Austin Buckner grew up in a small town, where he started a small non-profit called Santa’s Senior Surprise, which provides holiday presents to seniors in local nursing homes. During his early life, he developed an interest in biology and medical fields. Eventually, he followed his older sister to Westfield State University and double majored in biology and chemistry. A family discussion about tattoos inspired him to look into what happens to the skin when you get a tattoo. He took this idea and morphed it into a senior honors project, however, when he realized that minimal research already conducted in the area made the project larger and harder than he anticipated he overcame the challenge by agreeing to put even more time and effort it. From there he took it from a senior honors project to a full summer research project, working under the supervision of Dr. Porter and through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity’s SSuRF program. When the project was finished he not only presented it at CURCA’s own research conference, but he had the rare opportunity to present at the New York Immunologist conference as an undergraduate, despite it being a graduate-level conference. There he made connections with numerous people who were impressed by his work and willing to write letters of recommendation PA programs, though he didn’t need them. Through this experience, he not only opened up to become less soft-spoken but he gained a new respect for research and researchers.

Gomez Gonzalez is a mother from Puerto Rico, who came to Westfield State University from STCC, where a counselor told her about the school. She entered the SSuRF program after under the guidance of her mentor Prof. Mao-Lun Weng, who suggested her topic: the chloroplast genome in a Pelargonium Plant. Gomez says that she found the experience to be amazing and that she particularly enjoyed getting to learn something new in such a fun way and make friends while she was at it. Perhaps even more important is the way the internship affected her future, it gave a new meaning to her studies, as well as giving her direction for her future studies. She has decided o pursue a master’s degree and discovered an interest in genetic codes. She believes that this experience, which has made her a much better researcher, will help her not only in her future studies but in her career.

Professor Filas teaches English at Westfield State University, specializing in literary studies and creative writing. He has supervised a number of senior honors projects, including that of David Kennedy, who was writing a fantasy novella, In the process of writing the novella he was conducting research into Joeseph Cambell’s theory of the monolith. From there they decided to enter the SSuRF program so that David could continue his research and write a corollary article to accompany his novella. According to Dr. Filas, David’s diligence in not only his project but in his SSuRF responsibilities paid off. He submitted him to work to a journal that mistook it for a chapter of a dissertation, and later was excepted into his top grad school and program with funding. Filas also mentioned that it was a wonderful experience with them both, allowing them to take their mentor-mentee to another level, while also providing them the enjoyable experience of sharing their work with the other people involved int he program.