the Department of Human and the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition. So, so essentially what I do is learn, look into the factors contributing to food insecurity in our local community.

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Unknown
And currently we're working on the project trying to understand how, meal assistance, nutrition education can actually improve, or decrease the risk of becoming food insecure and decrease and improving health overall. So you currently do research in two different areas, and one is more humanities focus and one is more Stem. And like Wet Lab is a focus.

00;07;38;06 - 00;08;06;09
Unknown
And so between the two, how has that helped you grow as a researcher and what different skills have you learned from these two? So definitely I think it was very good for me to get into a second research environment because definitely there challenges that can come from being in research. And I think finding different, different mentors who can help you at different stages of your journey has been very, very good for me.

00;08;06;12 - 00;08;29;16
Unknown
And essentially, I think being in those two different areas has been very good for me because it's kind of gotten me to my end goal is going to medical school and becoming a doctor, but I definitely want to continue research in that career path. And I think participating in those two types of research opportunities have kind of informed what I really want to do.

00;08;29;19 - 00;08;54;16
Unknown
Like if I was only if I was still only doing the, mouse work, I really wouldn't have any understanding of research outside of that. But having experience with research in the community, directly working with people, and what lab animal work research has kind of I kind of under, I've learned that I really like people more than I do mice, honestly.

00;08;54;18 - 00;09;22;04
Unknown
So I, I think working with people is more suited to my person. Not only I like talking to people, I like being social, and I like having a direct impact on the community. And I think my research with the mice and with the repeating rhythm research is going to have an impact on the community, but very, very far down the line, like in 20 years time, if not longer.

00;09;22;08 - 00;09;46;04
Unknown
And I think I get more satisfaction from creating interventions that directly help people in the now. And so I think that's more of the research I want to continue. But at the same time, I like understanding the basic science aspects and reading papers and trying to incorporate that into my work, which is I'm only really doing that at the, Rhythm Lab.

00;09;46;06 - 00;10;28;17
Unknown
And so I hope to incorporate both parts of that into my future as a researcher, based on this interdisciplinary approach that you've taken to research. What's one piece of advice that you would give to, incoming students to take that same approach and find where they want to get into, for research? I would say be open to finding mentors outside of your major or outside of your departments, being open to opportunities that truly like that truly speak to you as an individual, as opposed to finding research opportunities that strictly fulfill, of course, credits or strictly fulfill your department that you're in.

00;10;28;21 - 00;10;53;23
Unknown
I think being open with that is as a very good way of finding research and finding a place that you'll be happy with as, as, Stu, that you mentioned a lot of research that you're incorporated in, but what are some hobbies that you have outside of research? I like to go to the gym a lot. I try to go 5 to 6 days a week, but sometimes you have some off days.

00;10;53;23 - 00;11;15;28
Unknown
You have some off weeks. What else? I am in a choir at UK, actually the Corsairs choir. It's a mixed gender choir. I actually didn't sing in choir before college, but I had friends around me that kind of pushed me to start. And it's been a really fun activity. You know, one hour every few days a week.

00;11;16;01 - 00;11;53;14
Unknown
Just take my mind off of things and just sing. Enjoy my life, enjoy the music, enjoy the art. You mentioned here that you are also involved in, American, the American mock World Health Organization. What has that experience been like? We're actually doing a lot of volunteering at nursing homes. That's the primary thing we do. So every week we go visit, I haven't been doing it much this summer, but we, go visit, nursing home and, specifically nursing home in Lexington every Friday for about three hours or so every week.

00;11;53;16 - 00;12;20;22
Unknown
It's been a, I think it's more of my more fulfilling activities along with research, because it's kind of I get to work directly with people who don't really have someone to be there for them. So what we do is we essentially like we do like basic hygiene, hygienic care. So like brushing teeth, clipping nails. But their favorite activity for us to do is, to paint their nails.

00;12;20;25 - 00;12;45;11
Unknown
That's what we, that's what we have a lot of people do. So every week we go to, surgery, we go to people, people's rooms and just paint their nails, their nails, all that kind of stuff. But how has research impacted your future career and life goals? And, just to add something tangentially to that, your, involvement in organizations like, who.

00;12;45;13 - 00;13;19;26
Unknown
Okay. When I first joined my lab, my first lab with, in the biology department, I, I, I think I was really excited about it, like, super, super excited like about it to the point where probably after a year, I was like, gung ho. I wanted to do an MD track. So for those who don't know, and MD PhD is essentially you do med school for two years and then you pause and do a PhD for four years, and then you finished med school for the last two years.

00;13;19;28 - 00;13;50;11
Unknown
It's usually an eight year track, and primarily you're going to be doing a research after you complete that. And so that's where I thought I wanted to be. I wanted to do both medicine and research, like as primary parts of my career. But that was also during the time when a lot of clinical volunteering was closed off due to Covid, and I was just very new to research, I don't think I don't think looking back at that point, I don't think I had a fully formed opinion.

00;13;50;13 - 00;14;21;09
Unknown
But as I've worked more with the community and realized that. I don't want to work with mice my whole life. I don't want to, I think I think research takes a lot of willpower that I just I don't think, aligns as well with my personality. As I say, working directly with people in a clinic or in the community as a physician.

00;14;21;09 - 00;14;52;26
Unknown
And so I think that's kind of how research changed my goals over time. And the campus kitchen research. But dietetics research has kind of played a role in that and giving more and more exposure into the community, whether it was before I like, joined the research part of our organization or and then as well as like after I, I actually got started working more in depth in that level, I think.

00;14;52;28 - 00;15;19;11
Unknown
But yeah, essentially I switched from wanting to do research my for my career to primarily doing to wanting to just be a physician with research on the side. Yeah, I always say like, I want to research, but research doesn't want me, you know? Yeah, yeah. But I think research is overall useful for everyone's career paths. Yeah, yeah. Just to want to do it my entire life.

