JACKSON, Tenn. — Nov. 21, 2019 — Josie Carrier, senior sociology and math double major from Bristol, Tennessee, spent her summer working on two research projects through an internship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that continue to influence her current and future studies.
Carrier was part of the Summer Undergraduates Minority Research Program, a 12-week program designed to prepare minority undergraduate students to explore the field of health services research. Carrier was one of about 25 students who made up the 2019 SUMR cohort.
鈥淭he goal is for us to work on research full-time and also get ideas and preparation about what future careers in health services research and health economics could look like, and also for graduate school,鈥� Carrier said.
Though Carrier is not part of a racial minority group, her acceptance to the program was based on her childhood living in an impoverished, resource-depleted area outside the city limits of Bristol.
Carrier worked on two projects over the summer, spending about 20 hours on each project per week under the guidance of a Penn faculty mentor. At the end of the program, the students made presentations of their work at the 20th annual SUMR Symposium.
In one project, Carrier worked in the Penn Mental Health and AIDS Research Center to look at the data from a previously conducted study of nursing health intervention for HIV-positive patients with serious mental illnesses. Within that data set, Carrier analyzed the relationship between loneliness and opioid use.
She has transitioned that research work into her senior thesis project for Discipline-Specific Honors in sociology. At the end of October, Carrier presented some of her edited work entitled, 鈥淟oneliness: A Risk Factor for Opioid Use Among People Living with HIV and Serious Mental Illness,鈥� at the Mid-South Sociological Association conference in Jackson, Mississippi. She had previously presented at this conference as a sophomore.
鈥淚 got to watch how much my SUMR experience informed things, like how I present, and how I think about what my audience needs to know,鈥� Carrier said. 鈥淭here was a huge difference there, and the professors who were in the room were just floored by some of my models just because I have been able to pour so much time in.鈥�
Carrier worked on a second project with Evan Anderson, senior fellow in Penn鈥檚 Center for Public Health Initiatives, analyzing hospital discharge data from Philadelphia County in 2017. They looked at patients鈥� diagnostic codes in order to develop a category system for conditions that co-occur with opioid use disorder or with opioid overdose in emergency and trauma settings.
One of Carrier鈥檚 roles was to help re-shape the data from individual admissions to individual patients. The way the code originally worked was functional, but was lengthy and complicated. With the help of a computer science major from Union, Carrier figured out a way to simplify the code from more than 40 data steps into just four.
鈥淔antastic mentorship鈥� from Union鈥檚 Honors Community, the debate team, the math department and the sociology department all prepared Carrier well for her internship experience, she said.
Her time at Union has not only transformed Carrier鈥檚 personal and spiritual life, she said, but also her academic trajectory. But the most transformative thing for Carrier has been time spent with professors outside of the classroom.
鈥淗aving that experience of knowing that you鈥檙e valued by someone who is trying to teach you something, it just makes you a much better student,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey want you to be more than just a good student. They challenge you to be a good person who鈥檚 following Christ well, and they want what鈥檚 best for you.鈥�
Carrier plans to be a researcher one day, so graduate school is her next step. She plans to study sociology with a double emphasis in quantitative methods and health, and maybe gain a Ph.D. from a school of public health. After her internship at Penn, Carrier said she has a good chance of being accepted to top schools.
鈥淧enn letters of recommendation are huge, and the experience I鈥檝e had at Penn is a huge deal, but I could have never gotten here without Union and without the training and formation that happened here,鈥� she said.