Yana Kostova joined our team as an undergraduate Psychology major. As she advanced through our tiered training model, Yana progressed from literature reviews to independent data analysis, contributing across multiple NIH-aligned projects. Yana also assisted with stimulus collection for a study on expert visual perception in radiology. Despite that task falling outside her assigned scope, she volunteered time and effort to support the broader team, embodying the collaborative ethos that defines our group.

Today, Yana is pursuing her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at CUNY Graduate Center. She continues to collaborate with our team as a co-author on a manuscript describing our lab’s Student Success Tracker, a tool that makes research milestones visible, achievable, and equitable for all undergraduates.

Yana’s story exemplifies what’s possible when structured research training and ambitious inquiry come together.

Ola Abozid graduated from HFAN having completed every milestone on our Student Success Tracker, a testament to both her discipline and our lab’s tiered training model. Her contributions spanned the full research pipeline: from hypothesis generation and pilot design to grant-funded data collection and manuscript development. She co-authored multiple projects and helped lead a team of five undergraduate researchers, serving as a peer mentor and trusted advisor to many in our lab community. Our research group recognized her successes by awarding her with the 2025 HFAN All Star award.

Her work has earned national recognition. Ola received two competitive Psi Chi Research Grants, a travel award to present at the Vision Science Society, and an NIH National Eye Institute Early Career Scientist Award. At NYIT, she earned the Rising Star Award and the Alice Burke Memorial Award, reflecting her impact on student research and engagement alike.

A first-generation college student and woman of color in science, Ola represents both the power of structured mentorship and the promise of student-led excellence. Her story exemplifies what HFAN is designed to cultivate: brilliant and unstoppable researchers ready to change the world.

Today, Ola continues her mission of real-world impact as a case manager at BronxWorks, where she connects individuals experiencing homelessness with essential resources and long-term support. Her work bridges clinical compassion with systems-level insight, reflecting the same human-centered care and support that defined her time in the lab.

Elana Safonova joined HFAN with a singular focus: becoming a leader in vision science. Her deep curiosity about ocular biology, combined with her strong work ethic, led her to take on some of our lab’s most complex and high-stakes research challenges. In 2024, she participated in the NIH-funded Medical Image Perception Lab, where she traveled to Vienna for the European Congress of Radiology to help conduct a multinational study. Elana enrolled over 100 radiologists in a live data collection effort, managing eye-tracking calibration, hardware setup, participant monitoring, and data integrity. She ensured the project’s success in a fast-paced, high-pressure setting.

Back at NYIT, Elana became a core contributor to our ongoing work on ophthalmic disorders. She presented her work at both NYIT’s SOURCE symposium and the Vision Science Society annual meeting, earning praise for her professionalism, clarity, and preparation.

Elana is now preparing to begin her training at MCPHS University’s School of Optometry, where she brings with her a robust foundation in oculomotor research, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and a track record of scientific excellence. She represents the kind of student our training model was built to support: self-directed, mission-aligned, and already contributing to the future of vision science.