Schedule of Events
McNair Scholars Program Research Showcase
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Ullman 100/101
Come support the McNair Scholars as they present their research. This session showcases the work of students from a variety of disciplines who are preparing for graduate study through the McNair Scholars Program. You’ll have the chance to hear about their research journeys, explore diverse topics, and engage with the scholars. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their hard work and learn something new!
Student Abstracts
Globalizing Ethnic Studies Instruction for Immigrant Students
As Ethnic Studies become increasingly commonplace in California high schools, there is still a lack of practical pedagogical resources for Ethnic Studies teachers. There is a noticeable gap in existing literature discussing how global perspectives on race, ethnicity, or nationality shape students’ learning experiences in Ethnic Studies when their countries of origin are outside of the United States. This study aims to address this pedagogical gap regarding the teaching of Ethnic Studies in multinational classrooms. Understanding the role of multinational conceptions of Ethnic Studies topics requires student and teacher perspectives. Therefore, this study employs a mixed-method design for gathering these perspectives incorporating surveys and focus group interviews. The goal of this study at its conclusion is to provide local Ethnic Studies educators with culturally relevant and research-based instructional recommendations for teaching this course in a multinational classroom setting.
Student(s):
Israel Lozano
Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Brandy Yee
Visual Imagery & Trust in Medical Information
This study explored how the ways in which people get medical information, as well as their ability to visualize that information, affect their trust and comprehension of it. To test this, one set of participants (N=85) was recruited via Prolific, and another set (N=86) was recruited via SONA. Participants read either an essay or an infographic about medication. They then took a comprehension test, answered questions about perceived trust in the information and potential adherence to the medical information, and completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire to complete the survey. A univariate ANOVA showed no interaction between the way information was conveyed and participants’ ability to visualize information in their mind’s eye on comprehension scores. However, there was a significant main effect of condition (essay vs infographic), such that people who saw the infographic had higher comprehension scores than people who saw the textual information again. Another univariate ANOVA showed no interaction between condition and visual imagery ability on trust scores. There was, however, a main effect of the condition: people who saw the infographic had higher trust and adherence scores than those who saw the text information. All results were consistent across both data sets. These results show the potential benefits of using more visual information in the medical field. This finding could improve patients’ trust in medical information, as increased comprehension may allow them to play a more active role in their care.
Student(s):
Cora Maldonado
Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Andrea Sell
The Impact of Sibling Dyads on Relationship Quality in Latino Families
Gender plays a role in shaping sibling relationship quality in young adulthood (Jensen et al., 2024). For instance, sister–sister pairs report more closeness than other dyads (i.e. brother-brother), suggesting stronger ties among women (Doron et al., 2016). Despite these findings, little research has examined differences across Latino sibling dyads. This study explores how participant/sibling gender relates to sibling warmth/conflict. It is hypothesized that (1) sibling warmth/conflict will vary across participant’s gender, (2) will also differ across sibling’s gender, and (3) there will be an interaction between participant/sibling gender. A sample of 159 young Latino adults completed an online survey assessing sibling relationship quality. Two-way between-subjects ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the effects of participant/sibling gender on warmth/conflict. For warmth, there was no main effect of participant gender, F(1, 155) = 0.13, p = .72, with males reporting similar warmth (M = 3.48, SD = 0.71) to females (M = 3.58, SD = 0.84). However, there was a main effect of sibling gender, F(1, 155) = 9.30, p = .003, η² = .057, such that participants reported higher warmth toward female siblings (M = 3.82, SD = 0.70) than male siblings (M = 3.31, SD = 0.83). Although the interaction was not significant, F(1, 155) = 0.31, p = .58, the pattern indicated highest warmth among female participants with female siblings (M = 3.85, SD = 0.71). For conflict, results showed no main effects for participant gender, sibling gender, and interaction between the two variables.
Student(s):
Lupita Silva
Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Nicole Talarico