UW-River Falls students Justin Gasparas and Desirea Szabla are studying the impact of college students’ jobs on their academic performance and well-being. They are among nine UWRF students who will present their project at Research in the Rotunda, which will occur at the state Capitol on Wednesday, April 2. UWRF photo. 
 

Students to showcase academic, presentation abilities at Research in the Rotunda

Event highlights important research findings by students 

March 26, 2025 - When University of Wisconsin-River Falls students Desirea Szabla and Justin Gasparas decided to study the impact of college students’ jobs on their academic performance and well-being, they chose a topic that was personal to them. 
 
Gasparas, a sophomore psychology major from Florence, and Szabla, a senior psychology major from Stillwater, Minn., both work jobs to make ends meet while they attend college. As they balanced their academic schedules with their work and personal lives, they wondered how other students do so and the impact of their jobs on their grades.  
 
“For us, having our jobs and the structure that provides positively impacts our academics,” Szabla said. “But we wanted to find out, is that true for everyone?”
 
The duo’s research shows that for many students, working more than 20 hours per week while attending school full time can adversely impact their studies. Doing so can also add to stress loads and negatively impact mental health. Students who work on campus tend to fare better than those who work outside their college, they found.
 
Szabla and Gasparas will present the findings of their work at Research in the Rotunda, an annual event where participants present their research projects to state lawmakers, Universities of Wisconsin officials and others. This year’s event will be held Wednesday, April 2, and highlights high-level undergraduate research being conducted by Universities of Wisconsin students in conjunction with their mentors.
 
Szabla and Gasparas are among nine UWRF students participating in the event. Others include Allison Matzek, a senior animal science major from Appleton; Emma Van Oss, a senior from De Pere majoring in psychology; Hallie Roschen, a senior from Red Wing, Minn., double majoring in neuroscience and psychology; Maria Zillges, a senior agricultural business major from Larsen; Heather Hatfull, a senior from Lakeville, Minn., majoring in crop and soil science; Natalie Bostrom, a senior agricultural business major from River Falls; and Dakota Schmidtbauer, a senior from Waukegan, Ill., majoring in agricultural engineering.
 
Students said they’re both eager and a bit nervous about presenting their research projects, yet appreciative of the opportunity to describe their work to Research in the Rotunda attendees. In addition to talking with visitors to the Capitol’s rotunda about their projects, students will visit with Wisconsin lawmakers and their staff, an opportunity to learn more about the work of state government. 
 
“This is a great opportunity that will benefit us in multiple ways,” Szabla said. 
 
Van Oss and Roschen are conducting research on how adverse childhood experiences impact academic anxiety and can lead to smoking and alcohol abuse. They also are studying how positive childhood experiences can help prevent those behaviors.  
 
They praised the hands-on research opportunities they and other UWRF students have access to. Their research has enabled them to learn their subject more deeply while also learning how to conduct a research experiment, they said. It also helps them build skills necessary to succeed in the future. 
 
“Having the ability to take what we are learning in class to do the different steps of the research process, to see in a practical way how that plays out in our research, it helps me understand things much better,” Roschen said. “It provides me with that deeper sense of learning.”
 
Students spend months – and sometimes years – on their research and typically encounter many challenges along the way. Roschen and Van Oss said their project often didn’t go as expected. However, those challenges presented new opportunities and directed them to study additional questions, they said. 
 
“Sometimes our project went like we thought it would,” Van Oss said, “but other times it didn’t. You learn to adjust and to go where the research takes you. You learn that sometimes things don’t go your way, and you have to figure it out.”
 
Students taking part in Research in the Rotunda praised their faculty mentors. Faculty play a vital role in student research projects, they explained, pushing them to achieve, guiding them through problems and providing reassurance. 
 
Faculty involvement has been key to the research Schmidtbauer and Bostrom partnered on to find the optimal density of haylage to increase milk production in dairy cows. Their close work with faculty mentors Sierra Howry, a professor of agricultural economics, and Bob Zhiwei Zeng, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering technology, was key to their progress, Schmidtbauer said. 
 
“Our faculty mentors are an important part of our research,” he said. “They guide us. And when it’s time to deliver tough love, they do that too. They really care about us learning. And they care about us as people. They are here to support us.”
 
“UWRF’s committed faculty are an important part of student research efforts,” said Molly Gerrish, director of the university’s Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity (URSCA) program. She oversees Research in the Rotunda projects and said students not only further their presentation abilities at the event but can make connections with other students and people in their field of study. 
 
“Research in the Rotunda showcases the great work our students are doing and allows leaders in our state to see these incredible projects firsthand,” Gerrish said. “I’m really excited for our students to present and show all that they have been working on.”