00;15;19;13 - 00;15;50;12
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. So, another question, have you presented your research before and where and how has this experience help you, helped you, with your path to medicine. So I think presentation's been really good for my career as a physician, because has kind of helped me kind of present myself, a lot better to people who are coming up and asking about my research, who I need to have a professional conversation with.

00;15;50;15 - 00;16;26;11
Unknown
Learning to present and really be excited about my research is has been really good for helping me becoming excited and be very active in the conversation when it comes to professional goals, interviews, that kind of thing. Or even say, five, 5 to 10 years down the line when I'm a physician talking to patients in the clinic. So I think there are a ton of benefits to presentation along with getting feedback to your work, which can be helpful in the lab as well.

00;16;26;14 - 00;16;49;09
Unknown
Yeah, it's definitely a great experience. And like but like what you were saying when talking to patients, sometimes you have to break down super complicated names or words or like concepts. I feel like research teaches you that because you're like the expert in your field of whatever, and then you have to be like, well, not everyone knows what like a B is or circadian rhythms or things like that.

00;16;49;09 - 00;17;13;15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. What's one word you would tell an undergraduate who was looking to get into research? I would say mindfulness. I am a big proponent of mindfulness. Just being able to take the punches and kind of get back up from them and the sense of it's only one event in my life out of millions and millions, events that they're going to have in my life.

00;17;13;17 - 00;17;42;01
Unknown
Research blows can blow a lot of punches your way from personal experience and from what I've heard from others. But I think in the search for a research opportunity and actually getting started on that research opportunity, I think being mindful and being open to to the things that come your way is a really get really good skill to have.

00;17;42;03 - 00;18;05;26
Unknown
So you mentioned, you are physically active and try your best to be during the school year. Obviously you have other responsibilities with schoolwork and research and the other organizations you are a part of. How has that finding that balance been like? Well, I wish I could tell you for sure, because I have a master that I think it's always a work in progress, especially as you progress towards your life.

00;18;05;26 - 00;18;34;03
Unknown
Personally, for me, there are periods where I am very active with my exercise. I'm very proactive about it and other times where live gets in the way or volunteering or I'm just flat out exhausted from schoolwork. It kind of gets pushed to the side. But I think what's helped me the most with time management, as I try to figure it out, is prioritize the things I want to do in a certain day or a certain week.

00;18;34;03 - 00;19;05;20
Unknown
Which research do I need to spend more time focusing on? What time am I going to go to the gym? What can I put aside for the week and leave till next week? Because although you ideally want to be productive in every aspect of your life, with the amount of things that personally I'm doing and some students are doing, I think it's farther impossible to be productive in every aspect and do a good job with every activity you're doing, so I think those are the steps that I take personally.

00;19;05;22 - 00;19;30;28
Unknown
Yeah. Great. So what's something that you enjoy about research today that you never thought you would? I've said this so many times, but working with people instead of ones of animals, how about in both perspective and both perspectives. So I learned that I wanted to work with people with, dietetics research, but with, laboratory research, I realized that I really like making graphs.

00;19;30;28 - 00;19;59;03
Unknown
Graphs are really fun to make. It's like seeing your results. Exactly. What are your current responsibilities in your lab as an undergraduate? And, could you mention both? So the research responsibility is are different between both environments for me. So and with the lab work, a lot of it is self-directed. That's my pie style with the dietetics research I work directly with my PhD mentor.

00;19;59;03 - 00;20;24;08
Unknown
And so those are kind of the another way. Those two those two research opportunities differ. So really drastically. Thank you so much for joining us, Abe. And we hope you enjoyed listening. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. Thanks to The Media Depot for the space to record this episode, this episode and future episode will be posted on Spotify.

00;20;24;11 - 00;20;45;05
Unknown
Also, check out the Office of Undergraduate Research social media accounts, our Instagram @UKYUGR, and our Twitter @UKUGR. Stay tuned for more.

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;19
Unknown
[Diksha] Hello and welcome to the OUR Podcast. We are proud to announce the partnership with the University of Kentucky and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Today we are going to be talking to Princess Agbozo. She is a senior majoring in public health here at the University of Kentucky. She is a driven undergraduate researcher focusing on cervical cancer screening.

00;00;26;19 - 00;00;49;27
Unknown
And today we will be covering her research story.    [Deep] Princess, so first question for you. What led to your decision to get involved and conduct research here at the University of Kentucky?    [Princess] There's only one word I can use to describe it, which is curiosity. I mean, I came into college not knowing fully or understanding fully what research was like when I heard the word research.

00;00;49;27 - 00;01;14;17
Unknown
All I thought of was like scientists in labs looked at mouses and knives and just, like, experimenting on them. And I was like. And at that time, too, I was a pre-med student. And so, you know, all the recs like Dr.. Research service that allowed I was like, okay, bad. Let me just get into research. But I knew at that time I didn't want to be in a lab, like studying mouses and all of that.

00;01;14;18 - 00;01;33;05
Unknown
So I was like, you know what? I'm just curious. Let me see what research really is about. And then I started talking to people in my college. Once I, got into the College of Public Health and then they told me that, like, research doesn't only have to be, like in the lab, like, you can do field research, you can do research, with people and things like that.

00;01;33;05 - 00;01;54;11
Unknown
And I was like, okay, that's cool. I think I like that better than being in the lab, you know? So that's kind of what motivated me to go into research.    [Diksha] Did starting public health research change your career outlook?    [Princess] Oh, absolutely. I think it was a big deciding factor as to what I wanted to do after my undergrad, after, like learning about public health research.

