When UNH Honors Program student Lauren Kasparian discovered the International Research Opportunities Program (IROP) just a short month before the application deadline, she knew it was the perfect fit for her academic and personal interests. So with a lot of determination and the help of her mentor, Gene Harkless, Lauren developed a successful grant proposal and traveled to Ghana in summer 2010 to perform research on nurse anesthetists, a project which would become the basis of her honors thesis. “I had the chance to learn about the research process, learn more about my field and have a multitude of new experiences that ranged from delivering babies to going on a safari,” she said. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Lauren chose to publish in Inquiry so that she could “gain as much from this research experience as possible” by taking the final step in the process—sharing her findings with the public. After graduating in May 2011 with a bachelor’s of science in nursing, Lauren would like to become an intensive care nurse and eventually obtain a master's degree. She also hopes to return to Ghana someday. “I want to go back armed with more experience so that I can repay the country that was so welcoming, inviting and influential in the course I want to take through life,” she said.
Gene Harkless, DNSC, ARNP, is an associate professor in the Department of Nursing. A family nurse practitioner who has taught at the University of New Hampshire since 1985, Dr. Harkless is a frequent mentor and enjoys working with students such as Lauren as they take on international endeavors. “For past IROPers, it has been life-changing. They create a whole new lens through which to see the world,” she says. “Students grow to understand their own academic abilities, to ask a question and search for answers and perspectives outside of expert text materials.”
Foreign mentor Gabriel Boakye is the Head of Anesthesiology at KomfoAnokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana.
Read Lauren Kasparian's article Sleeping in Safety: A Study of Nurse Anesthetists in Ghana >>
