The college experience shouldn't just be "going to class." With University College Day (UCD), Texas Wesleyan offers a unique experience for our students to think outside the classroom and share their research and projects with their peers, faculty, staff, alumni and the greater Fort Worth community.

This year’s UCD is April 19, with keynote speaker Jonathan Grant Bowen presenting at noon followed by an afternoon of games, food and fun. But you won’t want to miss the numerous presentations students are giving throughout the day. Here are just three examples of projects being presented by our students: 

Cindy Flores: Athletes with Disabilities 

Cindy Flores is a senior exercise science major who is also a member of the esports program. During her time at Texas Wesleyan, she’s been interested in working with children with disabilities and using esports to help with physical therapy.  

When Cindy was in high school, she had surgery for a brain tumor that left her disabled. She took that as inspiration to help others, wanting to become an occupational therapist. 

“I have been able to do all these things because that surgery was my second chance at life,” she said. 

She was able to combine her passion for helping those with disabilities with her love of gaming to research esports athletes with disabilities. At UCD, she’ll be bringing awareness to athletes with disabilities, especially in areas like esports that are struggling to become recognized as a sport.  

 “It's great that our professors are being a lot more inclusive as well with esports and being a lot more open to it. So that way, I could present it and educate my peers about it,” she said.  

 She’ll also be showcasing how to make modifications for athletes with disabilities to have more accessibility in sports — something that the kinesiology department has been exposing Texas Wesleyan students to through partnering with the Adapt-Able Foundation and modifying toys for a Region 10 Education Service Center event.  

Want to learn more about Cindy? Check out her presentation at UCD and read about her work in esports. 

Brooklynn Rowe: Antibiotics at Home 

Brooklynn Rowe is a pre-med student majoring in exercise science and minoring in biology and psychology. She’s a junior with eyes on attending medical school to become an anesthesiologist.  

Brooklynn was inspired to become an anesthesiologist after her grandmother had struggled to wake up after anesthesia, having a stroke and losing mobility in her leg.  

“It was really, really tough. And I remember thinking, I don't want that happening to anybody else's grandma, sibling, relative, friend — it doesn't even matter,” she said.  “I don't want that happening to somebody.”  

Through her biology classes at Texas Wesleyan, she’s discovered that soil contains natural antibiotics.  

“For some reason, in my mind, that was just insane. Because I was not imagining our normal soil to have just antibiotics in them that we use every day and that are prescribed every day,” she said.  

She was able to get soil from various places, including her own front yard, to test for antibiotics in Texas Wesleyan’s laboratories. She discovered that some of the samples were growing rings around it, meaning that they were killing off bacteria — making them antibiotics.  

Dr. Christopher Parker sent the samples in for DNA testing to discover what kind of bacteria was present so he and the students could identify what kind of antibiotic was discovered.  

Brooklynn says she is excited to present this project, along with another project involving DNA bacteria in whiskey, because it’s allowing her to showcase all the hard work she’s poured into each project.  

“It is really nice that we're able to showcase our abilities and our knowledge on something that we spent so much time on,” she said.

She also says that UCD is allowing her to work on fighting the stigma on feeling judged when presenting and is helping her with her presentation skills that will also benefit her as she enters graduate school.  

“I think that's definitely one of the largest skills you can gain — oral presentation,” she said. “But also, it looks really good when you go to grad school because it shows that you have the initiative to put so much work into one research project, so much so that you felt the need that it was important enough to present it to a larger population.” 

Kelvin Coker: The Value of Introspection  

Kelvin Coker is a junior criminal justice major and psychology minor. He’s also on the wrestling team, which leaves him juggling classes, practices and matches, while also trying to hang out with friends. 

After facing his own battles with addiction, Kelvin started to find positive impacts of introspection — listening to what his body and mind needed to become healthy and successful. 

“People don't think about [mental health]. Just like with sports, they think it’s all physical — so work out and eat, right? Go practice and stuff like that. If you do all that, and just leave the mental part behind, you may have a really have a bad time,” he said.  

Kelvin will be discussing his own experiences with mental health, balancing classes and athletics and advice he’s learned from professionals, like understanding your own thoughts and feelings and how to address them. 

“Last year, I had a huge shift in my mentality,” he said. “Kind of like self-discovery — philosophy, faith and religion and stuff like that. I never really knew myself up until now. It feels a lot better, knowing how I felt then and how I feel now.”   

Kelvin wants to work for the FBI, saying that he “just wants to help people and keep people safe.” His passion for helping others excites him to share his insights into introspection. He believes researching and sharing the positive impacts of introspection will help him and his peers become successful in their careers, as criminal justice professionals often deal with high-stress situations and challenging cases, which can take a toll on their mental health. By practicing introspection, they may be able to better manage their emotions and maintain their well-being. 

“I recommend everybody doing the [kind of] introspection that I did,” he said. “I know everybody's different. Everybody's got a different story, a different experience. But I feel like introspection is something that is objectively good."  

You can get more information on this year’s University College Day on April 19, including when and where presentations will be held, by visiting the UCD website.