Impacting Change: Congratulations to the May ‘19 Graduates

As we celebrate graduation and the end of another school year, we in the Thesis office would like to highlight some of the diverse research being conducted by this spring’s recent graduates. NIU graduate students’ research translates into real world, tangible benefits and advances in their respective fields. Congratulations to all the May ‘19 graduates! A couple of students in the Psychology department dedicated their graduate careers to fighting post traumatic stress disorder in different culturally and socially relevant  contexts - in Syrian refugees, drawing attention to the serious mental health needs of refugees, and memory reconsolidation treatment in the general population.

Another in the Education department focused on responding to the social and emotional needs of refugee students in the classroom. Similarly, a student in the sociology department questioned the use of excessive force by law enforcement in Illinois. Others have worked toward helping to solve the climate change affecting the human and animal populations through quasi linear convective systems, hazardous waste site cleanup, and aquifer nitrate contamination. Still others are attending to other important social issues such as the growing prevalence of sexual assault in the United States and changing the underlying attitudes that perpetuate it by focusing on the power dynamics of consent, drug and alcohol consumption, and victim blaming.

Others are tackling issues relevant to universities by examining food insecurity in minority student populations. Several in the Education department dedicated their study to improving the state of higher education as well as student - teacher relations and the social and emotional development of students through the development of new pedagogy such as literacy coaching and other methods. In every area, NIU graduate students are succeeding in producing relevant research that effects real change, while addressing the most important social issues facing us today and working together toward bettering the world in which we live.