With the GE Honors Research Fellows program, GE Honors students receive funding to conduct research with a CSUN faculty member. Students, who have applied and are selected, carry out research during the academic year and present their research work at the annual CSUNposium.
GE Honors Research Fellow 2024-2025 applications are now being accepted. The submission deadline is Friday, November 1, 2024 at 5pm.
GE Honors students and CSUN faculty interested to learn more are invited to a GE Honors Research Fellows information session on Wednesday, October 23 11:30-12:30 pm via Zoom. RSVP Here.
Research Fellows will present their work at CSUNposium on Friday, April 4, 2025.
Step 1: Identify a Faculty Mentor
Faculty mentors can be associated with any CSUN college or department
Step 2: Develop a Research Project
Collaborate with your faculty mentor to develop a research project, timeline, and budget
Step 3: Co-Submit an Application
Jointly submit the completed application by the deadline
Past research fellows:
Nidah Mohammed
Nidah Mohammed
Third-Year, Majoring in Psychology, Minor in Literature
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Stefanie Drew
Research Project Title: Zooming Into Your Eyes: A Comprehensive Look Into the Impact of Zoom Learning on Oculomotor Health & Academic Performance
Abstract:
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a surge in technology usage that necessitates further research into the resulting effects. Due to increased pressures from school, work, and/or personal responsibilities, individuals have spent countless hours on devices both for work and for leisure. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is defined as vision-related problems due to prolonged computer use (American Optometric Association n.d.). As such, we believe that this increased use of technology during the pandemic contributes to increased CVS symptoms. It is also important to investigate whether these outcomes generalize to diverse college populations, and California State University, Northridge is uniquely situated to meet these needs (CSUN Counts - Dashboards, n.d.). Given the many stressors students face (e.g., school, home life, work), we aim to examine the relationships between CVS, academics, and socioeconomic stressors and their intersectional effects.
Gabriela Garcia
Gabriela Garcia
Majoring in Psychology, Minor in Child and Adolescent Development
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Ana Sánchez-Muñoz
Research Project Title: Language Matters: On teaching Spanish in Chicana/o Studies in Academic Settings
Abstract:
The aim of the project is to address a gap in the Humanities curriculum that will directly benefit all linguistic minorities at CSUN by creating a program in Heritage Languages. The term Heritage Language (henceforth HL) refers to a minority, non-English language with a history of established communities in the United States, whether indigenous (as in the case of native American languages) or immigrant.
Mahwish Zahid
Mahwish Zahid
First-Year, Majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Jo Anne Pandey
Research Project Title: Mental Health of Rural Teachers in Community Schools in Nepal during Covid
Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected everyone's mental health and it is important to understand these effects in order to come up with solutions. This project aims to remedy these issues by identifying the mental health challenges that teachers in rural Nepal have experienced during the pandemic. We hope to understand how teachers struggle with these ever-changing conditions of the pandemic and offer them long-term solutions to better deal with these changes.
Graciela Clavel
Graciela Clavel
Second-Year, Exploratory Major
Research Fellows Advisor: Amber Norwood
Research Project Title: Exploring and Implementing the Techniques & Methods of Creative Writing
Abstract:
The project titled ‘Exploring and Implementing the Techniques & Methods of Creative Writing’, with the mentorship of faculty member Amber Norwood, focuses on the research and application of the creative writing process and techniques, with the goal of creating a collection of a variety of works by the end of the 2021-22 school year.
Melita Mehzabin
Melita Mehzabin
First-Year Majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Holli Tonyan
Research Project Title: Who cares, and why do they? Understanding a covert care force of relatives, friends, and neighbors providing child care in the USA
Abstract:
When most people think of “child care,” they think of a center. Yet, the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) showed that 2.7 million caregivers cared for 4 million children in unpaid home-based child care arrangements that are not listed with any state registries (i.e., “unlisted”), a kind of child care often referred to as “family, friend, and neighbor care.” This covert workforce has been little studied or understood. The individuals who are unlisted and unpaid remain the least understood group of caregivers whereas profiles of other, smaller groups of home-based providers have been constructed. For our proposed project, we would use the NSECE to create profiles of these unlisted, unpaid caregivers. Such profiles can inform public policy for child care subsidies and the agencies that administer those policies on a local level.
Jonathan Carmeli
Jonathan Carmeli
Second-Year Majoring in Political Science
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Jennifer Thompson
Research Project Title: Jewish Resilience as a Model for Climate Adaptation
Abstract:
The project explores common themes in the cultural and religious practices and products (e.g., literature, liturgy) that Jews created in response to major catastrophes in Jewish history, with the goal of creating a semester-long course syllabus on this topic that can be taught in future years in the Jewish Studies Program at CSUN. We will be drawing on existing courses in Jewish Studies as well as CSUN library resources to review literature on cultural and religious responses to catastrophes in Jewish history and to understand how “resilience” is currently defined and operationalized in Jewish Studies scholarship. We will identify 15 major themes in the literature to correspond to the 15 weeks in a semester-long course and three to four articles, books, or other resources that could be assigned for each theme in a syllabus. The course will allow students to explore both the hardships and triumphs that the Jewish people underwent, and in doing so the students will have a greater understanding of Jewish resilience, and in addition the students will hopefully realize that they themselves can be resilient when faced with struggle.
Angelina Cayabyab
Angelina Cayabyab
Fifth-Year, Majoring in Health Administration, Minor in Quality Management Assurance (Pre-Law Track)
Research Fellows Advisor: Professor Abraham Rutchick
Research Project Title: Consumers' Privacy Preferences for Digital/Online Health Products and Services
Abstract:
Increasingly, health care products and services exist in a primarily online environment. Patient data is held in digital repositories, and various hardware and software health products share users’ health information across platforms. Although these innovative products have many benefits, they also introduce risks to consumers, ranging from hacking of websites to consumer tracking to subtle disclosure of personal identifiers. The purpose of this project is to examine perceptions of privacy in the context of health information.