Summer Student Research Assistantships
In collaboration with Academic Affairs and the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED), the Summer Student Research Assistantships (SSRA) are bringing together a talented group of students and faculty.
The Summer Student Research Assistantship (SSRA) awards are designed to encourage student participation in a broad range of scholarly and academic activities, and is open to eligible undergraduates and graduates from all disciplines and academic areas of study. The assistantship provides financial support during the 2025 summer intercession months to undertake full-time research and scholarly activities in collaboration with a ֳǹ faculty research mentor or principal investigator. This year, three students from the College of Health and Human Services were selected for this opportunity to conduct research with top faculty in their fields. Below is a summary of their projects.
Grace Min and Dr. Robert Schug, School of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Emergency Management – Executive Functioning, Childhood Psychosocial Deprivation, and Homicide: Comparisons of Single, Double, and Serial Killers in a Forensic Sample
Grace Min is a double major in Criminal Justice and Psychology. She was interested in getting more experience in learning about neuropsychology. Enter Dr. Robert Schug, ֳǹ Criminology Professor and a real-life criminal mind scientist. Min and Dr. Schug are partnering on Dr. Schug’s research on violent criminals.
For this particular project, Dr. Schug is examining the brain functioning and hypothesized variations between single and double homicide murderers and serial killers.
“Dr. Schug has a lot of case files from violent offenders who he has interviewed over the years. He has collected neuropsychological tests from them,” Min stated.
Dr. Schug, who is a popular professor in the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice & Emergency Management teaches a class on serial killers. In CRJU 408: Serial Killers and Psychopaths: The Psychology of the Criminal Mind – Dr. Schug impresses upon his students the scholarly side of studying serial killers. His students are fascinated by this topic -- Grace Min, included.
“It was a really interesting class, and I think he made it really fun,” Min said. “He’s a very engaging professor and his classes are always very fun to be in.”
Before she graduated, Grace Min (who graduates this spring with her degree in Psychology and Criminal Justice) knew she wanted to learn and study further with Dr. Schug. As part of the ֳǹ BUILD program and through talking with her other faculty mentor in the School of Sociology, she found out about the Summer Student Research Assistantship program and the opportunity to work with Dr. Schug.
Min, who had always set her sights on becoming a forensic psychologist knew she could learn a lot from Dr. Schug and his research, especially since she says that she has developed a more niche interest in neuroscience. Like Dr. Schug, Grace would like to work with the incarcerated population in the future.
“She’s one of the first that I’ve seen in a long while that is also interested in the neuroscience aspect [of Criminology], which to me is like the light going on, because that is my background.”
Dr. Schug, engaged in teaching and research at ֳǹ, also has his other work as a clinical psychologist, and is often appointed by the courts to conduct evaluations for criminal cases. Over the years, Dr. Schug has accumulated file cabinets full of these profiles of violent criminals.
“When the cases are done, it just becomes data that is just sitting around and it’s really in-depth, rich material,” Dr. Schug says.
Wanting to create opportunities for students to get involved with some of this research, Dr. Schug is enlisting the help of Grace Min and others to help synthesize the data. As part of the summer research assistantship, Min will be working on entering Dr. Schug’s collections into SPSS data sets to try and help answer a variety of questions. What Dr. Schug hopes to look at is the different murder groups to help determine if, for one thing, serial killers are somehow biologically different than other violent criminals. Another hypothesis would be that all these violent criminals are just on a continuum with more pronounced deficits or affectations, depending on the group.
“No one has really ever looked at this before,” Dr. Schug says.
Grace Min and Dr. Robert Schug will be presenting their findings at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, November 12 – 15, in Washington, DC.
“Before this, I didn’t have that much research experience,” Min said. “I’m planning on applying to graduate schools after this. I want to further study cognitive neuroscience and psychology. I’m very grateful for this opportunity with Dr. Schug.”
Kai Cleveland and Dr. Sarah Taylor – Family & Consumer Sciences - Young Adults’ Use of Online Resources to Support Sexual & Romantic Relationships
Student Kai Cleveland is working in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences this summer with Associate Professor Sarah Taylor. Their project explores young adults’ experiences seeking out, learning from, and applying online learning material about sexual and romantic relationships.
