Paloma Peña

The human mind still holds many mysteries. How does a person’s tendency to see things in a negative light connect to body responses, such as how your heart beats? Paloma Peña spent her summer looking for answers to these questions.

Paloma Peña, an undergraduate student at Ohio State, came to Columbus at the age of five from her native Dominican Republic. Though originally interested in law, Paloma became more fascinated by psychology as time went on. Paloma is a member of Alpha Psi Lambda, a co-ed Latin@ fraternity on campus, and some of the older members encouraged Paloma to spend her summer in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The SROP provides opportunities for undergraduates to pursue research at Ohio State or another Big Ten university.

After being accepted to SROP, Paloma worked with Dr. Julian Thayer and Dr. Russell Fazio, professors in the Department of Psychology at Ohio State. The research she performed contributed to providing additional and more accurate information for researchers and clinicians who assess vulnerability to emotional disorders. Paloma said, “Participating in this program made me more interested in research. If you don’t know what you want to do or research, they will find something for you.”

Yolanda Zepeda, assistant director of Graduate Education and Diversity with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, said, “An undergraduate research experience can help students discover who they are. OSU has many opportunities, so I urge all students to ignite this fire and feed it!”

Paloma will be graduating in March and is applying to doctoral programs in psychology. She is interested in childhood psychology and wants to focus on ethnic differences associated with mood disorders in children.

For more information on SROP, please contact zepeda@uiuc.edu.