Research experience outside of the classroom can be just as beneficial as the classes themselves, allowing students an opportunity to work hands-on in a topic of their choice.
Many students at Quinnipiac University have utilized the faculty and resources to conduct their own research.
One of these students was Gabriella Collelo, a senior political science major, who, with the help of two professors in the Quinnipiac University Interdisciplinary Program for Research and Scholarship (QUIP-RS), completed research about climate change in the Pacific Islands.
“Working together with them over the summer was so fruitful because they were able to play off of each other and helped me build this kind of interdisciplinary work,” Collelo said.
Colello completed research on the impact that the political landscape has had and will have on the climate in the Pacific Islands. More specifically, the Pacific Island Forum, which is an alliance between the countries and territories in the Pacific, has been struggling to work together, putting its future in jeopardy.
In order to see what the outcome of the disbandment would be, Colello researched what the organization has done in the past and the influence it had.
The lack of representation of the Pacific Islands in academia is what drew Colello to this research project.
“Being a Pacific islander in Connecticut and always feeling like my region was treated as like a flyover zone … ” Colello said. “What I wanted to do is have this chance to highlight it and actually be able to learn about this region for once in my academic career and that’s what really struck me.”
Since Colello’s research didn’t include an analysis of numerical data, she used interpretive methodology to complete her project.
Interpretive methodology is different from the scientific method, which is used in most research settings, such as QUIP-RS.
Instead of starting with a hypothesis, Colello completed extensive research about the Pacific Islands and its political atmosphere before determining what her focus was.
Colello said her application for QUIP-RS was difficult to fill out because she had to fit her interpretive method proposal into a form made for the scientific method.
“I had a really awesome professor help me with that and it ended up being accepted, which was awesome,” Colello said.
Originally, Colello planned on going to law school, but changed her mind after completing her research.
“I thought about the law school thing for a while. I have my associate’s degree in paralegal studies,” Colello said. “I thought my soul would die if I went to law school.”
Though the research was challenging at points, Colello said the experience helped her realize political science had more opportunities than what people typically believe.
“Over time being able to do research [I realized] that political science is more than ‘Trump and Biden,’” Colello said. “It has a lot to do with structures of power dynamics, legacies of colonialism or gender dynamics or racial dynamics. There’s so much you can study.”
Now, Colello plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in political science and continuing her research in the Pacific Islands professionally.
Ana Allen, a senior psychology and political science major, also completed research this past year.
She had two different projects she worked on. One was for PS399, an independent study course for psychology, and the other was in conjunction with the Department of Psychology.
One of her projects was called “Diaper Need Research,” which looked into laws and legislation in the New Haven area that affects women, especially mothers, that have to deal with diaper need.
Diaper need is having a lack of diapers for babies, which can result in diaper rash and can also prevent babies from being enrolled into daycare since they don’t have a supply of diapers to provide the daycare with. Lack of diapers can also cause infections, which result in medical bills, which further impact the financial status of an already struggling mother.
Allen came across diaper need and period poverty research after she started working with professors who already completed research about this topic.
“We don’t know about it and then it’s not taught,” Allen said. “We don’t think about these very mundane things in our lives, like diapers and pads is something that means between going to school for some women and some kids and not.”
Her research also included a “period poverty drive,” where Allen and her associates teamed up with the Diaper Bank of Connecticut, where people could donate money online or period products into bins that were located around campus.
The drive raised $3,000 in addition to the 85 boxes of period products that were donated, Allen said.
His other research project, which is currently on hiatus and will resume next semester, is aiming to study, analyze and measure microaggressions towards the Black community as well as mistrust among the Black community of physicians.
“I started it with the idea in mind that somehow we can find greater coping mechanisms for the Black community than a lot of them that we have,” Allen said. “We can use the ones that we already have in place to create better ones, and I figured that you can study them in a way that’s more positive when you’re actively seeing it in real life.”
Throughout her research, Allen said that the biggest thing she learned was to look deeper into who is affected by problems rather than looking at an issue on a surface level.
Allen and Colello both researched topics that shed light on underrepresented communities. Their work exemplifies how research is an important part of society, as it is integral to making change possible.
“[Research] is really intense and it’s intense for a reason,” Colello said. “I definitely think that we should incorporate more research methods classes … in K through 12 and other disciplines as well, because I think that the inability to understand the research process is a detriment to our society.”