Dedicated. Tireless. Caring. Supportive.
These are some of the words undergraduate students at Florida State University used to describe their research mentors — faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students who worked side-by-side with them on projects throughout a semester or more — ahead of an annual signature FSU event showcasing undergraduate research.
The 24th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium featured nearly 700 undergraduates showcasing their research and creative projects on a variety of topics Wednesday, April 3, at the Student Union Ballrooms.
“We are so proud of this incredible yearly event and couldn’t do it without the commitment of the hundreds of research mentors who generously share their skills, talent and time so our students can have the life-changing experience of participating in the groundbreaking research and innovation that happens at FSU,” said Latika Young, director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement.
The symposium featured research from the arts and humanities to hard sciences and business. This year’s subjects included everything from anticancer drugs to wildfire spread, marketing around the “Barbie” movie and oyster restoration in the Florida Gulf Coast.
During the Nourishing Creativity Hour, students showcased their creative projects, such as explorations into using AI to learn a musical instrument and analyzing religious choral music.
In its 10th year, the Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards honored mentors who involve students in their work and play a central role in guiding undergraduates through the complexities of research at a large R1 university.
Four mentors received awards for exceeding expectations: Sierra Morandi, a doctoral student in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences; Alex Kallen, a clinical psychology doctoral student; Olivia Cook, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology; and Irene Zanini-Cordi, associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics.
“Not only has my research mentor taught me quantitative and qualitative skills, knowledge about data analysis and statistical coding and insight into the field of research as a whole, but she has also sparked a passion that I did not know was inside of me,” said Chapel Forte, a sophomore political science major from Nashville, Tennessee.
Cook won this year’s Post-Doc Undergraduate Research Mentor Award after Forte nominated her. Their project studied the role of parents and teachers in elementary school children’s math achievement.
Cook said winning the award gave her a boost during her postdoctoral research journey.
“I maybe didn’t realize how important mentorship was to me and how much I valued it in developing my research program,” she said. “This has helped me reconceptualize the way I do science, and I really want to continue to do collaborative, co-designed research.”
The two will continue to work together this summer on a project that looks at a national database to analyze the experiences of foster and adoptive families with the Head Start early childhood and education program.
Morgan Brown, a freshman behavioral neuroscience major from Boca Raton, nominated winning research mentor Kallen, whose work focuses in part on interactions between anxiety and alcohol sensitivity and their effect on brain responses to monetary loss. Brown said she signed up for his project partly because it allowed her to learn how to use electroencephalography to study brain waves.
“Alex is the epitome of what a mentor should be,” she said. “Saying he’s dedicated to mentorship is definitely an understatement. He is just so kind and caring.”
Many of the symposium participants were first-year, second-year and transfer students, primarily from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which includes a yearlong peer-led colloquium to serve as a training course for all undergraduate researchers.
The Council for Undergraduate Research awarded FSU a 2019 Campus-wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments in recognition of its research-supportive environment and significant growth in undergraduate research participation.
Part of that support includes recognizing mentorship excellence. Funded by the FSU Office of Research, the Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards offer $2,000 to the winning faculty member and $500 for each postdoctoral and graduate student winner.
During the event, Morandi was awarded one of two Graduate Student Undergraduate Research Mentor Awards for her work with nursing student Thersendie Belizaire to explore effective teaching strategies in high school biology.
“Sierra is an outstanding mentor,” Belizaire wrote in her nomination statement. “She is always there with words of encouragement, ready to support and uplift her mentees. Her optimistic attitude and contagious energy create an atmosphere that is driven and enthusiastic.”
Zanini-Cordi won the 2024 Faculty Research Mentor Award for her work mentoring a project about 18th- and 19th-century Venetian literary figure and salon owner Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi.
Her nominator, sophomore Angelina Dobbs, said Zanini-Cordi helped her write and earn grants and scholarships and learn about resources she learned about before the mentorship. Their team will go on to co-author a paper together.
“She has gone beyond the scope of my project, indulging my curiosities about publication and niche Italian culture,” Dobbs said. “The cool historical facts and exciting stories she tells have enriched my understanding of the context of the time.”
For more information, visit cre.fsu.edu/URS.