People have known about mass biodiversity loss and the human actions that drive it for decades now, and yet we have largely failed levels to change our behavior to protect the environment. What’s failing to motivate people to change? Some conservation psychologists have partially blamed the negative way we communicate about environmental issues for paralyzing audiences into doing nothing because they feel helpless to change such a big problem. Instead, many psychologists have called for using positive emotions in communication to motivate an audience, but there’s still little research showing whether that’s a more effective approach or not. To study whether positive or negative emotions are really more motivational for inspiring change, I looked at how different emotions were used in the discourse about an emerging conservation technology called de-extinction as a case study. De-extinction claims to be both a tool for fighting biodiversity loss and for inspiring more positive and inspiring narratives in conservation. In this thesis, I examine those claims by exploring five emotions that the discourse around de-extinction elicits: fear, guilt, grief, awe and hope. I examined the motivating power of those emotions and what kind of actions de-extinction discourse motivates or fails to motivate through the way it uses those emotions. I found that de-extinction discourse erases negative emotions and boosts positive ones as many conservation psychologists recommend. However, de-extinction discourse accomplishes this in misleading ways: it minimizes the sense of importance of ongoing extinctions by framing extinction as a reversible phenomenon, and it overstates the ability of technology alone to combat the extinction crisis without requiring societal change. As a result, de-extinction discourse could risk making the public less motivated to take personal action to forward conservation goals. I conclude that positivity or negativity should not be the central concerns for motivating action, but rather efficacy and honesty.

There is a higher incidence of asthma, worse outcomes, and a higher burden of disease in Black Americans compared to white Americans. This thesis aims to understand asthma disparities in the Black population by analyzing a variety of social determinants of health and genetic factors that may contribute to these racial health disparities. Based on the evidence collected, a variety of interventions are discussed that explore potential solutions to address the critical issue.

The United States and China have entered a geopolitical competition for power and influence unseen since the Cold War. By examining the nature of this contest through the lens of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and Graham Allison's Thucydides' Trap theory, it is possible to analyze the nature of this relationship, and make predictions as to where it may lead.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-health individuals around the world encountered a range of challenges. Research and internship opportunities were cancelled, clinical experience was unreachable, and prerequisites became more demanding in a remote setting. I myself was working in a research lab in Switzerland when the pandemic was declared, resulting in my career-altering internship to be cut short six months. My life-long friend, Alejandra, had the same experience and reached out to me with an extraordinary idea to unite and empower pre-health individuals on a national level. With my skills in event planning combined with her vision, we built the National Pre-Health Conference (NPHC): a 3-day virtual event for pre-health individuals to explore medical careers and learn how to pursue their professional goals, particularly during these uncertain times. We held our inaugural conference with the theme A Future in Medicine in 2020 with over 1000 attendees from around the country. In 2021, we held our second-annual conference with the theme Unity in Healthcare with over 1000 attendees as well. In addition to planning the second-annual NPHC, I employed pre-event and post-event surveys to assess the confidence level of attendees before and after the conference in healthcare experience, research experience, standardized testing, community service, academics, essay writing, and completing graduate/professionals school applications. We found that NPHC improved the confidence level of attendees in all categories. Overall, understanding how NPHC benefits pre-health students will help our team improve for future conferences.

Every day people dream of becoming doctors; yet, while many know it is a rigorous process to wear a white coat and practice medicine, the true stories of the trenches of medical school are still often untold. This creative project gives medical students chance to have the spotlight, where they will share their own stories of both the ups and downs of their medical school experience and beyond. They were also given the opportunity to reflect and offer insight on if they would do it all over again or what they would change. This story-gathering of these future medical professionals will provide advice on how to get into medical school and tips on how to become a successful doctor, all while providing real-life stories about the people who save lives, and how it has affected them as an individual.