Student Success Spotlight

By Smokey Heisey

Congratulations to Saray Garcia and Angelica May Amita, for their contributions to the McNair Scholars Program this year, alongside mentors Dr. Angeline Nariswari and Dr. Jenny Lin. The McNair Scholars Program supports first-generation college students by promoting undergraduate research excellence and preparing academically talented students for future doctoral studies. This vision of this program is to make the world a better place by encouraging the inclusion of underrepresented perspectives in business academia.

Saray Garcia, who joined in Spring 2020, and Angelica, who joined in Spring 2021, are among the first two students at the College of Business to be a part of this program:

• Saray is a senior, whose concentration of study is Management and International Business. She has conducted three related research projects, all under the mentorship of Dr. Nariswari and Dr. Lin, since joining the program. Her work in particular focused on consumer behavior in regards to promoting environmental sustainability. She has presented and attended numerous national academic conferences, such as the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS), Decision Science Institute (DSI), and other student symposiums, such as Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and the UROC Summer symposium. Saray has also successfully published an abstract with the AMS and has submitted another abstract to the Association for Consumer Research (ACR). In this paper, she focuses on understanding consumer skepticism toward green practices in companies and attitudes towards purchasing green products. This summer, she will be conducting a summer research internship at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Saray says her decision to pursue research at CSUMB has been a transformative experience so far, “I am a first-generation college student and the first female to attend college in my entire family; I have shown no limits to what I can achieve if I put my mind to it.”
• Angelica May Amita, is a junior in the BSBA program with a marketing concentration. Angelica recently presented her semester-long research findings at the Social Science Research Instructional Center (SSRIC) Conference on May 6, 2021 and 2021 UROC Spring Showcase during Undergraduate Research Week. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jenny Lin, Angelica compared the core messages of anti-domestic violence presented in Public Service Announcement advertisements and social media posts on Instagram, focusing on analyzing the effectiveness of such messages, and considering factors such as gender portrayals and emotional triggers in these messages. Angelica conducted a content analysis, outlining the differences between social media, which were more personal and positive, and public service announcements, which relied on tactics triggering negative emotions such as fear and guilt. Angelica says, “the conference allowed me to access valuable feedback on what direction I should take my research; I was also able to learn from the other presentations and gain insight about the economic aspects of our work.” Angelica’s research aims to create empowering and effective messages to help influence victims of domestic violence to utilize the resources that are being made available to help them. Angelica has been awarded research funds by UROC to continue to conduct research this summer at CSUMB with Dr. Jenny Lin.

Both of these students are looking forward to dedicating themselves to intensive research experiences, leadership, and high achievement, with the support of their mentors.