00;01;54;11 - 00;02;21;19
Unknown
I was like, I think I want to do this. Like I enjoyed interacting with people, learning about the community through research, understanding how people work, their behaviors, why you do things, why they don't. And it's very interesting, like talking to people and hearing their stories because like, you have the numbers with like, quantitative research, you know, you can find the p values, the chi square test and things like that, but like actually talking to people and like seeing the stories behind these numbers is insane.

00;02;21;19 - 00;02;48;02
Unknown
So insane in a good way. So, like, I think I really like this and I wouldn't mind doing this as a career.    [Diksha] So you get to talk to, the people you are researching or serving.    [Princess] Yes, right now I'm doing cervical cancer screening as my main like research topic, but, previously to that, I was working with, black mothers and my, my research topic was on their childbearing experiences as black mothers in Lexington.

00;02;48;05 - 00;03;16;02
Unknown
So I got to talk to these mothers and interview them and like, hear their stories about, like, their childbearing experiences and how that affected, like, their life now with your babies. And just like how the overall experience was, did they feel like cared for? Did they feel like they were listened to and just like hearing these stories and these mothers just like tell about the experiences in the healthcare industry, it just changed everything for me because I'm like, there's so many layers to it.

00;03;16;02 - 00;03;32;05
Unknown
You you can have all these numbers and you can have all this data and say that you want to help people. But when you once you sit down and actually listen to these stories, you're like, you know, there's so much more we can do in the healthcare industry to make sure that people are living the life that, you know, it's good for them.

00;03;32;05 - 00;03;58;04
Unknown
That's healthy.    [Deep] So do you go talk to these women in person or over the phone? So it was mostly over zoom, for convenience and just like some of them were mothers, so either they were pregnant at that point in time or like, had really busy schedules with, like, their babies and things like that. Conveniently, I would have liked to talk to them in person, but for the most part it was over zoom.    [Diksha] And were there some stipulations

00;03;58;06 - 00;04;19;26
Unknown
With the IAB because of that, because I know, you know, they're really focused on protecting the participants privacy.    [Princess] Yes, yes. Oh, there very much was. So I had to prove or show them how I was going to keep their information as private as possible while conducting these interviews on zoom. So if, I mean, if I go into detail, we could be here all day.

00;04;19;28 - 00;04;38;25
Unknown
But it wasn't as hard because I wasn't doing it by myself. I had like my research mentors and other graduate assistants helping me, so it wasn't as, like, tedious because I was like, oh, I'm not doing this by myself. If I had any questions, I had people who could help me out.    [Deep] You mentioned your research mentor. Who is your research mentor?

00;04;38;26 - 00;05;00;10
Unknown
Currently for the research I'm doing is Doctor Adebola Adegboyega. She works for the College of Nursing, and she focuses on cervical cancer screening, HPV testings and things like that. For women. So that's her concentration.     [Deep] And how did you get to collaborate with her?    [Princess] So I am part, for this summer, I'm part of the MARKEY Strong Scholars program.

00;05;00;11 - 00;05;29;24
Unknown
So that's from the MARKEY Cancer Center. And basically it's a program that takes, minorities and then, helps them do research in the field of cancer. So then I was paired with her for the research because I was interested in risk factors behind, cancer. And just like, how people can protect themselves and how they can live healthy lifestyles to, to avoid you know, getting cancer.

00;05;29;26 - 00;05;55;16
Unknown
And that's how I got connected with her because she's doing prevention or, like, preventative methods, and things to prevent, like, those risk factors and all of that. So then that's how we ended up getting connected. Yeah.    [Diksha] You've mentioned you have worked in two different labs. How have those experiences differed between the two and what has the transition been like between the two?

00;05;55;18 - 00;06;20;18
Unknown
[Princess] The first lab that I was in, or the first year that I did conduct was under another program called Spark, which is students participate as research ambassadors in Kentucky, and that's under, the center for Health Transformation. But basically they do health equity research. So their program was actually very helpful because they taught us research from the very beginning.

00;06;20;18 - 00;06;47;16
Unknown
So understanding what your research question is IRB and how to go about that, connecting with the faculty member with community, members, just the whole process behind the research. So that was actually a very good foundation to start out from. And then that helped catapult me to researching the MARKEY Cancer Center, because I had that foundation of research with the SPARK program.

00;06;47;18 - 00;07;14;03
Unknown
And so the transition wasn't as hard because I was like, okay, I have a good understanding of what this is. It was more or less like different topics because I was initially like doing health equity with like the women and childbearing experiences, and then I'm doing cervical cancer screening and prevention and all of that. But in terms of like understanding the research processes and what to do, the transition wasn't as hard because I had gained that foundation.

00;07;14;05 - 00;07;42;01
Unknown
I think it was just very interesting seeing how research can be completely different with two different topics like you can understand, okay, I need to go out and recruit and all of that. But like you're dealing with completely different topics, completely different understandings of like, what's revolving around the problem. So that was that was definitely interesting to realize, but I don't think the transition was as bad.

00;07;42;01 - 00;08;25;29
Unknown
Yeah.    [Deep] Princess, you mentioned a very extensive research portfolio. And throughout all of your research, what is one piece of advice that you would give an incoming student or any other undergraduate that was looking to get into research?    [Princess] I would say regardless of where you are at in terms of research, whether you know nothing about research, you've heard about it or you've been multiple research projects, I think it is always helpful to go in with an open mind and, to ask questions like, if you don't know where to start from, come to the, Office of Undergraduate Research.

00;08;25;29 - 00;09;02;13
Unknown
Ask questions.    [Diksha] What are your specific responsibilities in research as an undergraduate currently?    [Princess] Currently with the research project that I'm in, I'm currently doing some data cleaning, which is just like taking out the personal information from, the data that we've collected from people just to protect their privacy. And then I'm, Transcript. Coding. Finding out themes and subthemes from the interview answers that we've got in order to get, the data that we're looking for, the answers and things like that.

