Federal Work-Study student Julizza Canales Helps Latino Children and Their Families in Fairfax Combat Childhood Obesity

I have been working on the Child Health Exercise and Wellness (CHEW) Intervention Program that the Nutrition Department at Mason has been running since January 2016.  I was able to see the study go from the early stages when it was still going through IRB approval, to personally having to call potential participants to recruit and screen them for the study, to now in December where we are wrapping up the study by conducting the final 6 month assessment visits.

What got me interested in this study is that it was created to help Latino children and their families in Fairfax combat childhood obesity. Being Latina and majoring in community health, I know that Latinos are at higher risk of becoming overweight/obese. When I heard that my nutrition professor, Dr. Sina Gallo, needed someone who could speak Spanish and was interested in helping the Latino community, I jumped at the opportunity. It is great being able to give back to my community and help provide them with resources that they might not have been able to get have they not enrolled in the intervention.

Being a part of this research study is also beneficial to my career goals. I hope to go into nursing and still be able to educate my community on how to live a healthier life and how to prevent diseases; working on this research study has given me hands on experience on trying to effectively educate a population group. As well as how to create a wellness program that will help treat and/or prevent a certain health condition.

Prior to the start of the intervention, I was recruiting participants and screening them over the phone, as well as translating documents that had to get IRB approval. Once the intervention began and we started collecting data I became in charge of translating the data since it was all in Spanish, inputting the data onto Nutritionist Pro in order to do a nutrition analysis on what the participants were consuming, as well inputting other data we collected throughout the six months of the intervention program. The intervention lasted six months, in which participants met one-on-one with a nutrition educator once month. Now that the intervention is over, we have been conducting the final assessment visit in which participants get a DXA scan, go on the metabolic cart to obtain their resting expenditure, and collect other data in order to compare it to the data collected in the baseline visit; this helps us determine whether there is a significant difference between the control and intervention groups and whether the intervention was effective. Once the final visits are complete we will be doing data analysis. It has been very rewarding seeing the study from start to finish, as well as seeing the impact the program has had on the families.

            

Federal Work-Study student Phiet Vo Determines a Method for Storing Fuel Effectively and Safely

Sustainable energy is an important industry for many scientists and engineers that are interested in improving the environment. There are countless methods for producing clean renewable energy that are more than capable of meeting power demands. These power sources may also come with the added benefits such as waste reduction. For example, anaerobic digestion is a process that involves converting organic waste into usable biofuel in the absence of oxygen. The fuel being produced in this case would be methane, a natural biofuel with chemical composition CH4. Although producing this energy is a straight forward process, determining an effective method for storing significant amounts of fuel presents various safety hazards.

For this project, two 55-gallon drums were chosen to be used as an organic waste reactor and fuel tank. However, since the drums must be pressurized in order to store significant amounts of methane, it was important that they meet industry safety standards. The plastic drums currently being used for the system did not meet these requirements, so new steel open-head drums have been introduced. One of the main disadvantages of using steel is its susceptibility to corrosion. Since many corrosive toxins are present during methane digestion, one of the main responsibilities of this project included investigating proper solutions to this issue.

Various vendors were contacted in order to get appropriate safety information for the parts. Industry experts were also able to provide important insight on current methods being used to address similar problems. By organizing all this information, it is possible to determine the most effective solution. Future work includes working with the same vendors as well as contacting the drum manufacturer for more specific information.

Federal Work-Study student Chyna Staten Measures Effectiveness of Provost Courses an CTFE Programs

I am a senior communication major currently working with the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence (CTFE). The CTFE is an office at Mason that offers a range of opportunities for instructors, adjunct faculty, and full-time professors. I was hired under Laura Lukes who is the Assistant Director for the office. What interested me about my job is the opportunity to work on various projects and programs. I assist in database analysis and management to measure effectiveness of Provost courses and CTFE events and programs that are being implemented. On a weekly basis, I usually spend my time updating the website, entering data into Microsoft Excel as well as creating and reviewing materials distributed in events sponsored by the office.

