May 2, 2025
Reception & Presentations 2pm to 5pm
Cal Poly Humboldt Library
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Presenters & Abstracts: Search
Nifty Fifty Ain't So Thrifty- Privileges and Challenges of Locavore Diet in Arcata
Aidan Belleau
Environmental Studies
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
A locavore diet aims to consume only foods that have been grown and produced typically within 100 miles of where you live (I chose to do 50 miles). Localism offers community-based solutions to global problems like fossil fuel dependency, carbon emissions, and single-use plastics while attempting to remove the individual from global markets, transnational free-trade agreements, and socio-economic exploitation of labor. This project reflects on the personal privileges and challenges with participating in a strict 50-mile diet in terms of economic viability, dietary habits, and accessibility to luxury ingredients (such as sugar, spices, and beer).
Embodied Liberation: Somatic Tools for Metabolizing White Fragility
Shanti Belaustegui Pockell
Environmental Studies
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
This poster draws from various studies and writings to provide tools for white bodies to metabolize their false sense of fragility around race related topics. Conversations around dismantling white body supremacy are often limited to addressing racism in a purely rational, intellectual manner. But white body supremacy is anything but rational. The symptoms of living in a racialized society accumulate within the body, often leading to unmetabolized pain, fear and/or conflict. This gives way to trauma associated with white supremacy, which often perpetuates racism while degrading our bodies and inhibiting our collective liberation.
Predictors of School Connectedness, Self-Esteem, and GPA
Tsolak Michael Kirakosyan
Psychology
Graduate Student
Melissa Hansen
Psychology
Undergraduate Student
Geyra Gastelum-Hernandez
Psychology
Undergraduate Student
Anahi Avila
Anthropology
Undergraduate Student
Maria I. Iturbide
Psychology
Faculty
College of Professional Studies
Students should experience feelings of belonging and safety on their university campus. We ran multiple regression analyses to identify factors that predict school connectedness, well-being, and GPA among students (n=127, 72% women, 41% white). Overall stress is a risk factor for school connectedness (p<.01) and self-esteem (p<.01). Acculturative stress may be a risk factor for school connectedness (p=.069) and ethnic identity may be a protective factor for self-esteem (p=.059). Marginal significance may be due to the lack of diversity in the sample. Programs that help students manage stress and promote multiculturalism can foster positive school connectedness and self-esteem.
L.A. Sheriff’s “Our Mission, Creed, and Core Values”: a Subversive Standpoint
Cristian Martinez
English
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has strategically created a message in hopes of persuading its population that they stand for justice. “Our Mission, Creed, and Core Values,” may be considered an honorable message to its preferred audience. But from a subversive standpoint, the message is considered to target and criminalize marginalized citizens. This study will demonstrate how the hegemony uses militarized rhetoric to support their war on our communities. Ultimately, this research seeks to educate its audience about the ways in which messages, those similar to the LASD’s, continue to instigate hostilities towards and among the marginalized population.
Eat to Live: An analysis on Human Adaptation to Our Own Actions
Tyani Ifemoa Ortiz
Anthropology
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Food is a fundamental life struggle, and just like any other species, humans have developed ways to meet our nutritional needs. Using scholarly peer reviewed texts, I investigated if there was any change to our nutritional needs as we have genetically modified the corn plant. Trends in the data analysed suggest that while the nutritional needs of humans hasn’t changed, the amounts in which we consume certain foods has profound effects on the human body. In the case of corn, too much sugar, such as high fructose corn syrup gives us an stored energy with out any extra nutrients. If we then do not burn off this stored energy it will accumulate and cause health problems.
The Effect of Descending Resistance Sets Compared to Constant Resistance Sets on the Volume Completed During a High Intensity Free Weight Back Squat Exercise
Jason Meyer
Kinesiology
Graduate Student
Dr. Young Sub Kwon
Kinesiology
Faculty
Dr. Taylor Bloedon
Kinesiology
Faculty
Dr. Sheila Alicea
Kinesiology
Faculty
College of Professional Studies
Resistance training is effective for improving anabolic hormone production; however, no previous research has developed optimized descending resistance sets to increase training volume. The purpose of this study is to compare two different loading protocols of the free weight back squat with 85% 1RM and 30 second rest period to determine the extent of progressive resistance reductions necessary to maintain repetition performance based on the %1RM. 15 resistance trained males completed experimental sessions, including descending sets and constant sets, with the goal of greater training volume. Specifically, using descending resistance sets for back squats allows for greater training volume.
Role of p38 in glioma
Angelica Romero
Biological Sciences
Undergraduate Student
Casiana Gonzales
Biological Sciences
Undergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Gliomas are highly malignant intracranial tumors that result in a low survival rate due to an invasive phenotype and its diffuse nature. As a result, tumorigenic stem-like glioma cells are poorly targeted by conventional therapies. MAPK kinase 3 (MKK3) has been found to be a key upstream activator of the p38 MAPK protein and is upregulated in invasive glioma cells. Recent evidence suggests that interfering with MKK3 signaling through the inhibition of p38 can inhibit tumor cell invasion in vitro (Demuth et al. 2007). We are interested in examining the role of p38 in glioma through the ability of these cells to form tumor-like colonies in soft agar with modifications in Lgl1 gene expression
Connecting Local Businesses and HSU
Daisy Brose
Recreation Administration
Undergraduate Student
Iris Light
Recreation Administration
Undergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
We will be conducting a musical event held locally at Blondie's in Arcata that incorporates a canned food drive and an assortment of raffle prizes. One of our goals is to support local businesses and to show the community how much they give back to HSU by asking these local businesses for donations for our raffle. We wish to accomplish entertainment that is in a safe and including environment. We also hope to create opportunities for OhSnap to provide more food for students. To not only be able to give back to the HSU students in need, but to also bring attention to the community that a program like OhSnap exists. We will donate all of our canned goods back to the OhSnap program.
A History of Competitive Speech and Debate at Humboldt State University
Aaron Donaldson
Communication
Faculty
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
In 1947, at the West Point Military Academy, the first ever National Debate Championship pitted dozens of students from numerous colleges and universities across America against each other in a contest of research, notation, listening skills, and advocacy. Every year since schools world-wide have utilized "competitive forensics" to develop these crucial capabilities.
Starting in 1955, HSU has one of America's best-known programs, yet few at HSU know much about it - this presentation will explore the justification, founding, history, methodologies and current status of this nationally-recognized program.
This Is All Simlish To Me: An Ethnographic Analysis of The Sims, A Virtual Life Simulation Video Game
Jennifer Machado
Anthropology
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The scope of my research was to understand why Simmers created Sims and for what purpose. Ethnographic research took place over the course of 16 weeks on the Sims 3 and 4, forum sites, and YouTube videos. Through fieldnotes, participant observation, transcribed interviews, and surveys I was able to find three key evolving patterns, which was time investment, community building in game-play and participation in challenges and story-writing.Research findings reveal that the Simmers game-play is not only to pass time, but to achieve a goal that they have set for themselves which, allows them to connect with other Simmers, and creates a community based on shared interests.