By Jessica Esposito
Attending NC State opens students up to many great opportunities, but not many ever get the chance to present their work to the chancellor. However, senior Lauren Ray got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent the Department of Communication and present her research to Chancellor Randy Woodson this February.
Ray is a Communication major concentrating in Interpersonal, Organizational and Rhetorical Communication, and will be graduating this December. She also serves as the Service Coordinator for Lambda Pi Eta. Even with an already busy schedule, she decided to take on an undergraduate research project as well.
Lauren Ray with Assistant Professor Dr. Lynsey Romo
Ray sought out a research position with Dr. Lynsey Romo, assistant professor in the department. “Dr. Romo made an announcement in class that she was looking for a research assistant, and I approached her and asked if I could help her out,” said Ray.
That was the start of Ray’s undergraduate research initiative and a wonderful working relationship between her and Dr. Romo. “I love working with students, especially undergrads,” said Dr. Romo. “Lauren is actually getting an undergraduate research grant to work with me, so it’s been great for both of us.”
Their research explores the idea of a “lean stigma” that occurs after a person loses weight. “There is a stigma that if you lose weight and people find out you used to be bigger, that people look down on you because you at one point were heavier,” explained Dr. Romo. Their research further examines how people use communication to manage interpersonal challenges relating to weight management. They gathered data by analyzing interviews with previously overweight or obese individuals who had experienced the effects of a lean stigma.
“Dr. Romo had conducted 40 total interviews before I came into the process, and the first part of what I did was go through and thematically code the data,” said Ray. “Then we began writing the methods section, and we’re still in the process of writing the paper and interpreting the data.”
Although they are still analyzing the data, they have already found that instances of a lean stigma are prevalent in our society. “People who knew them when they were bigger don’t like that they changed who they are,” said Dr. Romo.
The coding of the interviews and hard work that was done by Ray allowed them to come up with these preliminary conclusions, but it was no easy task. “I tried to commit 10 hours a week to research, and I’ve been working with the data since the end of October,” said Ray. But her hard work and endless hours of analyzing data paid off when she was only one of four students who were invited to present research to the chancellor during his visit to Humanities and Social Sciences, an honor most students only dream about.
She had the opportunity to present a research poster and give a speech about her research process and findings so far. “It was great! It was a lot of work going into it, which was stressful, but beneficial,” said Ray about the presentation.
Dr. Romo is also very proud of the work Ray has done. “I’m glad her work is being acknowledged by the chancellor and by NC State,” said Dr. Romo. “It’s a really big honor for her and our college.”
Ray may already have a presentation to the chancellor under her belt, but her work with the lean stigma research doesn’t stop there. Ray and Dr. Romo plan to finish writing the research paper, as well as present a poster at the Kentucky Health Communication Conference in April. “If the paper is approved and published, the findings will also be presented at the National Communication Association Conference in Philadelphia in November,” said Ray. She is excited for where this research will take her in the future.
“The ultimate goal is to get the research published in journal article form,” said Dr. Romo. Once this happens, Ray will officially be a published author as she is helping to co-write the paper.