Everyone knows a female who participates in sport; if not you, a daughter, sister, or friend. She started out competing for the love and fun of the game. But slowly that changed. She began to feel the pressure. The pressure to succeed. She steps up to the line, into the blocks, onto the mat comparing herself, thinking, if only she lost those 2, 5, or 10+lbs she could achieve her goals, look more like the competitors around her. Fit the mold of an elite. This narrative manifests itself in far too many female athletes. One where body image and weight are harshly linked to one's potential for success rather than their actual talent, fitness, or strength. Along with this ideology comes a multitude of mental and health problems such as disordered eating, premature bone loss, and nearly 70% of female athletes have experienced some form of athletic amenorrhea (period loss). “Running on Empty” examines this issue and brings awareness to the byproducts, allowing those who are struggling to know that they are not alone.

The yeast project studies the growth of yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (S. Cerevisiae) in high and low sulfate environments and analyzes the potential for genetically mutated plasmids to facilitate sulfate uptake in gene deficient yeast medias. The goal of the project was to transform the Sul1 and Sul2 transporters into the nutrient deficient yeast strain BY4743 and observe growth in conditions that would otherwise prohibit growth in order to create a model that can be used to study the effect of sulfate concentration on the transporters. The experimental results showed that expressing the sulfate transporters in the BY4743 strain provided the potential for the yeast to grow in nutrient-poor media. The growth potential model allows for further analysis on the sulfate transporters and will be used for research projects going forward.