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Undergraduate Research at UMass Dartmouth
197
As the next few years passed, the passion for serving
as an RA blossomed into my undergraduate thesis
as a Commonwealth Honors Program Scholar and
consequently, my desire to attend graduate school.
I was extremely fortunate to have a faculty member
whose research was closely aligned with my own. Dr.
Mahzad Hojjat had a keen interest in Positive Psychology
which led to my idea of studying resilience
and positive emotions in the context of friendship.
As daunting as the project was at times, I knew it
was going to help me further my goals.
Looking back, the person who truly inspired me was,
indeed, my advisor, Dr. Hojjat. Despite every challenge,
she encouraged me to keep going. Every week I looked
forward to our talks about research and academia. As
we bonded throughout the years, Dr. Hojjat became
the role model that I wished to emulate.
By the time application deadlines for graduate
programs approached, I was certain that my dream
was taking hold. Not only had I established fruitful
contact with potential lab directors (i.e., PIs), but
I possessed summa cum laude standing, approximately
four years of research experience, and
leadership in extracurricular activities. In an effort to
present myself even better, I chose to pursue a terminal
Master’s degree in Research Psychology and
a teaching assistantship for my tenure of graduate
school. Through these opportunities I obtained valuable
experiences, such as supervising an undergraduate
honors student on her thesis and co-teaching
the lab component of a graduate-level statistics
class. Above all, I published the results of my OUR
funded honors thesis research. The research examined
the connection between resilience and beneficial
outcomes in young adult friendships. It was
Snapshot from Lozano’s article, written in conjunction with Mahzad Hojjat and Judith Sims-Knight