Photo courtesy Jen Myers

by Jen Myers

The Lowell High School cafeteria was buzzing on Friday January 10 as more than 125 students taking Early College classes presented their research during the Behavioral Sciences and Environmental Science Research Symposium. The event gave teachers, administrators, city and state officials, and community members a chance to hear from the students about topics they are interested in, what they have learned, and what the next steps may be to solving these important issues.

Students were given the freedom to choose their topics and they were wide ranging including – the impact of having an incarcerated parent on a child, misogyny, the environmental impact of the Cambodian Genocide, cultural appropriation, risk taking behavior, Parkinson’s disease, the impact of social media on a young person’s brain, mercury in fish, and so much more.

Krista Cregg-Spicer and Jennifer Pinguil chose to focus their research on the foster care to prison pipeline.

Cregg-Spicer said she learned than the majority of children in foster care come from families broken by substance abuse and/or physical and verbal abuse, leaving them at a disadvantage and dealing with mental health issues and trauma due to circumstances beyond their control at an early age.

Krista Cregg Spicer (left) and Jennifer Pinguil (Photo courtesy Jen Myers)

When they age out of the foster care system there are few supports available and according to Michigan-based non-profit House of Providence, 20 percent of those young people instantly become homeless. Additionally, by the age of 17, more than 50 percent of foster children have been arrested, convicted, or detained in the juvenile justice system; 70 percent of young women in foster care become pregnant before they are 21-years-old; 60 percent of foster-involved children turn to sex work; only 3 percent earn a college degree; and 25 percent suffer from PTSD.

“The statistics really surprised me, especially the 70 percent of girls getting pregnant before they are 21,” said Cregg-Spicer. “We need so many additional supports in our society.”

Zachary Austria set his sights on his family’s homeland of The Philippines when searching out an interesting and unique research topic – and he found it – the impact of dynamite fishing in the Philippines.

Being a nation made up of 7,000 islands, obviously fish and fishing are important to the Filipino diet and economy. To increase their yield and work more efficiently, fishermen turned to using explosives to stun and/or kill fish, instantly bringing large amounts of fish to the surface to be scooped up.

While this practice seems advantageous in the short term, Austria explained the consequences of this practice are destroying the very ecosystem that makes the region such a rich source of seafood.

Coral reefs and seagrass beds, which are essential to a healthy marine ecosystem, are being destroyed. The food chain has been disturbed because the explosives kill both mature fish and young fish who then never get the chance to spawn, as well as plankton and other food sources for marine life.

Austria said the Catholic Church’s response to the crisis was very interesting to him – they placed religious statues in the water to deter fishermen from the practice because they wouldn’t dare blow up a statue of the Virgin Mary. The idea has shown some success, but there are only so many statues you can place in the sea.

“The local government needs to put in stricter regulations and enforce them and provide better economic alternatives for the fishermen,” said Austria.

The timeliest of the projects at the symposium, was Julia Crockett’s research on California wildfires.

Crockett studied the environmental conditions that make that region ripe for wildfires including the Santa Ana winds and climate change caused droughts, as well as what sparks these blazes – from lightning and campfires to seemingly innocuous things like kids playing with magnifying glasses or families throwing gender-reveal parties.

She also looked at the full impact of these fires from the obvious destruction of homes and businesses, to the environmental contamination impacting water supplies, air quality, and the food chain, as well as the economic impact of lost tourism and commerce dollars.

While there are many things in this equation that we cannot control or may take decades to solve, Crockett said it starts with “studying the causes and beginning to control the things we can control while increasing awareness and education.”