CBU students present their research findings at interdisciplinary Student Research Colloquium

Students at California Baptist University present their research findings on posters at the Student Research Colloquium on April 12.

Riverside, Calif. (April 13, 2018) – More than 70 California Baptist University students from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Bonnie G. Metcalf School of Education and the College of Health Science presented research projects as part of the Student Research Colloquium on April 12.

The event held at the College of Health Science featured several individual oral presentations in addition to numerous poster presentations.

Each presenter had to pass an abstract review process, which was completed by CBU faculty, said Dr. Kristin Mauldin, assistant professor of psychology. The oral presenters at the event represented the top scores from this review process. Additionally, several students won awards for their poster presentation at the event. 

Mauldin said she noticed that students were excited to present their research.

"The oral presenters did an excellent job presenting their research. They outlined the key components of their research in a manner that expressed their enthusiasm for their work and did a nice job handling questions from a room packed with interested attendees,” Mauldin said. “We (the faculty) are very proud of the effort shown by these students."

Dr. Jacqueline Gustafson, dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, said the event represented CBU’s commitment to creating a cross-disciplinary environment. 

“Students across programs and at all levels of study participated in both poster and oral presentations, driving forward an increased emphasis in research and inquiry across CBU,” Gustafson said. 

Oral presenters from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences included Stefany Schmidgall who presented on “The effect of stress on eyewitness memory recall in college students,” and Alanna Gonzalez who presented on “Stress management group for high school females in low socioeconomic community.” From the School of Education, Wendeth Rauf shared her research on “Academic and social success of students: How pre-arrival surveys can help better prepare incoming students.” The College of Health Science had three teams that presented on research topics such as the absorption of proteins in the body, flexibility training and preventing infections.

Schmidgall said her hypothesis that stress affects students’ memories did not come to fruition. However, the research process itself sparked a new passion.

“I was actually super happy with my research. Obviously I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t find a relationship between stress and memory, but it’s a really good starting point for me,” Schmidgall said. “The project helped me find out that I’m passionate about research, so I’m so happy with how everything turned out.”

Poster award recipients:
Community Partners Award: Amber Koreas
Faculty Awards: Ashley McLendon, Elizabeth Connors, Radiance Jackson and Francisco Gamboa 
Student Awards: Guadalupe Button, Sarah Villalobos, Paula Smith and Stephanie Lang