By Cynthia Hubert

June 07, 2024

Sacramento State scholars earned four top awards at this year’s CSU Student Research Competition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The student researchers brought home three first-place awards and one second-place award, continuing a string of success at the annual CSU-wide competition.

“Over the past several years, Sacramento State students have consistently performed very well at this event, competing against the top talent across all 23 CSU campuses, while being amongst the most awarded,” said Andrew Reams, an associate professor in the department of Biological Sciences and mentor to Hanna Franklin, one of this year’s first-place winners.

The competition took place in late April and featured research by students from every CSU campus. Participants presented their work before a jury and audience.

The winners from Sac State are:

• First Place: Cassandra Henderson, Education, “Priced Out of Opportunity: Investigating the Impact of California’s Housing Burden on School Segregation and Black Student Achievement.” Faculty mentor: Robert Wassmer.
• First Place: Brittney Grotz, Communication Studies, “A Tale of Two Titans: A Cluster Analysis of Media Blame Framing in the Expulsion of Tennessee House Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.” Faculty mentor: Jaqueline Irwin.
• First Place: Hanna Franklin, Biological Sciences, “Uncovering the Mechanisms of Gene Amplification by Investigating the Roles of Various DNA Double-Strand Break Repair Elements in Acinetobacterbaylyi.” Faculty mentor: Andrew Reams.
• Second Place: Belle Gaelsman, Biochemistry, and Zubair Mayhar, Biological Sciences, “Antibiotic Depletion of Gut Microbiota Significantly Impairs Courtship Behavior in Drosophila Melanogaster.” Faculty mentor: Kimberly Mulligan.

Wassmer, Henderson’s mentor, called her a remarkable student whose work reflects her outstanding skills in critical thinking, originality, writing and other areas.

“I am pleased to offer nothing but praise for Cassandra as a student, researcher and mentor to her other Sac State Ed.D. student colleagues,” he said.