High school senior Alana Curley, an active research member of the University of Florida’s Family-Health-Lifespan Research Lab, will be competing in November in the nation’s most prestigious STEM research competition for high school seniors, the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Curley, who attends Byram Hills Central School District in New York, received advanced training in the school’s nationally recognized Authentic Science Research Program, which provides high school students the opportunity to participate in scientific research. Students choose a research focus and after intensive immersion into their chosen area, they seek mentorship from scientists globally and conduct research with their scientist mentors. They then compete in regional, statewide, and national symposia.

As part of her training, Curley began working in the Family-Health-Lifespan Research Lab directed by Carla Fisher, an associate professor in the UF College of Journalism and Communications and member of the UF Health Cancer Center, Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program. The lab was created to produce research that helps families engage in healthy communication practice at home and in the clinical setting when coping with health transitions and disease risk.

As a young daughter of a mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer, Curley became interested in research focused on resources that help mothers and daughters cope together. She found that her own relationship with her mother was strengthened and she became passionate about helping other mothers and daughters enhance their bond after a cancer diagnosis. After reading Fisher’s research on mother-daughter communication and breast cancer coping, Curley sought out her mentorship and, since 2019, has worked in her research lab on a study focused on understanding the coping needs of adolescent and young adult daughters of mothers who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Curley received training in family communication and cancer coping research as well as in conducting qualitative research. Her research activities helped identify communication strategies mothers and daughters can engage in when addressing challenging topics key to their ability to cope with breast cancer together in health-promoting ways.

The Regeneron Science Talent Search is a science and mathematics competition founded by the Society for Science in 1942. The competition is the most highly regarded science contest for high school seniors. It recognizes and empowers young scientists who are developing their own ideas to solve society’s issues. Every year, over 1,800 national high school seniors who conducted independent science, math, or engineering research submit to the competition. The competition recognizes 300 students as semi-finalists and ultimately chooses 40 finalists. Over the past 32 years, the Byram Hills Authentic Science Research Program was honored for its 123 semifinalists, including 21 finalists.

Posted: November 10, 2021
Category: College News, Fisher Lab
Tagged as: Alana Curley, Carla Fisher, fisher-lab, Regeneron