Fourth-Year Ohio State Student Myla Yang Wins Award

Fourth-year student at The Ohio State University Myla Yang received second place for her research at the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) 2021 conference, October 27-31, 2021, in Lake Buena Vista, FL. Yang's research examined predictors of students' responses to COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Her research poster, "Body Vigilance and Fear of Catching COVID-19 among College Students: Investigating the Role of Information Processing," won second place in the social and behavioral sciences category of the Sloane Prize for Undergraduate Research (SPUR).

A Newark native and Honors student who began her college career at The Ohio State University at Newark, Yang will graduate this spring with a major in neuroscience. Her research presentation was funded by Ohio State Newark's Honors program and an Ohio State Newark student research grant. A manuscript building upon this research is in progress.

Virginia Cope, Ohio State Newark associate dean and Honors Program director, explains that Yang has deep ties to the Newark campus. "Myla is a Newark native and has been deeply involved with
our campus — tirelessly mentoring students, leading student organizations and volunteering in the community, all while pursuing a rigorous Honors curriculum. We all expect great things from her."

Yang began her research in spring 2020 under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Kowalsky, PhD. Body vigilance is a person's heightened awareness of changes in physical sensations of the body, such as increasing heart rate or breathing. There is a well-established link between body vigilance and fear and anxiety disorders; however, how body vigilance increases fear is not clear. The project showed that the way someone processes information about the pandemic — if they think about it systematically or avoid the information — was one way that body vigilance influenced fear of catching COVID-19.

Yang described the benefits of presenting her research to an international audience of educators and students. "Going through the whole research process, I was able to learn how to communicate research clearly and effectively. I was extremely nervous to present that day but, once the first person came up to see my presentation, everything just flowed, and I was talking the whole time! I loved meeting each person that I was able to share my research with."

The SPUR Awards are awarded annually to the top undergraduate presenters in the various categories of NCHC student posters at the annual conference. This endowed fund was established in recognition of the lifetime contributions of Dr. Mike Sloane in promoting high-quality undergraduate research. The NCHC is designed to support and promote undergraduate honors education.