Student Spotlight

The Arc Institute is pleased to recognize the excellent, innovative, and important research conducted by the faculty and students at Kent State University.

Summer 2025

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Jackson Miller
Environmental Studies
Mentors: Dr. Yin & Dr. Hsiao


For my research with SURE over the summer, I will be working on the Two-Eyed Seeing Project, in which I will be with remote sensing and GIS datasets to monitor land use changes on Californian Native lands. This will be done for the purpose of identifying susceptibilities to wildfires on Native lands, as well as territories that would benefit ecologically from land transfer to Natives. To meet this goal, I hope to hone my geospatial analysis skills and help create a database that can be utilized by Native communities in California in order to monitor vegetation and wildfire risk. By the end of the summer, I hope to have assisted in the creation of maps that identify Native-owned lands, vegetation degradation or recovery, and lands suitable for land transfer.

smiling woman
Kate Stull
International Relations
Mentors: Dr. Barnes & Dr. Taylor


I’m excited to return to the SURE program this summer and continue working with Professor Barnes. We will be studying ownership patterns among rental properties in Summit and Portage counties, which is crucial for addressing housing uncertainty. By understanding who owns these properties, we can explore solutions like rapid re-housing to increase access to dignified housing in the region. I look forward to deepening my research skills and building on the experience I gained through the program last year.

smiling woman
Samjhana Gurung
Psychology
Mentors: Dr. Barnes & Dr. Taylor


This is going to be my first experience working in real world research; thus, I would like to experience the whole research process. Also, I want to gain more skills and confidence in research through the SURE program this summer collecting data on local housing insecurity with Professor Barnes and Taylor.

Summer 2022

3 women smiling
Left to right: Kristen DiCresce, Naidi Valverde-Romero, Jacqueline Johnson

 

In summer 2022, three undergraduate students at Kent State took on major projects alongside faculty members, seeking to identify real solutions to real problems faced by marginalized populations across the country and across the globe. Here are their experiences!

  • Kristen DiCresce

    Kristen DiCresce is a senior Public Health student assisting Dr. Bethany Lanese with her work evaluating the THRIVE program, a Stark County initiative through Canton City Public Health aimed at reducing the disparity of infant mortality between Black and white babies through the assignment of Community Health Workers. Kristen has gotten the opportunity to assist with the creation of two literature reviews, as well as deciphering and coding interview-data on care quality and the efficacy of CHW intervention. An anti-racist perspective of research pairs nicely with the Public Health idea of p

  • Naidi Valverde-Romero

    Naidi Valverde-Romero is a senior at Kent State majoring in International Relations and minoring in Chinese. She is currently working with Dr. Sara Koopman through the SURE program on a project archiving blogs that document international protective accompaniment in Colombia. Naidi is also a member of the first cohort of SURE students supported by the Anti-Racism and Equity Institute. The Institute is a research collaborative that advances racial justice through research and scholarship. The research Naidi assisted with over the summer was working to understand the ways in which race, gender

  • Jacqueline Johnson

    Jacqueline Johnson is a second-year aeronautics student working under the guidance of Dr. Stephanie Fussell. This summer, Jacqueline was tasked with learning how to code in order to create virtual backgrounds for virtual reality (VR). Jacqueline's research is on how to better implement VR and simulation into accredited flight training, which could make becoming a pilot/etc/ more attainable for students of color and/or of lower socioeconomic status, in place of traditional instruction. This would also be a good step toward ridding the aviation community of bias and negative perceptions of PO

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