Student Highlight: Zoe Logan

By Sophia Flippin, Honors Student Intern, sophia.flippin@wsu.edu

Meet Honors student Zoe Logan, a graduating senior. Originally from Rocklin, California, Zoe came to WSU to major in animal science with the goal of becoming a veterinarian. She is especially interested in treating exotic animals in a general practice setting or specializing in cardiac or neurosurgery.

Zoe has prioritized pursuing veterinary experiences outside of the classroom while at WSU. She serves as both vice president and facility manager of the WSU Raptor Club. The student-led group cares for 10 non-releasable birds of prey by feeding, watering, and monitoring them for sickness. Zoe often worked with Sprite, an owl who recently passed away. She routinely socialized Sprite by spending time with him at the Stauber Raptor Facility while he stood on a falconry glove. Providing enrichment opportunities for the birds has been the group’s recent focus. In addition to caring for the birds Zoe and other club members participated in donation walks throughout the year to collect funds and items for a silent auction, an event held each April. Auction proceeds go toward caring for the birds.

The Honors College curriculum also provided Zoe with the opportunity to become involved in veterinary research, something she hadn’t initially considered. Working with animal science professor Marcos Marcondes and graduate student Valerie Achziger, she helps study the use of the dietary supplement zeolite to decrease the microbial population’s rate of methane production within a cow’s rumen. The team uses an artificial fermenting rumen in a laboratory setting to feed zeolite to the microbes and to measure resulting methane levels. Zoe earned the Fries Research Grant for her work and presented her overall study and research results at the recent Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities.

Zoe believes that the variety of classes built into the Honors curriculum and the high-caliber professors she’s learned from along the way have broadened her knowledge and skills in ways that helped her get accepted into veterinary school. Dr. Robin Bond’s Honors 380 course on Greek literature and culture stands out to her. Learning how to read and write some classical Greek and class discussions about Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey were especially captivating, she said.

When asked what advice she would give to underclassmen, Zoe attests to the importance of establishing a positive routine and healthy habits that balance schoolwork with other responsibilities.

“Starting college is an adjustment at first, so it’s important to note what study strategies or routines work best for you. Either way, it gets easier, and it is important to not get too overwhelmed,” she said.

After graduating this spring, Zoe will be heading to the island of Grenada in the Caribbean to further her veterinary studies at St. George’s University.

Honors College undergraduate researchers land top awards at Showcase

Fifty-three students participated in the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) 2024 on March 25^th, 2024 as part of a week-long series of events honoring the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff.

Held since 2012, SURCA is the only WSU-wide venue for students systemwide in every major and year in college to share their mentored research.

Honors College students winning either Crimson or Gray awards are listed below by major, mentor, and project title.

Abstracts and additional information about each SURCA presenter for all the presenters is available online.

Applied Sciences

Jacob Buursma
Neuroscience
Mentor: Kristen Delevich

“Long-term Effects of Adolescent Cannabis Vapor Exposure on Corticostriatal Circuits Responsible for Decision Making”

Arts and Design

Jasper Willson
Multimedia Journalism
Mentor: Lisa Waananen Jones

“Forest on Fire: A Documentary About the Changing Relationship of Fire in the Sequoia Ecosystems”

Engineering and Physical Sciences

Dylan Suina
Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Jeffrey Bell

“Modifying 3D Printed Carbon-infused Thermoplastics for Applications in Potentiometry”

Suzanne Gelston
Chemical Engineering
Mentor: Dilara Ozdemir

“In Vitro Activity of HOCl Generating Scaled-up Electrochemical Bandages”

Connor Reschke
Materials Science and Engineering, Spanish
Mentor: Hui Li

“Recycling Wood Waste with Particleboard and Pelleting”

Humanities

Matthew Bunge
Economic Sciences
Mentor: Shawna Herzog

“Britain’s Financial Revolution and Class Exploitation, 1689 – 1740”

Molecular, Cellular, and Chemical Biology

Ally Richards
Microbiology
Mentor: Sean McGuire

“Investigating the Role of Protein-protein Interaction of GPAT9 in Arabidopsis thaliana”

Lauren Benjamin and Hailey Landsparger
Neuroscience
Mentor: Emily Qualls-Creekmore

“Identification of Neural Circuits That Participate in Stress Habituation”

Stevie Fawcett
Microbiology, Spanish
Mentor: Stephanie Seifert

“In vitro Tool Development for the Study of Hantaviruses”

Eva Rickard
Data Analytics
Mentor: Sascha Duttke

“Decoding Gene Regulatory Networks Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia”

Jasmin Chu
Neuroscience
Mentor: Kristen Delevich

“Microglial Ablation Effects on Adolescent Behavioral Flexibility”

Organismal, Population, Ecological, and Evolutionary Biology

Molly Greiner
Biochemistry
Mentor: Hanna Delgado

“Characterizing symbiotic rhizobia isolated from native Trifolium”

HarleyJo Holman
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Sciences
Mentors: Lisa Shipley, Leah Brueggeman

“Mountain Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) Habitat in the South Selkirks: Zonal Shifts in Dynamic Landscapes”

Braeden Stiffler
Biochemistry
Mentor: Janice Parks

“How Pea-canola Intercropping (Peaola) Changes Soil Inorganic Nitrogen Content”

Social Sciences

Matteya Proctor
Neuroscience, Psychology
Mentor: Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe

“The Moderating Effect of Cognitive Self-Efficacy on the Relation Between Cognition and Technology-Based Health Information Search in Middle-Aged and Older Adults”