2020 Huskies Showcase winners, finalists announced

Students earned awards and recognition for submitting scholarly work for presentation at Huskies Showcase. 

Although the in-person event was cancelled due to COVID-19 social distancing, students had an option to participate in a virtual Huskies Showcase on D2L Brightspace. Types of projects submitted for the 2020 Huskies Showcase included a thesis, creative work, internship, research project, service learning experience or volunteer experience.

Projects like one looking at social commerce by Herberger Business School Information Assurance students Yasmin Fatima, Deepika K C, Mala Hamala and Anoosha Kathi, which earned honors in this year’s Huskies Showcase for Best Our Husky Compact Reflection on the Think Creatively and Critically dimension. 

The team members took their own understanding of the security aspects of a software system to think of ways to make end users aware about possible vulnerabilities social commerce might have. 

“Our team comprised of people from four different part of the world,” the team said in their reflection “With two different religious belief. We shared our culture and discussed the practice between each religion in each part of the world we are from. It was a fun conversation and interesting facts to be exposed to. We loved to share the differences.”

The Showcase drew participants from across campus with faculty mentors supporting students in their projects, which will be presented virtually on D2L Brightspace where students, faculty and staff members can view the projects by April 27 through May 30 to see the community research, creative works and scholarship being done by St. Cloud State students this year across all disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels. 

In the School of Health and Human Services Jeremy O’Hara worked with faculty mentor Sara DeVos to look at how Peer Wellness Coaching can help students develop a sense of belonging and a focus on their personal and academic goals. The project was named a finalist in the poster presentation. 

“This research and Peer Wellness Coaching seek to address a community need in a resourceful manner, one of which is to explore efficient ways to incorporate technology into practice,” O’Hara said in his reflection. 

Meanwhile, Casper Groenenboom from the College of Liberal Arts used his training in German to review St. Cloud based German newspaper “Der Nordstern” for articles about St. Cloud State University and translate them into English with his faculty mentor Isolde Mueller. The project challenged Gronenboom through the language skills necessary to do the translations as well as the difficulty of reading the newspaper’s Gothic script and understanding the cultural differences between 19th century writings and 21st century culture. 

“In order to overcome the obstacles presented, our group required itself to push beyond our existing knowledge of the German language while strengthening our language weaknesses,” Groenenboom said in his reflection. 

In the School of Education, Ellanna Pomplun’s research with faculty mentors Patty Waletzko and Kathryn Mayhew looked into misconceptions surrounding the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. 

“In my research, I will find reliable answers for people wondering about the effects of drinking while pregnant,” Pomplun said in her project proposal. 

Huskies Showcase gives the campus community an opportunity to engage with industry employers and regional communities to prepare St. Cloud State graduates for life, work and citizenship in the 21st century.

Driven by the dimensions of Our Husky Compact, Huskies Showcase provides a place to showcase student engagement and achievement; the opportunity to engage with, support and celebrate student success; the opportunity to engage with industry, employers and regional communities; and a venue to showcase distinctive student experiences. 

Combining her geography major and political science minor, Jessica Craig, from the School of Public Affairs combined two of her passions for her senior capstone project: “Towards a Less Divided Politics: Solving the problem of electoral map bias through geography.”

Craig found the topic of electoral bias to be a perfect blend of both geography (drawing voter districts/maps) and political science (redistricting policy). “This project really tapped into both of my passions,” Craig said. She worked under the mentorship of professor Gareth John. The project won a reflection award. 

“My hope is to show legislators that there is a non-partisan way to redraw voter districts after census results are released.”

In the College of Science and Engineering, Amira Zaher is recognized as a finalist for her work on Type 1 diabetes-induced cellular stress in mouse models. She worked on the project with faculty mentors Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje from St. Cloud State and Antonija Jurak Begonja of the University of Rijeka, Croatia.  

“Doing research with Dr. Cetkovic has been a wonderful experience,” Zaher said. “In my lab, I study potential therapeutics for type 1 diabetes, a disease that impacts millions all over the world. The knowledge I gain from being a biomedical sciences student does not stop in class, I use it in research to solve problems and make a change in the real world.

“Doing research at COSE has helped me sharpen my skills as a researcher, realize my potential, and accomplish my career goals.”

Zaher is graduating in May and will start her Ph.D. program in cancer biology as a graduate research assistant at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa in fall. She is recognized as a finalist in both the oral and presentation categories.

