The research is an expansion of work McKee began in an Honors seminar offered by his mentor, Associate Professor Alexis Franzese.
Honors Fellow and Lumen Scholar Seth McKee ’21 presented research at the recent conference of the Eastern Sociological Society in Philadelphia.
At the conference, McKee presented a paper called “Decreasing Burnout Among Pre-Health Undergraduates: Does an Authentic Interest in Coursework Matter?” in which he and his mentor, Alexis T. Franzese, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology investigated whether an authentic interest in coursework, in one’s major and in medicine broadly are associated with burnout and engagement among pre-health undergraduate students.
Their preliminary results indicate that an authentic interest in coursework (and to a lesser degree in one’s major) are associated with lower levels of burnout, whereas authentic interest in coursework was associated with higher levels of engagement. This research is an expansion of work that McKee began in Franzese’s Honors seminar “Authenticity: Is there a True Self?”
In addition to his undergraduate research with Franzese, McKee is a chemistry major conducting Lumen Prize-funded research on chemotherapy resistance and pancreatic cancer.