00;09;02;13 - 00;09;28;08
Unknown
So that's kind of my responsibility. And then I have to make a whole poster research poster on my findings. So currently my research topic is on, fear as a barrier to cervical cancer screening amongst black women. So, my faculty mentor has already the interviews with this women. So I'm more or less just going through that data and seeing what their responses are.

00;09;28;08 - 00;09;45;01
Unknown
And if I can find any correlation between their answers and the answer that I'm looking for to my research question. So that's basically what I'm focusing on. And then at the end, since I'm with the MARKEY Strong Scholars program, we have a we have a poster presentation at the end of the program to just show what we've been working on.

00;09;45;01 - 00;10;10;16
Unknown
So I've just been doing that so far.    [Deep] What opportunities have you gotten yourself into for presenting your research?    [Princess] I've got to present on a couple of conferences, for the most part here at UK, I got to present at the unite Unite conference. We had also had, College of Public Health, like, poster, poster, presentation, day type thing.

00;10;10;19 - 00;10;42;18
Unknown
And then I also got to present at the CT, conference here on campus. And then I was actually got the opportunity to participate in some poster competitions. And I won a couple shout out to spark for helping me with that. But yeah, it's been fun. Being able to just present my research to people and being in a community of scholars, they're just very eager to hear what you have to say.

00;10;42;18 - 00;11;06;29
Unknown
And just, like, see what data you've come up with and how you're answering your research question. And also from that, I've been able to learn how to present public speaking, which is very important because you, you know, all the information because you did the research. But when it's time to deliver that information to people, and I felt like freezing up, like, like, you know, the information.

00;11;06;29 - 00;11;24;11
Unknown
So these, different conferences have been able to help me, like, build up my confidence and, like, public speaking skills and just, like, be able to be confident in what I'm talking about and just present that to people because they don't know what they don't know. So if you do make a mistake, they don't know that you made a mistake.

00;11;24;18 - 00;11;55;25
Unknown
Just keep going. Just keep going. But yeah.    [Deep] What’s something that you do on a regular basis in research that you never thought you would enjoy or never expected, but you enjoy it? [Princess] I would definitely say reading literature or like reading papers on the topic that I'm researching. I was a very avid reader in high school. And I got to college and I was like, whoa, there's a lot of reading.

00;11;55;27 - 00;12;12;08
Unknown
And I'm also a very slow reader, so it takes me forever to, like, finish a book or like, finish something. But I did not think I was going to enjoy reading like actual scholarly papers that I as much as I thought I do. Because like you read and you, you find out so much, you're like, oh my goodness.

00;12;12;08 - 00;12;30;21
Unknown
Like they actually did this. Like they spoke to 500 women and they found like it's so interesting and intriguing what you get from like reading literature and like all these scholarly papers of like what things, what the things that people have like, discovered. So I did not think I was going to enjoy reading as much as I did.

00;12;30;23 - 00;12;54;06
Unknown
[Diksha] Outside of research, what activities or organizations are you involved in on campus? [Princess] I'm actually involved in with the Activities Board, definitely one of my favorite orgs on campus since I got here. So, we put on events basically for students, just to get to know each other on campus, connect with the campus community and each other.

00;12;54;08 - 00;13;15;04
Unknown
Our events are aimed to be enriching and educational. So we have a range of things, from concerts like cultural festivals to stuff a plush with which is very popular among college students. I don't know why people love stuffing teddy bears, but you know what? They enjoy it. So we love putting it on for them. So I'm, involved with that.

00;13;15;04 - 00;13;35;21
Unknown
And then, I'm also a ambassador for the College of Public Health. So I talk to, like, freshman and other incoming students about the possibilities of being a public health major, what that looks like, if they have any questions, and just being honest and raw about my college experience, because I didn't come in as a public health major, I came in as a bio major and then switched.

00;13;35;21 - 00;13;59;00
Unknown
So just being honest and raw with them about that experience has been very fulfilling. [Diksha] Based on what you mentioned, it seems like you have taken it into disciplinary approach to your involvement on campus. What has that looked like, juggling all your responsibilities while prioritizing research? I think going into it, I knew I definitely one or coming into college, actually, let me start from the get go.

00;13;59;08 - 00;14;21;18
Unknown
I knew that I wanted to try as many things that I possibly could that would elevate me as a college student and career wise as a whole. So I definitely made it a priority to make sure that I was doing both co-curricular things and extra curricular things, things that I was interested in, that would also help me career wise.

00;14;21;20 - 00;14;41;02
Unknown
I decided to pursue things that I knew that I was interested in. So in terms of my extracurriculars, I'm doing SAB I'm an ambassador for my college. These are the things that I'm interested in and I know that I want to do so. I'm never demotivated to not go to a meeting or just not go work, as an ambassador.

00;14;41;02 - 00;15;05;06
Unknown
And then with the research to I'm interested in the topics that I'm doing. So it never feels like I'm working. It genuinely feels like I'm truly just like I'm working, but I'm also enjoying myself doing that. And I think being able to also communicate with both, my faculty members and staff and just letting them know, like, hey, these are the different responsibilities I have going on.

00;15;05;09 - 00;15;24;20
Unknown
I will be here to, like, fulfill the responsibilities, and I'm supposed to do, but I just want to you and just, like, let them know, and then inform them. And they work with me, with my schedule, with classes as well, because that's very important. And obviously that is the forefront of everything. But, just communicating that to them and then, their staff and faculty are so, so, so helpful.

00;15;24;20 - 00;15;48;18
Unknown
They just work with me on my schedule. So usually I do have days that are packed because all my classes research and then work. But in the end, I know that it's worth it. And I know that I'm getting what I want from that. [Deep] How have you used your research experience as well as your extracurricular experiences as a stepping stone, into your career goals and life aspiration?