The nine students recognized as reflection winners in four of the Our Husky Compact dimensions are: 

Award	Students	Project	Faculty Mentor
Best Our Husky Compact Reflection: Integrate Existing and Evolving Technologies	Subi Dangol	Improved Algorithms for a Common Assignment Problem	Ramnath Sarnath
Best Our Husky Compact Reflection: Seek and Apply Knowledge	Candice Zehner, Claire Tollefsrud and September Prushek	Expanding Support for Students with Autism and ADHD at St. Cloud State University	Tina Sacin Andria Belisle
Best Our Husky Compact Reflection: Act with Personal Integrity and Civic Responsibility	Jessica Craig	Towards a Less Divided Politics: Solving the Problem of Electoral Map Bias Through Geography	Gareth John
Best Our Husky Compact Reflection: Think Creatively and Critically	Yasmin Fatima, Deepika K C, Mala Hamal and Anoosha Kathi	Biofluorescence in Larval and recently Metamorphosed Ambystoma Salamanders	Abdullah Abu Hussein

 
The 23 students recognized as finalists are:

Finalist in	Students	Project	Faculty Mentor
Oral Presentation	Makenzie Anderson	Creation of a Universal Inoculum through the Analysis of Anaerobic Digester Samples	Ryan Fink
Oral Presentation	Alexander Seymour	Biofluorescence in Larval and recently Metamorphosed Ambystoma Salamanders	Jennifer Lamb
Oral Presentation	Casper Groenenboom	Alles Gute zum 150. Geburtstag. SCSU in St. Cloud’s German newspaper Der Nordstern with sources from 1876-1917	Isolde Mueller
Oral Presentation	Amira Zaher, Logan Olson and Jace Engelmann	Study of the Anti-Diabetic Properties of Sodium Bicarbonate in a Mouse Model of Type 1 Diabetes	Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje
Oral Presentation	Ellen Boisen	Toward a Geographic Remodeling of Localized Urban Food Deserts: The Case of St. Cloud	Gareth John
Oral Presentation	Andrea Haataja	Performing Culture and Landscape in Lindström Minnesota	Gareth John
Poster Presentation	Noel Jones	Biogeographic Patterns of the Three-barbeled Catfishes (Heptapteridae: Rhamdia) Across Central America	Matthew Davis
Poster Presentation	Mackenzie Forseth	BLASTing to Delftia Identification	Louise Millis  Ryan Fink
Poster Presentation	Jeremy O’Hara	Post-Secondary Belongingness Scores: How Peer Wellness Coaching Impacts the Results	Sara DeVos
Poster Presentation	Tarynn Johnson	Ageism in Health Care: 72 is NOT a Diagnosis	Phyllis Greenberg
Poster Presentation	Hannah Judovsky	Factors Influencing Communication Quality of Life in Persons with Aphasia: Results & Implications	Grama Rangamani
Poster Presentation	Riti Shrestha and Lucy Rai Thulung	Enzyme Activity and Kinetics of Cyclohexadienyl Dehydrogenase Followed by Amino Acid Substitution via Site- Directed Mutagenesis: Replacing Histidine with Proline	Nathan Bruender
Poster Presentation	Lindsey Montag, Nick Delaney and Lauren Julian	Histological Study of the Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate on Pancreatic Inflammatory Lesions in NOD Mice	Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje
Poster Presentation	Eleanor Nelson and Aroshi Wijesekara	Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate Treatment on Adaptive T Cell Immunity in Type 1 Diabetic NOD Mice	Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje
Poster Presentation	Emma Nelson	Effect of Lactobacillus acidophilus on the growth of Escherichia coli	Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje Zeljka Maglica, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Poster Presentation	Amira Zaher	The Effect of a Type 1 Diabetes-induced Cellular Stress Caused by Type 1 Diabetes on Megakaryocyte Maturation and Platelet Formation in a Chemically Induced Mouse Model of the Disease	Marina Cetkovic-Cvrlje Antonija Jurak Begonja, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Poster Presentation	Alex Maile	Evolution of Biofluorescence in the Rabbitfishes (Siganidae)	Matthew Davis
Poster Presentation	Lucy Rai Thulung	Endocrine disrupting chemicals and their effects on estrogen receptor	Satomi Kohno
Poster Presentation	Naqsh E. Zafar	Energy Distribution Diagram for Laser Vaporization of Aluminum Space Debris	John Sinko