I would say that I learn something substantial every week. Being around faculty, I gain insight to their efforts to create a beneficial environment for their students, especially with George Masons’ active learning classrooms. The staff at CTFE work hard to come up with innovative ways to push the agenda of teaching and learning. My work-study is a unique experience where I get to learn about the concerns teaching staff have and join CTFE in developing ways to improve these concerns for the future of George Mason University.

My concentration is public relations and that field requires creativity, interpersonal communication, and individual capability. PR involves creating and implementing communication efforts for a specific organization or business and I feel as though I am doing just that as a Research Assistant for CTFE. I spend my day getting familiar with software that I must use in future positions. Overall, I am appreciative of this position that I have been granted at the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence. I work with individuals who are dedicated to making a difference in their environment, which is exactly what I plan to do in my career. 

Federal Work-Study student David Pisil Examines Health on Workers in the Cleaning Industry

My name is David Pisfil and I study Community Health and Biology here are George Mason. Community Health has been fascinating to me since I see how it can help shape the way a healthy community thrives. In 2016, I began working with Dr. Pollack as a lab assistant for her pilot study on Cleaning Worker Health research. The purpose of the study is to explore health among women who currently or have formally worked in the cleaning industry. This is accomplished by the completion of a survey and a feasible urine specimen (depending on the willingness of the participant). Questions asked on the survey give insights on the participant’s demographics, work, socioeconomic status, pregnancy history, health related behaviors, and medical history which take approximately thirty minutes to answer. When analyzed, the collected urine samples will be used to help comprehend the levels between certain chemicals used in the industry.

On a daily basis, my tasks include contacting women who have worked or currently work in the cleaning business to recruit them as participants for the study. Often times, it is necessary to speak in Spanish in order to maintain clarity and avoid any language barriers. If the workers accepted, I explain the study to them, allow them to fill out the survey, and collect a urine sample.

This study interested me because some day, I aspire to be a medical provider. Studies like these will help me understand the cause of some illnesses or will even help trace the origin of an ailment. OSCAR has given me the opportunity to become a better student by allowing me to expand my lab skills through perfecting safe specimen handling in the laboratory and how to skillfully approach participants by explaining everything they need to know about the study. An added bonus is that I can practice all of this in both English and Spanish! I am very excited to see the progress of the study and am extremely grateful to have been given an opportunity to work with such a devoted team. 

Federal Work-Study student Shawn Pham Hopes to Find A Change In Adult Behavioral Patterns

To make a social difference through the world of research is an area that I have always been interested in. Throughout my educational career, I have been gaining technical writing skills and wanted to use those skills for a purpose. I wanted to make a change in the world through the skills I learned and when the weekly social work emails came out with an opportunity to become an undergraduate research assistant, I eagerly applied.

Every week, I worked on the assigned tasks with my supervisor. Since most of the qualitative data collecting was done over the summer, we mostly transcribed the audio files, quality checked them, and then coded them. Through inputting data into our database, we hope to find a change in behavioral patterns among older adults with dementia after coding the music listening sessions through our Music and Memory and Dementia Care research projects. Through these two research projects, we strive to understand the effects of music with the older adults with dementia population. Learning the effects of music on this demographic could potentially assist the treatment plan for mitigating the symptoms of dementia.  By doing this research, we are shaping the future of social work policy for caregiving plans for this population. Here in this little, yet lively office of Social Work integrative Research Lab, we are making progress in macro social work in order to make a change in policy and practice.

We are making a change in a different way from what most social work undergraduates imagine their careers to be like. Most social work majors see their career primarily in micro social work, focusing on the individual and group, while in research social work, it focuses on general populations by shaping policy that micro social workers follow. Being in SWIRL, I understand how the policies that I must follow as a future social worker are made and why they are necessary. Through research, social workers can become effective advocates for change.