Keystone College Class of 2025 student Abril Coselino finished up her summer internship conducting research at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics in the University of Pennsylvania’s Summer Undergraduate Mentored Research Program (SUMR). This summer internship introduces talented undergraduate students, with a demonstrated commitment in advancing the needs of underrepresented groups in health services, population health, and clinical epidemiology, to research in this field.
Abril, a double major in psychology and biology, is an international student from Argentina, who, because of her country’s socioeconomic issues, is passionate about social and political psychology.
Through the SUMR program, Abril’s goal was to deepen her understanding of psychology and health care. She worked on two research projects: one with the Literacy Lab to inform early literacy and learning through parent-child interactions, and another on an NIH-funded study called HATRICC-US (Handoffs and Transitions in Critical Care – Understanding Scalability) which examines hospital communication and patient safety.
At Keystone, Abril collaborates with Dr. Steven Howell on research about socioeconomic status and political attitudes. She also leads the Future Healthcare Professionals Club, serves as secretary of the Multicultural and Diversity Club, works as a resident assistant and tutor, and plays field hockey.
As part of her senior Capstone project, she designed and conducted a research study titled “The Effect of Socioeconomic Status, Personality Traits, and Moral Values on Political Attitudes in America.” The project studies the individual and collective influence of personality traits, moral values, and socioeconomic status on political attitudes. In Spring 2024, she was awarded the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Psychology Program Award and the department’s Research Award.
After graduation, Abril plans to pursue a Ph.D in social or political psychology.
