Chelsea Garcia \u201920 (CAHNR) knew she wanted to spend her life studying nutrition and the science behind the relationship between food and the human body before she even knew it was an actual major. Now she is on track to graduate with an undergraduate degree and with research experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in health and food,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cI always incorporated what I learned into cooking. I wanted to learn the science behind the food and its effect on the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia, of Alpine, New Jersey, has always had an inquisitive mind, being the kid who always asked \u201cwhy?\u201d in her quest to better understand how the world works, she says. This natural curiosity has bloomed into a fruitful research career at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s interest in research stared early at UConn when, through the WiMSE<\/a> (Women in Math, Science, and Engineering) learning community, she talked to Chris Blesso, a nutritional science associate professor who studies ways to prevent cardiometabolic disease through dietary modification.<\/p>\n Fascinated by his research, Garcia began working in Blesso\u2019s lab the summer after her first year through the Bridging the Gap<\/a> program. She worked to determine the health effects of consuming freeze-dried grape powder after high-saturated fats in adults with metabolic syndrome. Garcia also co-wrote a book chapter with Blesso identifying the relationship between dried fruit and lipids in the blood.<\/p>\n Summer research gave me the opportunity to focus solely on the work. — Chelsea Garcia<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When Garcia was named a University Scholar<\/a> last year, she continued her nascent research career investigating how a microbe from the gut affects neuroinflammation. Being named a University Scholar is a prestigious distinction that allows undergraduates to design and pursue complex research studies or creative projects.<\/p>\n For Garcia, trying to uncover new knowledge is an all-encompassing pursuit. In fact, she has forgone traditional summer breaks and has spent two of her three summers at UConn doing research.<\/p>\n \u201cSummer research gave me the opportunity to focus solely on the work, which was really helpful for my professional development and preparing for grad school,\u201d says Garcia says, who plans to \u00a0 go on to earn her doctorate in molecular nutrition.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to continue to do research and relay those findings to the public with the hopes of having a positive impact,\u201d Garcia says.<\/p>\n Garcia credits programs such as Bridging the Gap, University Scholars, and the McNair Scholars Program<\/a>, which prepares motivated undergrads for doctoral studies, for helping her find her calling.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout these programs, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to be involved in research,\u201d Garcia says.<\/p>\n To other students who want to get involved in research, Garcia says they should put themselves and their ideas out there.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest takeaway is just apply for anything and everything,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cYou never know what you might get.\u201d<\/p>\n Other students interesting in building the connections Garcia used to launch her undergraduate research career should come to the annual Research Connections event on Oct. 16 in the Peter J. Werth Residence Tower from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., as well as the other Month of Discovery events happening this October.<\/em><\/p>\n Follow UConn Research on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> & <\/u><\/em>LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>.<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI want to continue to do research and relay those findings to the public with the hopes of having a positive impact,\u201d says Chelsea Garcia ’20 (CAHNR).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":154574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,2076,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-154571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-research","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life","series-meet-the-researcher"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 15:59:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154571"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154634,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154571\/revisions\/154634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/154574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154571"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=154571"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=154571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n