Hunter Pietrzycki ’21

#GatorsLoveDonors
“Thank you so much for funding my research this summer. The support you provided allowed me to stay on campus this summer and work with an amazing professor, Jen Foreman. Professor Foreman is an educational psychologist who studies how scientific research on teaching and learning can be applied to practical school settings. Professor Foreman always pushed me to do more with my research this summer.

“Professor Foreman and I are both curious about ways high schools can be smarter about keeping their students healthy and happy. One of the biggest problems we saw is how high school schedules interfere with most adolescents’ natural sleep cycles based on the “phase delay” that pushes circadian rhythms later at night and into the morning during the teen years. Specifically, my research focused on how sleep affects high school student engagement, achievement, and safety (such as teen driving accidents). I got the chance to read a ton of interesting articles that I used to develop an annotated bibliography. From the bibliography, I am planning to write a literature review on high school scheduling and adolescent sleep over the next two years before I graduate. I am really hoping to have a published article as an undergraduate because I think it will help me prepare for graduate school. I ultimately want to pursue my doctoral degree and become a school psychologist.

“Being able to do research this summer has been an amazing opportunity. I had so much fun learning about my topic and looking up studies. One of the highlights of my summer was being able to present some of my research at one of the Allegheny College Research Seminar Series (ACRoSS) lunches coordinated by Allegheny’s Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities (URSCA) Office. I also learned a lot from the other students from their ACRoSS presentations. None of us would have been able to do that if it wasn’t for the generosity of donors like you, who make all the summer research possible.

Again, thank you so much, and I wish you a wonderful year.”

Sincerely,
Hunter