00;15;48;21 - 00;16;13;19
Unknown
[Princess] Being a public health major, my goal is to work in global health. I'm interested in like health equity, health disparities, and then doing working in that field to be able to, like, increase the quality of life for people. And then provide quality access to health care for people. So I didn't realize how public health ties in with everything, because you are dealing with people and you're dealing with the community.

00;16;13;22 - 00;16;41;29
Unknown
So in my extracurricular activities, maybe I'm not doing something related to, health, but in the end, I'm talking to people. I'm interacting with people. I'm observing their lifestyles, their behaviors, how they fulfill tasks, how they interact with each other, how they interact with me. And I take that all in and process all of that. And that usually helps me with the other thing that I have to do in my research, because then I have to interview people.

00;16;41;29 - 00;17;22;08
Unknown
I have to talk to them. So being around so many people at the time have helped me kind of understand how to best interact with people, how to communicate with people, how to be observed, observant and like what behaviors, and see how that relates to how people act in real life. So it's just like it just all connects somehow, because in the end, it is about people like it's about the community that I'm in, the community that I'm not in, just observing from an outside point or an outside perspective and then seeing how I can relate that with, like my career go like in this of, in this environment, I'm in a college interacting with

00;17;22;08 - 00;17;48;08
Unknown
people who are coming to, who are deciding and they want to come to school as an ambassador, for example. There's a lot of stress. There's a lot of thinking that goes into that. How can I make sure that I'm giving them the right information for them to make that decision? It's not related to health, but it is still interaction with people like their how the decision that they have also affects their mental health.

00;17;48;08 - 00;18;08;27
Unknown
And like for example, that's just an example. And just like what they decide to do in the future. So just like finding all those connections and seeing how I can relate, each something to each other, even though it's not necessarily as specific, it's still all related. And like all connect that together. [Diksha] Yeah, it's very interdisciplinary. The way you approach your undergraduate career.

00;18;08;29 - 00;18;37;00
Unknown
Speaking of being an undergraduate, how did you choose the University of Kentucky? [Princess] Oh, that's a long story. Okay. I will give you the very condensed version. I'm originally from Ghana. I'm an international student, so I lived in Ghana and moved to Qatar, did my high school education, and usually in Qatar, the trend is not to stay for college like people go outside to get a college education.

00;18;37;00 - 00;19;00;03
Unknown
And I was looking for an institution that was welcoming to international students, and I found UK through a YouTube video. Actually, I think it was a YouTube video of like the blue court out there. I don't know if anybody knows. I'm talking about the Blue Court in the Grand Avenue. And I was like, why is a court blue and not orange like of brown like it normally is, whatever the color is.

00;19;00;03 - 00;19;19;09
Unknown
And I was curious and I just have done it and the rest is history. I found out about the course is the program and UK is very welcoming to international students. There's a lot of international students here, and just like they're very eager to provide us with the resources and, they prove it proved to be true, especially during Covid when, us international students couldn't come on campus.

00;19;19;09 - 00;19;42;12
Unknown
They made sure that, like, we were still able to register for classes, have classes online, talk to each other, talk to people. So just like seeing that confirmed to me that I had made the right decision coming to UK finances. Obviously, I also, it be a contributing factor, but overall, just like how they treat us and how welcoming they are to us, and just like providing us the resources to know that we're going to succeed in this environment.

00;19;42;14 - 00;20;05;21
Unknown
And it is a big difference, like education from where you are at at home compared to the United States. So those were one of the big factors why I chose the UK. [Diksha] So you have then been in the education system of three different countries and what has what is the differences or what is the. [Princess] That's a that's a great question.

00;20;05;23 - 00;20;39;11
Unknown
So in Ghana and Qatar it was heavily I was heavily, educated by the British curriculum. So I did like g I GCSEs, a levels, those who know will know. But coming into the US, it was a very big transition for me because the British have their own way of speaking English in the U.S has your own way of speaking English, including grammar, including pronunciation, including punctuation, how you punctuate things and stuff like that.

00;20;39;11 - 00;21;03;10
Unknown
So transitioning to being a public health major. It was also a big transition because we write a lot of research papers and so as a freshman, I needed to start learning how to punctuate grammar, like spelling in the American curriculum as compared to like the one that I was, I grew up in, in high school and, in primary school.

00;21;03;15 - 00;21;23;21
Unknown
So that took a lot of help from like the writing center here at UK, because I would get a lot of like points taking off, not because of the content, because I knew the content, but because of how I worded things. I wrote my paragraphs, I punctuated and grammar. And it took it took a minute, I would say maybe senior years or more.

00;21;23;21 - 00;21;46;09
Unknown
Here was when I started to get the hang of things. In terms of like the American curriculum, it just like, writing my research papers in a way that's like, makes sense. One advice I would definitely say is to international students would be utilizing, the resources here at UK and not that's not only just with classes, but like if you're interested in doing research as well.

00;21;46;09 - 00;22;11;21
Unknown
There's a lot of writing, a lot of literature involved with research. So if English is a, a struggle point, which is common for international students, just like using the resources here that are available for us, which for me was the writing center, in the study as well. They were actually very helpful. And we had two toward our freshman year, which is like a, required class for most people.

00;22;11;21 - 00;22;33;03
Unknown
So that also helped because I was talking to my professor and she would like, guide me on like the right terms to use, the right spelling, the right punctuation and things like that. But the writing center was, I think, one big resource because they will sit with you and actually help you. And, explain the rules to you, just being with somebody who's, like, willing to stay with you and guide you and just help you has been very helpful.

00;22;33;03 - 00;22;58;03
Unknown
So we have the writing center, we have the study, even the Media Depot, like all of these resources are very helpful. So just utilizing all of that to help you get your English and asking your professors. Once I explained to my professor that I was an international student, they very much understood, like it didn't mean they did not take points off because they thought it, but they were very understanding, like, okay, I get that you're not like you're from a different organizational system.