“When I was sending out my resume to faculty who still needed research assistants, Dr. Taylor got back to me right away and wanted me on her project immediately,” Kai Cleveland said. “I believe that sex education is still something that we are failing on in the education system and I think that this project is really interesting in the way that it is set up, because it takes a look at the use of social media and its role in how young adults are obtaining sex education knowledge.”
Dr. Taylor, Associate Department Chair of Child Development and Family Studies, notes that, “Sexual and romantic relationship education is one of the most important and effective approaches to supporting positive relationship experiences. In order to achieve optimal sexual and relationship health, individuals need opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes around healthy relationship behaviors.”
Findings from their previous research reveals that young adults do not feel like their K-12 sexuality education prepared them to navigate sexual and romantic relationships; and thus, many are turning to online resources for help as they explore and navigate both casual and committed relationships during young adulthood.
“There’s definitely a lack of information out there,” said Cleveland. “Just because we think of young adults being an ‘adult’ doesn’t mean they are going to have everything figured out. Many people struggle with navigating relationships.”
The study survey asked questions to participants such as how long on average they use social media per day, what kind of platforms they use, and the pros and cons they see with using social media in obtaining knowledge about their sexual health.
“Online platforms present an opportunity to reach people with content to support healthy sexual and romantic relationships,” notes Dr. Taylor. “Ultimately, this project will inform educational programming and online content development and delivery to support healthy sexual and romantic relationships during young adulthood.”
Janelah Villanueva and Drs. Sam Zeff & Kevin Valenzuela – Yoga Postures and the influence of mechanical constraints on tissue loading.
Exercise Science student Janelah Villanueva is delving into unique research that will explore handstand yoga postures, which is aimed at providing insight into motor control strategies in both novice and expert yogis. Janelah, who is studying to obtain her M.S. in Exercise Science at ֳǹ in the Department of Kinesiology, is also a part-time yoga instructor. She studied dance and biology at UC Irvine for her undergraduate degree, and hopes to become a physical therapist in the future.
“I think growing up as a dancer, I enjoyed finding ways to improve my performance and liked that feeling of freedom when I was strong and stable with my body,” Janelah said. “Everyone has diverse interests, and I would say in my [Exercise Science] cohort there are a lot of us who have physiology and strength conditioning interests. I like the experience of teaching people how to move.”
“Janelah’s project will allow her to explore how individuals adapt to motor constraints by adjusting hand positions and how specific cues can modify their motor control strategies,” said Dr. Kevin Valenzuela, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Director of the . “This paradigm will advance the broader objectives of my research allowing my lab to deepen our understanding of how training influences motor flexibility and adaptability, while also expanding our knowledge of the specific strategies [yoga] practitioners can implement to enhance motor performance.”
One of the goals for student and faculty researchers in the Movement Science Lab is to combat the non-scientific information often disseminated through platforms like social media about certain mechanical movements in exercise.
“Even in the yoga world, there is a lot of fluff that is not backed by science or research,” Janelah says.
Janelah’s project is just another example of some of the real-world application of studying movement supported by the science-backed research conducted in the Movement Science Lab and aimed at providing better outcomes for sport and exercise.
“The things I see a lot in yoga practitioners are overuse injuries, which is why we are exploring the idea of different arm positions and how we could cue yoga practitioners to be more adaptable, and exploring what consistency means depending on how your body is feeling that day.”
Fortunately for yogis everywhere, there are people involved in the yoga community like Janelah Villanueva who are knowledgeable about the science behind movement and who are determined to facilitate safer yoga practice.
“One thing I discuss a lot with my yoga students is about their high to low plank pushup position; it looks like a pushup, and it goes into upward facing dog. It’s kind of like a backbend and they send their hips up and back for downward facing dog. It is a frequently used transition at the end of each vinyasa flow and people often just dump into it without practicing correct form.”
For example, Janelah says she sees a lot of improper use of shoulders in yoga, which can ultimately hinder other parts of the body.
“So that is also the reason why we are looking into some upper body measurements on how that can affect tissue loading in yoga. Some of these movements are foundational and are going to be used frequently. That got us talking about the mechanical constraints of yoga and arm balances. In yoga, there is a lot of weight bearing on our arms.”
Dr. Valenzuela agrees. “By investigating this novel area, the project will contribute to our ongoing research by addressing the ways individuals adjust to and overcome mechanical constraints, ultimately expanding our understanding of motor performance and rehabilitation strategies.”
