Undergraduate Student Spotlights

Kentucky Early Educator Pool (KEEP) Program

SPHIS has two undergraduates participating in the KEEP Program, which focuses on environmental health sciences and provides students with focused 10 week summer research activities, including mentored research, seminars, stats introductory training and support for poster prep. 

Kira Pongyaht is a rising senior at SPHIS and is doing a research project under the mentorship of Dae-Sung Hwangbo, PhD, Associate Professor, UofL School of Arts and Sciences. Pongyaht will present a poster at the undergrad research symposium at the end of July highlighting her research.

Isaiah Cruz is also a rising senior at SPHIS and traveled to Malawi this summer for his research project with Rochelle Holm, PhD, Associate Professor, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute. Cruz, along with other UofL students, assisted with the annual Girls Science Day, a service learning and community outreach event that introduced students to public health concerns surrounding viruses, wastewater and sanitation. 

Through an interactive lesson with test strips, Cruz showed that appearances can be deceiving when it comes to water quality, reinforcing the importance of safe drinking water.

Dr. Holm said, “Science camps and hands-on learning opportunities such as this are uncommon for many children in Malawi, making it a valuable opportunity for students to explore scientific concepts beyond the classroom and better understand their connection to community health.” Around 250 girls attended from the local schools in the Mzuzu area. 

They also completed data collection from 300 survey respondents focused on mental health and stress, along with 15 wastewater and pit latrine sludge samples that will be analyzed for associated biomarkers.

During this trip, they took some time for cultural activities to reinforce One Health concepts outside of the classroom. They volunteered at an Elderly and Vulnerable Feeding Program, where they helped prepare a traditional (vegan) meal consisting of beans, green vegetables and nsima (a maize-based staple). They also visited an integrated farm to see how livestock, aquaculture and crop production can work together to support sustainable agriculture and community health.

Barry Goldwater Scholarship Recipient

Senior Darini Nagarajan was selected as a recipient of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a highly competitive scholarship for undergraduate students pursuing research careers in science, engineering and mathematics. The scholarship was awarded during the 2025–2026 academic year through the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation which recognizes students with exceptional promise in STEM research and academic leadership. 

Nagarajan’s research focuses on investigating novel therapeutics such as Withaferin A and exploring their potential in mitigating oncological cardiotoxic cachexia mechanisms. Specifically, her work examines the molecular pathways involved in cancer-associated cardiac dysfunction and cachexia, with the goal of identifying therapeutic strategies that may improve outcomes for patients experiencing cardiovascular complications of cancer.

She said, “This recognition is meaningful to me because it reflects the impact of interdisciplinary scientific research and reinforces my commitment to advancing both biomedical discovery and population health through a future career as a physician-scientist.”

Nagarajan is majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Epidemiology. She hopes to pursue an MD/MPH in the future and “build a career that bridges medicine, translational research and public health.”

Learn more about the award.