Kynza is a senior in the Honors Program pursuing double majors in Global Health and Physiology & Neurobiology. On campus, she is president of the student organization Huskies for Refugees, a chemistry tutor at the Q Center, and a member of Husky Hungama, UConn’s South Asian fusion acapella group.
During her junior year, she became involved as a student researcher for Dr. Abadia and Dr. LaRusso’s PANS Project, a research study examining the experiences of children and families affected by Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome. With their guidance, she developed her own project for which she is receiving funding as part of the 17th UConn IDEA Grant Cohort. Her project will use a mixed-method approach to study accessibility and barriers faced by PANS families in the implementation of specialized healthy diets that are often vital for treatment of children with PANS. This past summer, Kynza was part of the Health Research Program and worked as a research intern for Dr. Doug Brugge in his collaborative research initiative CAFEH (Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health), a set of studies examining the impact of ultrafine particles from traffic on cardiovascular health among residents of the Somerville and Chinatown areas of Boston.
Kynza has a passion for undergraduate research and believes that it is a unique opportunity that allows students to foster creativity and independence. Feel free to contact her with any questions about getting started in research, cultivating your research interests, or public health research at UConn.
Student Research Blog Posts by Kynza: