Author: Maci Angles | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Spring 2024

My name is Maci Angles, and I am part of the College of Education and Health

Professions (COEHP) as an exercise science major. My mentor for this project is Dr.

Erin Kaye Howie Hickey, whose department is Health, Human Performance, and

Recreation (HHPR). Since I joined her lab in September 2022, I have assisted in

various projects. Examples include exploration of the effects of HIIT exercise on

cognitive function in children, increasing physical activity in staff and students across

campus, and the most recent project being the investigation of the feasibility of walking

academic advising meetings, which is the focus for my honors thesis. I conducted

research in fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters, with plans to graduate this spring of

2024. My future plans are to attend physical therapy school for the next 3 years and

work as a physical therapist.

 

In the fall semester of 2023, research consisted of implementing walking advising

sessions with several academic advisors, and surveying and interviewing the

participating students and advisors to determine the feasibility of making walking

advising sessions a long-term option. However, because of a lack of data from the

student perspective, I chose to only focus on research in the spring 2024 semester for

my honor’s thesis. I helped create and distribute a survey to students, and used that

data for my results and analysis of my thesis. The hope for the project as a whole is that

these walking meetings can be a solution to advisor burnout and lack of physical

activity, along with boosting students’ moods, stress levels, confidence in their academic

career, and other psychological markers.

 

This topic came to life by combining other research members’ passion for

physical activity in the workplace, along with my desire to further research and find

solutions to the pervasive issue of students’ poor mental health and stress. Through the

entire research process, one thing I learned is how complex any type of research

involving humans can be. It’s important to be flexible, understanding, helpful, and have

the expectation that things will not always go exactly as planned. Some challenges

along the way included having to make some small changes to obtain IRB approval,

finding effective ways to distribute the survey, trying to get sufficient responses to the

survey, and ensuring that participants represented various groups and they were not all

recruited from the same place. Something that seemed to be generally agreed upon is

that giving the option of walking meetings has enormous potential to be beneficial to

both students and advisors, provided that both of their needs are met and the transition

from office meetings is made as seamless as possible. A graduate student helped organize

 and implement the majority of this project, while our faculty mentor offered support wherever needed.

Other undergraduate students were involved, and everyone in the group cooperated and took on different

roles to help support the completion of data collection.

 

I am graduating spring of 2024 and continuing on to Physical Therapy school

here in Fayetteville at UAMS this August. This research experience has certainly taught

me a lot about flexibility, genuine connections with others (researchers and

participants), along with how many small important details there are relating to the

research process that often go overlooked. I gained valuable insight and perspective

into what research with people can look like. One aspect I especially enjoyed was when

I was able to talk one on one with participants, creating a tighter bond and further

understanding why the research we’re doing is so important.

 

The research grant funding helped me reach my academic and professional

goals by allowing me to make space in my life to prioritize my research journey over the

past year. It helped me feel more comfortable devoting time and energy to the various

projects I’ve helped with. By making space for research to be a significant part of my

college journey, I’ve also gained a lot of useful knowledge that I was able to refer to

when applying to physical therapy school, and I will continue to carry that knowledge

and experience with me throughout my future professional career!