00;22;58;03 - 00;23;29;17
Unknown
So I'm going to help you and guide you. And they would give me like, guidelines on like American ways of writing and things like that. So that was very helpful to [Diksha] thanks to The Media Depot for the space to record this episode. This episode and future episodes will be posted on Spotify. Also, check out the Office of Undergraduate Research social media accounts, our Instagram @UKUGR, and our Twitter @UKUGR.

00;23;29;19 - 00;23;38;10
Unknown
Stay tuned for more.

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;14
Unknown
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the O.U.R. podcast. I'm your co-host, Deep Patel, along with Diksha Satish. We are proud to announce the partnership with the University of Kentucky and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Today, we are going to talk to Danica Hak. She is a junior majoring in interiors here at the University of Kentucky. She is a driven undergraduate researcher focusing on interior design.

00;00;23;20 - 00;00;43;24
Unknown
And today we will be covering her research story. So welcome, Danica. Thank you for joining us. Hi. Thank you for having me. It's such an honor to be your first guest. Thank you for coming along. What led to your decision to do research as an undergraduate? I'm an interior design major, and I remember being like a freshman in the program.

00;00;43;27 - 00;01;05;15
Unknown
And just like coming into interior design, very narrow-minded. Like, I think when everyone thinks interior design, they think like very HGTV, very residential, and you people think that you're going to graduate doing that. And that was like debunked, like one of the first days of class when I was a freshman, and I was just like blown away.

00;01;05;15 - 00;01;35;28
Unknown
It was like this visual of like this mind map. And it was like all of these like different realms of design. You can go into, like there's like graphic design, there's commercial design, and through commercial design there's like education design, health care design. There's so many spaces that can be designed. And so I left feeling, I love freshman year feeling really hopeful because there are so many different like realms of design you could go into, but also very intimidated because design was now this very big ambiguous thing.

00;01;35;28 - 00;02;01;05
Unknown
And I was really a little scared and quite humbled, and I really wanted to find my niche, and I wanted to find, something more specific to go into. And so, my summer of my sophomore, going into my junior year, my professor recommended that I started doing my own research and conducting my own research to kind of figure out my niche and what I was interested in.

00;02;01;08 - 00;02;20;11
Unknown
And it was really helpful in that I was able to dip my toes into something more specific that I think took me out of a lot of my fears and like fears of burnout and fears of like getting lost in such like a big and ambiguous major. So you mentioned graphics design and a couple of other design areas.

00;02;20;11 - 00;02;45;20
Unknown
What is your research, project like? What area is it in? So it is a form of site specific installation design. I am also a dance minor, and so I really wanted throughout my entire academic career, I have constantly had to advocate myself for being an interior design major dance minor, because I get a lot of weird looks when I tell people I'm interior design and dance because they're always like, what are you going to do?

00;02;45;21 - 00;03;12;07
Unknown
Like dance in the as you decorate? And that makes me irrationally angry because they're so correlated and more correlated than one might think, and that they're both very human centered, very like site specific, body specific. And so with my research, I really wanted to explore the interaction between space and body, which I think is super under like recognized because it's quite a beautiful thing, like ergonomics.

00;03;12;10 - 00;03;31;27
Unknown
You think about like the chair you're sitting and like how your back like naturally like arches and how that chair supports that. You think about like ergonomic, like keyboards and like all the office kind of designs that, like, are formed to your body. And dance is so beautiful in that it's an art form that's like the emotions and like the movement of the body.

00;03;31;29 - 00;03;56;04
Unknown
And so I really wanted to make those correlate. And so through my research, I also just with design, I have found myself to be drawn to really immersive design, really atmospheric design, because I feel like it is very human centered and very experience based in that it really gets to one's like emotions and makes them like feel something like unexplainable.

00;03;56;04 - 00;04;22;06
Unknown
And I want I, I really am a huge advocate for design that is really impactful in that way. And so I started off making like a very immersive design that was interactive. And then the dancer and me really wanted to just move in it. And so my research was very focused on that interaction. You mentioned dancing, right? And making a collaboration between dance and your research.

00;04;22;08 - 00;04;45;09
Unknown
Now, how long have you been dancing? Yeah, I've danced since I was three years old. And so I have an older sister that actually, like she danced. And so of course, like my parents put me into dance after that. And it was just it's so it's always been in me and I am really appreciative for like the training that I've gotten and the support I've gotten from like the department here and my studio back home.

00;04;45;09 - 00;05;04;00
Unknown
I just think it's like such a beautiful art form. And so natural. I'm in a dance history class right now, and we're talking a lot about how, like, dance is one of the first forms of, like, expression, like people were moving and dancing before they, like, figured out, like what music was or like how to speak to one another.

00;05;04;00 - 00;05;30;18
Unknown
And I think it's just so interesting. So you mentioned site specific installation research more specifically into that. What exactly are you studying? Based off of that? Like what is your research into suicide specific? We're really big on site specific choreography in the dance department, and it's just that you're acknowledging this space that you're moving in, which I think is super in line with, like, interiors and what we do as interior designers with site specific work.

00;05;30;25 - 00;05;52;23
Unknown
It's really taking a dance, which is traditionally throughout history, we've seen it in a more traditional proscenium stage, like, you know, like the big opera house, like stages where like, there's the dancer and then there's the audience members. So site specific work really takes it out of that traditional stage and puts it in a more, I guess, like ordinary space where you don't usually see dance.

00;05;52;23 - 00;06;17;21
Unknown
But it further enforces that dance is such a community driven art, and it's all about the community and not so much about the performance factor. And so that's what really drew me to site specific dance and site specific work. Just the accessibility and the inclusivity in the art form that is not as intimidating as if it were perceived on like a very large stage.

