She was inspired to look into this last summer, when she was studying physical therapy services at the Chester (Pennsylvania) Community Clinic.
The questions I was wondering and asking while engaging with pro-bono physical therapy were about the people and the population, she said. What gaps in health insurance led them to the clinic, what health inequities and disparities were present in the community? What could be done to prevent these patients from getting to the point when they need medical care? As I added a minor in public health I began to learn more and more about how a communitys health is primarily determined not by healthcare but by the environment they live in and the resources they have available.
The remote context forced upon students by the spread of the COVID-19 virus was neither welcome nor easily adopted for many. But it has made continued research, discovery and progress possible and as seasoned researchers know may open doors or shed light on possibilities that never would have emerged otherwise.
As a member of Prof. Jeffrey Spielbergs CAD (Connectomics of Anxiety and Depression) Lab, Leefeldt has a fresh incentive to push that science forward.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it is apparent that everyone experiences discomfort due to uncertainty, but some individuals cope more easily than others, she said. There is no single region in the brain that has been identified to create this phenomenon, so I am interested in adding to the body of research by searching for significance among different regions.
Neuroscientists use functional MRI data to study brain activity. Though access to the lab and UDs fMRI instrument has not been possible, Leefeldt and her fellow researchers had enough data in hand to continue their analyses.
Uncertainty about future events is a common cause of anxiety seen in the participants of current studies but each individual seems to have a different tolerance for this uncomfortable feeling, she said. Naturally, we wonder what causes these individual differences and seek to find significant connections through MRI data.
Fortunately, we had collected enough data prior to the lab suspending research activities, so the project has not been too heavily impacted. Meetings have been moved to Zoom, but otherwise, the adjustment has not been too difficult. Juggling school, work, and research over the past few months has challenged my flexibility, but I have been able to manage all three to continue despite the unexpected conditions created by the pandemic.
Chatterton said shifting to online work was fairly easy for her.
I was considering the possibility of traveling to clinics to do in-person interviews and see the clinic firsthand, but I can still gather the key information I am using from online databases coupled with the ease and accessibility of video chats to interview, she said.
Many students are part of Community Engagement projects, which include serving the community while learning in collaborative partnerships.
That work is expected to be of real benefit to the community, Michelle Rodgers, director of the Cooperative Extension Service at UD, told students during an orientation session. Among those benefits are discoveries made, expertise or technical assistance offered, research provided to inform decisions and policy.
Alyssa Saienni, who earned her masters at UD in 2020, developed yoga videos for use by Cooperative Extension programs during her summer project last year. Those videos now are of great value, providing much-needed online programming this year.
My project was all online, Saienni said. It gave me experience to continue teaching and also going through the video process.
Katie Russell worked as a Cooperative Extension scholar last summer, leading sessions in nutrition and assisting volunteers.
Dive in, she told students in an orientation class. You never know what youll like or not like. Say yes to as much as you can and find growth in that discomfort you feel at first. Be flexible and adapt. Things dont always go as planned and when youre teaching kids, you have to be flexible and tailor things to how the session goes. With COVID, we have to be more flexible than ever, so its an important skill to have in general.
Article by Beth Miller; photos courtesy of Emma Leefeldt, Drew Huffer and Chelsea Chatterton
Published Aug. 03, 2020