Students learn about science, and themselves, conducting undergraduate research

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Gamma Sigma Delta Research Expo takes place every spring in the College of Agricultural Sciences, providing an opportunity for both undergraduate and graduate students to share their research with a larger audience. The purpose of this event is to showcase the value of science in a way that is expressive and can be understood by the public.

Three undergraduates who presented their research at the expo — Grant Hoffer, Kenan Ku and Alyssa Curry — talked about the stories behind their projects, with an eye toward offering other Penn State students inspiration to pursue their own “passion projects” in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

A native of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Grant Hoffer is a senior at Penn State. Although he studies plant sciences now, he said that wasn’t always his first choice.

“I thought I wanted to go into some kind of engineering since I was pretty good at math and science topics,” Hoffer said. “I was even part of the robotics club at my high school. Around halfway through my senior year of high school, I reflected on my journey and decided that what I was truly passionate about was plants. My research, internships and classes over the last four years have exposed me to many opportunities and paths in agriculture, from genetics to vegetable, fruit and grain cropping systems.”

The research Hoffer presented at the Gamma Sigma Delta expo focused on an analysis of starch content in grapevine tissue, a field he’s been exploring for nearly three years.

“I first started with the Centinari lab in the summer of 2020,” he said. “I was involved in a plant genetics lab my first year at Penn State, and decided I wanted to try working in a lab that included field work. Since 2020, I have worked with two different graduate students and contributed to several of their projects.”

Why grapes? Hoffer says that this crop is his focus in the lab, but it is also important to him and his family.

“My father has kept grapevines in our backyard since I was a kid,” he said, “so now I am able to help him manage his vines in the best way I can.”

Hoffer said his research projects have given him the opportunity to gain experience with real-world problems, as well as preparing him for life after college.

“I hope to start my own farm producing a wide variety of crops and products,” he said. “However, in the meantime, I hope to become involved in the Extension network, conduct important research for producers across the state, and then share this research to help improve our agricultural system and farmers’ ways of life.”

For Hoffer, the research experiences he has had at Penn State have given him tools to contribute to the impact of Extension work in Pennsylvania. These are invaluable experiences that will benefit him throughout the course of his professional career, he pointed out.

According to Kenan Ku, his academic career has not been on a linear path. He was raised in the Bay Area an hour north of San Francisco and started out at Whitman College, a liberal arts school in Washington state. He transferred to Penn State for its agricultural program and began studying plant sciences, which, he explained, dovetailed with his love of the outdoors and working with practical concepts and issues.

That interest developed into working on pathogens in papayas, among other plants. Growing tropical plants such as papaya in central Pennsylvania, however, is not an easy task. Ku said he found that out through trial and error, while also discovering more about himself regarding his skills and interests in this field of work.

“They [papayas] are devils to germinate and grow indoors,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of indoor plant growing experience, so this was a limitation to my research. The second most frustrating part was running polymerase chain reaction tests — you need to do a lot of very precise things, and you don’t know if you screwed up until the very end.”

While the research was a great learning experience for Ku, he found that lab work isn’t necessarily something he sees himself pursuing after college. But he noted that it did help him to discover what he does want in a career — one of many useful outcomes of conducting research as an undergraduate student.

“I hope to work in soil conservation and more directly with farmers, perhaps through Extension,” he said. “My research introduced me to a lot of great people and taught me about plant pathogens, but it is not what I want to do long term.”

One piece of advice that Ku has for any current or incoming student interested in research is to thoroughly investigate the labs that seem interesting or appealing.

An undergraduate researcher studying environmental resource management, Alyssa Curry is originally from Austin, Texas, although most of her family is from Pennsylvania. She decided to come to Penn State because of the opportunities to study abroad and the strong undergraduate research programs.

Curry’s research centers around the study of pollinator species. She noted that her interest in honey bees began before she arrived at Penn State.

“I started learning about honey bees and pollinators in depth during my sophomore year of high school,” she explained. “A kid in my computer science class was talking about our local beekeeper's chapter, and I became interested in what different issues are occurring in the beekeeping community. I ended up conducting my Girl Scout Gold Award project on pollinator health by writing and promoting elementary school curriculum lessons. I followed this passion into college.”

Although Curry’s first year of college was interrupted by COVID-19, she has been able to pursue four projects under four different grants since then. She said conducting her own project as an undergraduate was a great opportunity to learn all facets of the research process.

“Since this was the first time I was working more independently on a project rather than processing samples for someone else’s research, I learned that not only did I have to budget time to execute the experiment, but I also had to create time to plan out the logistics including brainstorming and problem-solving within the lab,” she said.

Showcasing her findings at the Gamma Sigma Delta Research Expo, she reflected, "gave me the opportunity to present my research in a supportive and welcoming environment and to practice talking to others about what I have learned. I feel that it ties in well with what I hope to do once I leave Penn State.”

Curry said her research is one of the main highlights of her undergraduate experience at Penn State, and these projects are an opportunity that anyone can pursue and use to their benefit. She said she believes that “every undergraduate should conduct research when at Penn State, even if it’s only for a short while, because having a hands-on experience with Penn State professionals in their field is eye-opening and inspiring to see during this stage of life.”

After college, Curry plans to take a gap year and then apply to graduate school in hopes of continuing similar lines of research. She said she eventually wants a job that she is deeply passionate about — and one that benefits other populations of pollinators.

Editor's note: William McCausland is a senior majoring in plant sciences (agroecology option). He wrote this story as part of a project for his minor in food systems.