00;06;17;24 - 00;06;48;06
Unknown
You had interest in dance and you wanted to do research in design. So how did your P.I. or your principal investigator react when you brought this idea to them? Yeah, so she was actually incredibly supportive. My, faculty mentor is Ingrid Schmidt. She's a faculty member in the School of Interiors, and she had been my professor freshman year, and I had had her every semester up until then, just with like, studios and electives I took that were led by her.

00;06;48;07 - 00;07;09;07
Unknown
She is an installation designer. She does a lot of installation with her practice OBS studio with had to do her first. I was just incredibly inspired by them freshman year coming into this major, like totally blind. Like I didn't know what I was going to expect other than like HGTV. And they were like part of the reason, like, just like such a huge inspiration to me.

00;07;09;07 - 00;07;29;13
Unknown
Like they were doing what I wanted to do, like making a motive, immersive interactive design successfully. And so I was really drawn to her. I like critiques, I like being told what I'm doing wrong. And Ingrid is really wonderful in being able to push the work in a progressive way that pushes me as a designer and a person.

00;07;29;13 - 00;07;52;04
Unknown
And so she is the one who actually encouraged me to apply to the grant over the summer and conduct my own research. I had her in a studio where I had proposed this mock up exhibit. I think we were doing an interior installation in the UK Art gallery. That was the studio. I had an idea for the installation and she came to me and was like, okay, so this summer research thing, what were you thinking?

00;07;52;04 - 00;08;08;07
Unknown
And I was like, I really want to scale that up. And I really want to like just move in it. And she was like, I was thinking the exact same thing. And so it started as more interior based. But then when I actually scaled it up and made it, I was like, this would be such a sick like scenic set design to just like dance in.

00;08;08;07 - 00;08;32;19
Unknown
And she was like, yeah, like do it like she's very like easygoing and that like, if you just want to do it, then just do it. Like, what's stopping you? And so she's incredibly encouraging, incredibly talented and amazing and supportive. And I'm very grateful for I could not do it without her. That's so great. It's definitely so important to have a super supportive mentor and going off of your interest in dance and into your design and the intersection of that.

00;08;32;21 - 00;08;52;21
Unknown
I know you did some like design and production for a stage show with the college of Fine Arts. How was that experience and how were you able to use your previous education and research in that area? So interior design, we do take some, like lighting courses, but obviously that's more for the interior application, less of the performative application.

00;08;52;28 - 00;09;11;17
Unknown
So I really wanted to reach out to the College of Fine Arts and get some experience in just like stage and scenic elements, because that's a little bit more I was interested in and the staging and framing of design elements in that way. And so I did not have room in my schedules to take a lighting designer scenic design class.

00;09;11;17 - 00;09;42;22
Unknown
And so the next thing that they recommended to me was to work on the mainstage shows. So I was an assistant lighting designer under Heather Brown, the lighting design professor at the university, and I was an assistant skin designer under interiors student Caitlin Herndon, actually. And so I got a lot of experience, just like working upscale and mainstage and working with like, lots of people and bodies of people opposed to like what I did in my research where I was just me and very like individualized.

00;09;42;22 - 00;10;05;14
Unknown
I got a lot of experience, like working collaboratively as a team, because it wasn't just what I wanted. The lighting to look and what I wanted the set to look like. It's what the director's vision, how the actors felt and if they felt safe or if they liked it as well. Because actors can take a lot of inspiration from, like the lighting and scene elements, because that's just kind of the cherry on top to the production.

00;10;05;14 - 00;10;30;13
Unknown
And I got a lot of wonderful experience with Heather Brown and Caitlin and Zach, the scenic encourager of the college. And just like working upscale, working with lots of people and actually with my dance concert, the department puts on a daily concert every year. And so usually I participate and dance in it. But they came to me this semester and really wanted me to design light for it.

00;10;30;13 - 00;10;50;10
Unknown
And so that was really awesome. I got to kind of like have these two hats of like being the lighting designer, not just assistant lighting designer, but like designing the light and also like dancing in a piece. And so that was really wonderful. And really surreal that I was able to get that opportunity. And it was just it was just great.

00;10;50;10 - 00;11;09;17
Unknown
It was such a wonderful, like light is so great and that it's so atmospheric and kind of like that feeling I was talking about earlier, where it's like emotions that are kind of unexplainable and like you can't really put into words. Light is very similar in that, like, you can't really like touch it or like it's not like tangible, but like it helps you see and you can't see without it.

00;11;09;17 - 00;11;30;24
Unknown
And it the little lighting of like a space is like everything. Like if the lighting is bad, them like everything is off. So I think, yeah, I'm a very big light person. So if some student wanted to go down this path, this interdisciplinary path that you have gone down, what would they expect? How could they step their foot in the door?

00;11;30;24 - 00;12;07;21
Unknown
What would you recommend? Yeah, I think just being, like, incredibly communicative about what you want to do. And there are faculty and staff that will support you. I'm incredibly grateful for the support I've gotten from both the College of Design and the College of Fine Arts. Even in my classes, I was just talking to my advisors earlier this morning about a scheduling error and being able to graduate on time with my interior design major, my dance minor, because there are some conflicts with those classes, and they are all being so incredibly supportive and helpful and like trying to make that happen.

00;12;07;24 - 00;12;36;16
Unknown
I would completely encourage interdisciplinary. It's really hard. In college, especially like you have these like huge lecture halls and like it's really easy to feel like you're just another name or just another like student. But interdisciplinary really helps you, like, stand out, not just like to your professors and your peers, but like it helps give you that confidence that you are a little bit different and things are a lot more interconnected than one might think.

00;12;36;16 - 00;13;05;23
Unknown
Everything's connected like, it's so crazy. I certainly don't regret going the interdisciplinary route. And the more I'm in my classes and the more I'm learning, professors are actually encouraging more interdisciplinary focuses just because it makes you more well-rounded as a person and an individual and a designer especially, I think it's incredibly important, specifically as a designer, to be super well-rounded and just like other people's opinions and other people's like views and perspectives and stories.

