The Friedman School's Summer Research Experience provides Tufts undergraduate students with a unique opportunity.
Friedman School’s New Summer Research Experience: Empowering Future Scholars
This summer, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy launched its inaugural Summer Research Experience, providing Tufts undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in cutting-edge research while exploring the field of nutrition science and policy.
Dr. Venus Israni, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and director of the Summer Research Experience, along with Ashna Babani, program assistant and master’s student in Nutrition Interventions, Communication, and Behavior Change, conceived of a holistic experience geared towards providing Tufts undergraduate juniors and seniors with access to knowledge, social capital, and mentoring relationships crucial to successfully enrolling in graduate education.
This year, the Friedman School hosted four dynamic research positions across various departments, each designed to give students practical experience and insight into different areas of research. Participating research teams included: Jennifer Hashley and Julien Barrere- New Entry Sustainable Farming Project; Dr. Daniele Lantagne- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Community Health; Dr. Mei Chung and Dr. Danielle Krobath- Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science, and Dr. Jessica Sparks- Division of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
"I had never done any kind of professional research before, so this was all very new to me. Working with humanitarian data from Syria put things into perspective for me. I felt privileged to analyze this data to hopefully produce a good assessment [in order to aid] improving the situation."
In addition to gaining hands-on training to build confidence in conducting research, students had the opportunity to hear directly from staff, researchers, and faculty across many of Friedman’s research labs and centers to learn about aligned careers in nutrition and research, the overall development of research priorities, and the greater impact of research on different communities. Importantly, summer researchers were able to meet with current Friedman students, who helped demystify the process of preparing for graduate education, discussing important aspects related to financing their education, key experiences that strengthened their candidacy for graduate school, and strategies for successful admission.
The Friedman News Team spoke with the Summer Research Experience participants to find out more about what they learned. Students praised the program for its robust support system and the opportunity to engage in meaningful research.
"The program exposed me to the field of data work and epidemiology. Just overhearing some of the conversations within my [research] team was incredibly helpful."
Arthi Sumanth
Arthi Sumanth’s summer research experience was based at the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry). Located in Beverly Massachusetts, New Entry improves local and regional food systems by training the next generation of farmers to produce food that is sustainable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate, in addition to making this food accessible to individuals regardless of age, mobility, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.
FNS: What was your favorite part of the Summer Research Experience?
AS: Getting hands-on experience working on the mobile market and in the food hub.
FNS: How did the program expose you to new ideas or areas of research?
AS: [I learned about] community-based research and how the communities can shape a research question rather than coming in with a preexisting question from an external point of view.
FNS: Can you share a memorable experience or moment from the program that had a significant impact on you?
AS: going to visit the immigrant farmers that are a part of New Entry, seeing their farms, and getting to talk to them about their experiences.
FNS: How has this program influenced your future career or academic goals?
AS: [The program] solidified my interest in food systems work and allowed me to explore different avenues of continuing with it.
Bethel Hineshim
This summer, Bethel worked under the supervision of Dr. Mei Chung and Dr. Danielle Krobath at the Tufts University MIRRER-WIC project. The in-progress study involves partnering with WIC agencies across the 7 USDA Food and Nutrition Service Regions, including State Agencies in the USDA/Tufts Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) project, to quantify and explore the determinants of racial and ethnic WIC coverage rates by zip code.
FNS: What was your favorite part of the Summer Research Experience?
BH: My favorite part of the program was getting to meet with the Advisory Board with the team because we got [to hear] about how states want to make WIC coverage better and even got to hear about their jobs as government officials and or WIC stakeholders!
FNS: Can you share a memorable experience or moment from the program that had a significant impact on you?
BH: Getting to present my research so far, furthering my presentation skills has been valuable.
FNS: How has this program influenced your future career or academic goals?
BH: Connecting me with potential mentors, research skills, and [preparation] for applying to grad school!
Alexandre Sacha Maes
Sacha worked with Research Professor Dr. Daniele Lantagne. Dr. Lantagne’s main research interest focuses on how to reduce the burden of infectious diseases by investigating and evaluating the effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions.
FNS: What was your favorite part of the Summer Research Experience?
ASM: My favorite part of the Summer Research Program was every time we had a panel meeting [with] professors, deans, and other researchers [who] shared their amazing stories, passions, projects and advice. After every single one of these meetings, I felt like I had learned so much from all the wisdom in the room and was ready to approach the research project that I was working on in a better way thanks to added knowledge and a new perspective. This program helped me solidify my interest in research- regardless of the field. I really enjoy the process and am considering graduate school more seriously.
FSN: What skills did you learn through your experience in the program?
ASM: I feel like I've learned many different types of skills through this program. In terms of technical skills, I have learned how to code complex functions and become more familiar with Stata and Excel. I have also improved how I filter through data and recognize trends in data that has been cleaned and analyzed. My time management skills have been improved, especially since almost all my work was remote. Communication and public speaking skills have seen an improvement thanks to all the emails, meetings, and the final presentation.
Halla Clausi
Halla was chosen to assist Dr. Jessica Sparks and Chris Williams (of the International Transport Workers’ Federation) on their project: The Role of United Nations Conventions to Achieve Social Sustainability in Fisheries.
FNS: What was your favorite part of the Summer Research Experience?
HC: My favorite part of the Summer Research Program was my weekly conversations with Dr. Jess Sparks. She is a wealth of information, and I highly enjoyed learning more about her research process every week.
FNS: What skills did you learn through your experience in the program?
HC: I learned a lot of various qualitative interview and research skills, which I previously had zero knowledge of. I got more insight into what it takes to run studies on sensitive subjects with hidden populations and the difficulties that go along with that.
FNS: How has this program influenced your future career or academic goals?
HC: This program helped me solidify my interest in research- regardless of the field. I really enjoy the process and am considering graduate school more seriously.