Hi everyone! Since my last blog post I have been up to a lot. I am currently in my last semester at Saint Mary’s and have wrapped up most of my senior comprehensive project.
Last weekend I presented my senior comp presentation on how landing surface can impact the ACL. I am working on finishing up my paper and making final edits before submitting later this month. Presenting my work was very nerve wracking, but also really fun. I was surrounded by a lot of my friends which made it very special, and I loved hearing about my classmates work as well. I am extremely grateful for everyone in the locomotion lab for their help with my project, especially Dr. Young for all of her support. I would not have gotten through my senior comp without them! I am starting to get all my resources and things I need to start the process of applying to PA school, which is very scary, but I am excited to begin to take this next step. Additionally, I am going through the interview process with a couple hospitals for working there in my gap year between undergrad and grad school. I cannot believe my time at Saint Mary’s is almost done, but I am so excited for the next chapter of my life! Hello everyone! Since my last post, I have completed my data collection and I am getting ready to present my senior comp! After a few bugs were fixed with the iWorx system, data collection went smoothly and I was able to finish the collection in November. I am now putting together my senior comprehensive, which is looking to compare the muscle activation of the erector spinae muscles in bilateral and unilateral squats to determine if there is a significant difference in muscle activation when external weight load is the same.
The presentation and poster session is next weekend and I am feeling a little bit nervous, but also excited to present my research with my fellow classmates and faculty! Also, I have an important life update to report: I got into the Forensic Medicine Master's Program at the University of Maryland. I am extremely excited for this opportunity to continue my education in the field of pathology! Hello! I hope that your semester has been off to a good start and you and your family have been remaining warm and healthy! My name is Caroline Kopack and I am a senior this year at Saint Mary’s College. I am a Biology major who has recently switched from the Pre-Med track and am planning to pursue a career in athletic training. I have been working with Dr. Young in the Locomotion Lab for almost four years now, which is very strange to think about. In the last few months, I have finally finished data collection and analysis for my revised senior composition project, which focuses on determining if there is a relationship between past history of knee injury and the Q angle of athletes at Saint Mary’s College. Between drafting my composition paper, designing my poster, and practicing my presentation for Belle Bio Day, I am so excited to see the results of a project that got me involved in the Locomotion Lab when I was a freshman.
Thankfully, I have a few more months to spend with the Locomotion Lab, and we are currently focusing on welcoming new members, some of whom will be continuing the ACL project and expanding on our research in coming years. We are also preparing to attend the SICB Regional Conference in April, which I am looking forward to! In preparation for this conference, we are spending time in our lab meetings watching SICB+ talks from the 2023 annual meeting. Selected talks were chosen by lab members based on personal areas of interest. Hello everyone! Over the winter break I attended SICB in Austin, Texas as a poster presenter. I presented my summer research (conducted with Dr. Emily Carrington at Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory), which looked at the effects of flow on filtering and gaping behavior in Mytilus galloprovincialis. This is my second SICB conference, but my first time attending in person. It was nice reuniting with my REU cohort and listening to all the exciting talks from researchers in comparative biology! This was such a unique experience that allowed me to enter outside of my comfort zone when presenting and talking to new people. I quickly became comfortable with talking about my research and grew to enjoy engaging with scientists who were interested in my poster. Networking was also another part of the conference I enjoyed. There were many scientists from twitter whom I have looked up to and it was great to finally meet them in person. I look forward to presenting again at Belle Bio Day at Saint Mary's College and at the regional SICB conference in Chicago! Hello! My name is Alison Woodward, and I am a Junior at Saint Mary’s. With Fall semester coming to an end, the Juniors of the group have been tasked with planning for our senior comprehensive research! Both Emily and I will be continuing the ACL research. We will also have a few new members join the group in the Spring to possibly work on existing research or perhaps something new! A lot of exciting changes are happening in the Locomotion lab within the next few months so check back soon to see some more exciting news!