00;13;05;23 - 00;13;31;27
Unknown
Because like, as a designer, you are that voice for other people and you are designing for other people, not really yourself. Research has been incredibly helpful in that I've been able to do a lot of the work through research, and senior year is going to be a lot easier now that I've gotten like the next kind of like ironed out through research and like spending these summers, like really experimenting.

00;13;31;29 - 00;13;51;27
Unknown
Senior year is going to be like a breeze with my thesis and incorporating kind of just like accessibility, dance, inclusivity, design and all the themes I was kind of discussing earlier, you mentioned that with the College of Fine Arts, you were a lighting designer in other roles. You mentioned that you were doing the dancing within your research.

00;13;51;27 - 00;14;22;05
Unknown
How do you typically balance between these two roles? Yeah, so there are a lot of factors and layers into what I'm interested in specifically. And design is such like a nuanced, specific thing that sometimes it can get a little bit overwhelming trying to balance and kind of like figure out all these like things. But I think it really helps to just kind of like my student professor always says, begin with the end in mind and always just like, take it in bite sized pieces.

00;14;22;05 - 00;14;40;16
Unknown
So like, I've danced all my life, so maybe putting dance on the backburner a little bit, focusing more on the design aspect. Okay, like my design solidified now. Now let me like get an expertise in lighting. And it's really just this ongoing list in my brain of things I'm interested in and things that I think can help influence my research and my personal like interests.

00;14;40;16 - 00;15;05;11
Unknown
And then just whenever the opportunity arises, I just take it, I always learn so much from everything. So some of your current responsibilities recently included you danced with a team for the current research advisory group, and one of the people on that group is Eli Capelouto, the president of UK. How was that experience? And you mentioned that research helps you stand out.

00;15;05;11 - 00;15;30;22
Unknown
How did research help you get that experience? That entire like performance was just so incredibly surreal. And one way that I started out was that everyone else presenting research that day, they were all like, Professor adults with like degrees. And so I felt the biggest amount of imposter syndrome. I was like, there must be a mistake. Like they probably thought I was like somebody else, like, are you sure?

00;15;30;22 - 00;15;58;12
Unknown
Like, this is for real? And my advisor and director of research for the college, Lindsey Fey, she was like, no, like, we wanted you because you're a student. And what's better than like, student work? And so that was incredibly surreal. And I remember me, my mentor Ingrid, and the director for research at the college Design, Lindsey, we sat down and talked a lot about how we were going to take what I did over the summer and apply it to this performance.

00;15;58;12 - 00;16;22;21
Unknown
This was the first time I had ever, like, presented my research. I know with more like typical Stem researches like you presented at conferences and stuff. So this was the first time I had ever like a live performance or anything of what I did over the summer, what I had over the summer. There was a lot of like specificity in it because as I was talking earlier about like site specific, the one can decide specificity is that it's really hard to like copy and paste that to a different location.

00;16;22;21 - 00;16;45;29
Unknown
I struggled a lot with trying to find ways to translate what I did over the summer into this new performance space. I was in the basement of Bowman Hall, if you all know where that is. I was down there and it's just very experimental down there. I was like hanging things from like, lighting, fixtures. And there were lots of, like, heavy, like acrylic pieces and it's a basement, so it's like incredibly dark.

00;16;45;29 - 00;17;12;20
Unknown
And the lights were very impactful. And so taking that and putting it in one of the student, the location for the Curie Rag presentation was one of the ballrooms in the student center. So incredibly different, very high ceilings, very controlled lighting conditions, and staged like a stage, like a literal stage. It's not like a basement. And so we talked a lot about finding ways to translate that.

00;17;12;20 - 00;17;34;00
Unknown
And I think that was one of the biggest struggles in that performance. But I overcame it obviously, because it was very it was very wonderful to be able to present that and just like making it very projection based and taking kind of like images and videos of what I did over the summer and projecting it onto the stage so that it was kind of like not only behind me, but also like on my body.

00;17;34;00 - 00;17;57;26
Unknown
So it kind of like gave that very immersive feel. And they also had like some colored lights and stuff, on the stage and so very makeshift and trying to like make that experience in a similar way for the stage. But I think it was successful and, super rewarding. Now, we would like to know how this is influenced your future direction that you would like to take.

00;17;58;02 - 00;18;39;06
Unknown
Yeah. So I guess just more short term goal. I know for interiors I have to do a capstone project. And so research is going to be really helpful in that since it was so self-guided and dependently up started, I've kind of already started the research on what I want to do for my capstone in thesis and the direction I want to go senior year, because I feel like senior year is very individual, because it's all about finding your niche and finding what you're interested in, passionate about, and I guess like for after graduation, I'm still this is just reaffirmed even more my passion for like empathetic and like emotional and impactful design.

00;18;39;08 - 00;19;00;21
Unknown
No matter like what kind of realm of design I go into. Obviously, I'm more interested in like installation design, but if I go more residential or more commercial, just everyday design that I do to be just as intentional and well thought out as everything I've learned through my research. So I would just like to say I immensely enjoyed hearing about your research.

00;19;00;24 - 00;19;22;09
Unknown
We know you personally outside of this, but I did not know the specifics of what you do, and I can hear the love you have for it. And I really enjoyed hearing about it. Thank you. We would like to thank Danica for being our first guest on the podcast—special thanks to the Office of Undergraduate Research for sponsoring this.

00;19;22;12 - 00;19;47;03
Unknown
Lastly, thanks to The Media Depot for the space to record this episode. This episode and future episodes will be posted on Spotify. Also, check out the Office of Undergraduate Research social media accounts, our Instagram @UKYUGR, and our Twitter @UKUGR. Stay tuned for more! We love research!