Jessica Levin 鈥�27
By Kendra Pintor and Caitlin Antonios
The annual Research Tea celebrates Scripps students鈥� summer research projects and the faculty mentors who support them, highlighting the College鈥檚 interdisciplinary culture of curiosity and inquiry. Featured students Jessica Levin 鈥�27, Lizzie Clark 鈥�27, Alyssa Hernandez 鈥�27 and Malin Moeller 鈥�27 share how their research鈥攆rom political rhetoric and neuroscience to needlework history and 19th-century banking records鈥攈as allowed them to explore their academic interests beyond the classroom.
For Scripps College students, undergraduate research can begin with a question that does not have an easy answer: How do governments serve their people? What happens in the brain when we make decisions? How do our experiences shape the way we understand ourselves and the world around us?
Interdisciplinary Research at Scripps
For Jessica Levin 鈥�27 and Lizzie Clark 鈥�27, those questions have led to research experiences that reach well beyond the classroom and into communities, laboratories, and new fields of inquiry.
Levin, a data science and politics major, traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to examine political rhetoric surrounding immigrant access to health care. Her project explored how politicians talk about changes to health care access鈥攁nd how citizens respond to those conversations.
鈥淲hat I found interesting was thinking about how citizens view their governments and what obligations governments have to their people,鈥� Levin says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to make direct comparisons between Argentina and the United States because the political contexts are so different, but there were things that surprised me. I saw a lot of different political ideologies reflected in the ways people talked about these issues.鈥�
That level of interdisciplinary inquiry is also at the heart of Clark鈥檚 research. A neuroscience major with a dance minor, Clark studied executive function and brain activity in children. Her research investigated whether acute physical activity can improve executive function while considering factors like exercise consistency, gender, and weight status.
Clark used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity in the brain. The resulting event-related potentials, or ERPs, allow researchers to observe patterns of neural activity as participants respond鈥攐r choose not to respond鈥攖o different stimuli.
鈥淲aveforms are fascinating because you can follow the highs and lows of a person鈥檚 brain as they choose to respond or not respond,鈥� Clark says. 鈥淓ach kid, regardless of their variables, has the same ERPs. It鈥檚 something that makes us human, and seeing the neural activity that connects us all is super interesting. Even across species, we can see these neural patterns.鈥�
Clark鈥檚 interest in the intersection of movement and the brain grew naturally from her background as a dancer.
鈥淚 originally wanted to see how dance impacts brain activity and development,鈥� she explains, 鈥渟o I joined a lab that was a mix of laboratory research and neuroscience.鈥�
For Clark, dance provided a starting point for exploring the science of movement and cognition. For Levin, data science offered a new lens through which to examine political behavior and public policy.
Their experience illustrates how students can bring seemingly different interests together to develop new questions. No matter the difference in subject, methodology, or setting, student research reflects the value of聽 being free to question, challenge, and follow your curiosity.
The Scripps Difference
At Scripps, approximately two-thirds of students pursue more than one area of study. This is a testament to the College鈥檚 commitment to creating a culture of exploration where students can dare to pursue opportunities that transform the future.
鈥淭he Research Tea is one of the most meaningful traditions we have for celebrating our students鈥� summer research projects, as well as their faculty mentors,鈥� says Associate Dean of Faculty Warren Liu. 鈥淓very fall, the event allows students to share their central research questions, explain the methodologies that informed their project, and highlight the discoveries made possible through their work.”
At Scripps, Students are Free to…
Alyssa Hernandez 鈥�27 first encountered the Gay Ann Rogers 鈥�65 Needlework Collection up close in spring 2026, when she visited Denison Library with Professor of Art Kim-Trang Tran鈥檚 computational textiles class.
Artifacts from the 1930s were laid out for students to examine, and Hernandez immediately saw how the collection brought together the two fields she was pursuing: art and politics.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been really interested in the use of art as a way to convey narrative and history,鈥� Hernandez says. 鈥淭his was an example of how women鈥檚 work inside the household, which was often invisible labor, allowed women to record their own stories.鈥�
Hernandez went on to apply for the Rogers Needlework History Internship at Denison, where she gained hands-on experience working with the artifacts. Her research focused largely on handkerchiefs and the ways their meaning shifted over time.
鈥淔rom the 1940s through the 鈥�60s, handkerchiefs were very multi-purpose, but they initially started as a purely decorative art that then shifted to utility,鈥� Hernandez explains.
Another student combining interdisciplinary study with summer research is Malin Moeller 鈥�27. A history and economics dual major, Moeller spent the summer working with Assistant Professor of Economics Patrick Van Horn to review and transcribe Union Bank鈥檚 handwritten dividend records from 1806 to 1814.
Funded by the Johnson Summer Research Grant, Moeller plans to continue the work for her senior thesis. The archival project revealed a more varied financial landscape than she expected.
鈥淚 was surprised to see that access to bank stock wasn鈥檛 limited to just aristocracy in this time period,鈥� Moeller says. 鈥淭here were institutions and smaller businesses, like mechanics, that had access to investments and opportunities.鈥�
The depth and breadth of inquiry remain a standout characteristic of the Research Tea. Whether examining political debates about health care access halfway around the world, tracing patterns of electrical activity in a child鈥檚 brain, uncovering women鈥檚 histories through needlework, or transcribing centuries-old dividend records, Scripps students are free to engage with complex questions. In the process, they develop the skills to become thoughtful scholars, researchers, and citizens.
“The sheer variety of projects is also a wonderful reminder that research at Scripps is not confined to one field or one mode of inquiry,” says Liu. “It’s a deeply interdisciplinary practice rooted in curiosity, creativity, and mentorship.”
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