Hello everyone! My name is Emily Sierakowski and I am a junior at Saint Mary's College. I am majoring in biology and have minors in chemistry, neuroscience, and psychology. As of this semester I am finishing up the prerequisites I need for medical school in hopes to apply this summer. Orthopedics has always had my heart, so I am hoping to specialize in orthopedic surgery. Being interested in orthopedics and sports medicine, I was super excited when I heard about Dr. Young's ACL Research. I have been a part of the Locomotion Lab for almost three years now (man I'm old)! As of right now I am helping out Lucy with her data collection and planning what I want to do for my senior comp next year. The knee is super interesting to me, so I plan on continuing the ACL research, but digging a little deeper. I want to focus my research on people who have injured their knee in the past and compare the different types of ACL repairs. Check back soon to see what my official project will be about!
Hello, everyone! I hope that you had a relaxing fall break and you and your families have been remaining healthy. My name is Caroline Kopack and I am a senior at Saint Mary’s College. I heard about Dr. Young and her lab’s work when I was a freshman and as of this semester, I have been working in Dr. Young’s Locomotion Lab for over three years. I am so happy to be involved in expanding the goals of the ACL research project, especially the data we are hoping to gather this semester. As a former athlete that suffered from several ankle, knee, and hip injuries, the ACL project and the research conducted by the Locomotion Lab seemed like a natural choice. Dr. Young and my fellow students have encouraged me to get outside of my comfort zone and expand my scope of research to include projects that I never would have considered, such as the turtle limb bone scaling project. I am currently working towards completing the final few semesters of a major in biology with an emphasis on molecular biology. I am also working towards a minor in Spanish. After Saint Mary’s, I plan to take a gap year to apply to medical school and gain more work experience before going to medical school to study internal medicine and specialize in sports medicine.
There are several exciting changes that we have implemented to the ACL project that we started implementing last semester and are currently continuing. Last semester, we expanded our research parameters to include college-age male and female students from Holy Cross College and Notre Dame University, in addition to gathering data from new Saint Mary's College participants. It is our hope that adding these participants from the tri-campus community will allow us to compare knee function across men and women with and without a history of ACL injury. I am excited to be working with Dr. Young, the ACL team, and the other members of the Locomotion Lab to take our research in a new and exciting direction. I am also looking forward to seeing how this research will be continued and expanded on by incoming Locomotion Lab members that are interested in assuming control of the project after I graduate. Hi everyone! I am so excited to announce that I have officially started collecting data for my senior comp project. I am looking at the ACL and the different impact of landing surfaces on the ACL. We have been pretty busy with appointments for participants so far which has been great! I am hoping to wrap up data collection by the end of the month, as long as I have enough participants, so that I can start analyzing my data. In addition, I recently took the GRE and I am looking at graduate schools for a physician assistant program.
Hello everyone! It has been a minute since my last blog post, but exciting things are coming! This past month I have started to plan out the details of how I am going to collect data this fall semester. I have run into a few minor speed bumps because the IWorx machine can be a little fidgety at times. However, I am hoping to get data collection rolling by at least the week of fall break! In a more personal update, I am currently looking at graduate schools to apply for the next step forward!
Hello again! A lot has happened since I last wrote for the blog! This past summer, I had the opportunity to participate in an NSF REU-Blinks intern program located at Friday Harbor Laboratories off the coast of Washington state. I worked with Dr. Emily Carrington on how flow effects gaping and filtering behavior in the mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis. We explored marine life in various environments such as tide pools when we went intertidaling, at the docks when we looked at bioluminescence, and at a shellfish farm when exploring the importance of sustainable aquaculture. It was an eye-opening experience and it allowed me to work in a marine laboratory with live specimen and helped build not only my lab skills but also my networking skills. The program introduced me to the many paths I could take after undergrad and I am very appreciative of the resources they provided us to help plan our future. I also made lifelong friends and connections and I am so grateful for the labs at Friday Harbor for allowing me this opportunity to grow as both a scientist and a person.
Enjoy these pictures and be sure to check out my poster summing up my research in the Science Hall! |
AuthorsAlok Agwick Archives
February 2024
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