Undergraduate students in Emory College Pathways Center’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program worked full-time this summer exploring how sports media portray WNBA stars, examining the impact advancements in violin making has on composers, searching for partners of a cellular protein implicated in human disease — and more.
On July 31, the 60 students in the program will share the culmination of their summer scholarly work across diverse disciplines at the annual SURE Symposium. The daylong event will span two locations and feature performances, poster sessions and oral presentations that are open to the public.
“We emphasize to students that SURE is an opportunity to explore questions that interest them, inside or outside their major,” says Keira Davis, the Pathways Center’s associate director of undergraduate research. “The skills that hands-on research teaches you – problem solving, communication, time management — are transferrable to whatever you want to do and the impact you’re interested in making.”
SURE is the most in-depth of the Pathways Center’s undergraduate research programs, providing free housing and career development workshops in addition to 10 weeks of independent research working directly with faculty mentors.
It is a centerpiece of Pathways programs, including experiential learning and Career Treks, designed to help students develop the skills and experience to pursue meaningful careers after Emory.
Pathways leaders work with professors in each department to encourage applications, starting each fall. First-year students receive an overview of the application process in ECS 101, while upperclassmen can connect with faculty or peer research ambassadors at Pathways.
“SURE represents the best of undergraduate research — fueled by curiosity, guided by faculty mentors and designed to equip students with the skills and confidence they need to thrive beyond Emory,” says Ed Goode, senior director of experiential learning and the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan at the Pathways Center.
The SURE symposium will start at 9 a.m. with performances, including a digital music presentation, at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Poster sessions and five-minute “Flash Findings” will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Emory Student Center.
Meet three of the students presenting at the symposium.
Marina Saeger: Analyzing WNBA media coverage
When rising junior Marina Saeger couldn’t narrow her interests down to just two disciplines, she decided on a dual major in dance and interdisciplinary studies, concentrated on sociology, African American studies and gender studies.
She had been thinking of a research project — exploring gendered and racialized media coverage of all 144 players in the Women’s National Basketball Association — since taking Janeria Easley’s 200-level Racial and Ethnic Relations course as a first-year student.
“I was always very athletic, so what draws me to watch the WNBA is the physicality of the sport,” Saeger says. “It seemed like the coverage, though, was about the women and not the sport.”
Easley, an assistant professor of African American studies who specializes in quantitative research, signed on as a mentor and helped winnow the idea even further.
At the symposium, Saeger will share a textual analysis of ESPN coverage of stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, when the league soared in popularity during their rookie seasons last summer.
She is already working with Easley to expand that content analysis into a more quantitative senior honors thesis that looks at how coverage affects fans.
That means pursuing additional research opportunities when the academic year begins, as well as exploring graduate studies in sociology and a career in research.
“Marina takes so much initiative, she is a real standout in moving from consuming knowledge to producing it,” Easley says. “She is researching in an area where this is a new topic and has a lifetime of ideas, which is an exciting space to be in.”
Yujin Ha: Exploring fresh musical perspectives
Rising sophomore Yujin Ha will be among the performers, challenging herself to play a modern violin solo that illustrates her research encompassing both the process and outcome of changes in how violins are made.
She and two other SURE students will perform under the mentorship of Paul Bhasin, the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Professor of Practice. Bhasin directs the Department of Music’s undergraduate research programs that also include composition, ethnomusicology, musicology and theory.
A dual music and neuroscience and behavioral biology major, Ha traveled with Bhasin to Emory’s Summer Music in Italy program. Her work began with archival research and interviews of world-renowned luthiers.
After immersing herself in workshops on music history, performance and technique, the experience concluded with her playing Francesco Filidei’s “Lied per violino” as an invited artist in the Cremona Music Festival.
She will perform the complex 2020 composition at the symposium, interspersing her play with explanations that include the different resonance and volume made possible with changes such as steel strings.
“Her interpretation reveals something about the piece, informed by all of this research she has done, the same as if a chemist presented their findings in a live set of experiments for the audience,” Bhasin says. “I’m very grateful that SURE has space for this kind of research for our ambitious and capable students to flourish.”
Tackling the scholarly work and performing has been straightforward for Ha, who plays in the Emory University Symphony Orchestra. The real challenge was overcoming the language barriers, though realizing the shared passion for music has opened her up to more research questions.
“I am realizing more that there may be a way to combine music with how an audience perceives music and song,” Ha says. “This project posed more questions for me that I would be interested in understanding.”
Joey Hough: Characterizing molecular interactions
Joey Hough arrived at Emory last fall with plans to pair pre-med coursework with hands-on lab work. By January, the dual major in chemistry and Spanish was working in Blerta Xhemalce’s RNA and epigenetics lab at the Emory University School of Medicine.
As the first undergraduate research assistant in the lab, he quickly learned how to perform molecular cloning. Continuing his study through SURE gave him the necessary time for the next step: using biochemistry methods to find interactors to an RNA modifier, a protein known as N-Acetyltransferase 10 or NAT10.
The cutting-edge research to characterize those interactors has implications in a variety of fields, since the little-understood protein has been linked to the development of several types of cancer, autoimmune disorders and other diseases.
“Spending 40 hours a week in a lab is not for everybody, but I’ve probably spent even more than that,” Hough says. “You get to be really invested in your project and spend the time you need to, to get your research where you it want to be.”
Hough’s research will continue for years, eventually becoming an honors thesis. He will summarize his latest findings and planned next steps at the symposium.
Xhemalce, who also arrived at Emory last fall, is letting Hough take the lead on understanding the protein, whose functions she likens to a cell phone loaded with multiple applications.
His research aims to find what specific interactor, or app, fuels tumor growth and metastatsis. Only then can researchers try to target that function for therapeutic treatment.
“Having this full-time experience is amazingly helpful for Joey to work at the level he is capable of,” Xhemalce says. “It’s awesome that he wants to be a doctor, because we need more doctors who understand the molecular basis of disease and who have more logical insights about personalized medicine.”