Ninth Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition

Health in a Hearing World

Department: Communications

Advisor: Dr. Kelly Tenzek

Biography: Homegrown in Buffalo, New York, Tahleen enjoys reading, crafting and spending time with friends and family. She loves reading so much that in 2024, she read over 80 non-academic books. Her future includes advancing health equity through research, teaching and community engagement. Tahleen's research addresses critical health barriers for marginalized communities, particularly the Deaf in ADRD care. Drawing on her caregiving experience and witnessing the challenges of ADRD as a research assistant/intern for Hospice Buffalo for almost eight years, she is committed to fostering inclusive, accessible care. Partnering with the Deaf community, she aims to create equitable resources, amplify minority voices, and drive systemic change to benefit all navigating this disease.

When Your Brain's Game of Telephone Goes Wrong (and How to Reconnect the  Line)

Department: Biochemistry

Advisor: Dr. Gabriela K. Popescu

Biography: Samantha is a self-described "huge Swifty" and loves to play with her cat Lottie, learn German, read, travel and take long walks around Elmwood Village. Her research studies specialized proteins in the brain called NMDA receptors, which are essential for learning and development. Mutations in these receptors result in disease states. The ultimate goal of her research is to help find new and more efficient treatment options for patients with these mutations. Many of the patients are children and since these mutations cause neurodevelopmental disorders, they result in poor quality of life and in extreme cases, childhood mortality. The drugs Samantha tests in the lab may hold great promise in treating these patients, and she hopes that her research will lead to some of these drugs being sent to clinical trials. In the future, she hopes to work for a pharmaceutical company to help develop drugs to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Gesturing Toward Success: Embodied Fraction Learning

Department: Learning and Instruction

Advisor: Dr. Ji-Won Son

Biography: Currently living in Alabama and working in Tennessee, Samantha teaches first grade and plans to continue teaching first grade for many years. Her research examines how elementary students' gestures reveal their understanding of fraction operations. Her goal is to improve math learning for all students by understanding how gestures can reveal and support their thinking. She is especially motivated by the potential of gestures to bridge cultural and language differences, creating more equitable opportunities for students to develop a deep understanding of fractions. Although her favorite author is Stephen King, she hopes to make math less scary to learn and teach by eventually transitioning to a math instructional coach and/or working in curriculum design.