This week’s UROP Leader Spotlight is Madi Hedge. A new UROP leader this year, Madi is a junior from Jupiter, Florida. Madi studies Behavioral Neuroscience while minoring in Italian. Madi is president of the Alpha Pi chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority (@fsuaoii) at FSU, and a study abroad ambassador for Florida State’s International Programs (@fsuip). In her free time, she loves to cook and bake, and she even runs her own food blog! Madi’s favorite part of being a UROP leader is learning from her students, saying she is “constantly amazed by the research my students’ are doing and it inspires me to continue to learn in my field and others.” Her role as a UROP leader has opened a new pathway of teaching that Madi had not considered before this year, and she says seeing the different research projects UROP students partake in has grown her love for research.
Madi has been working on the project BioSleep with Dr. Pickett. The project studies if habitual sleep and/or traumatic stress is related to differential neuroendocrine profiles in men and women. The project is set to resume soon after undergoing modifications due to COVID-19. Madi hopes to work in the medical field and her work with Dr. Pickett has allowed her to form meaningful connections with research mentors, including members of Florida State’s faculty.
When asked about how she would encourage students to get involved with UROP, Madi said “The question I would ask the student is- what are you curious about? I think that is what I love most about research is that everyone has something that they are interested in and that interest sparks passion when they get to study it further in professional research. I would encourage them to take that curiosity and apply to UROP to see how they can expand upon it with fellow researchers.”
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