Penn State Altoona’s Integrated Social Science Research Lab swept the undergraduate research poster competition at the 2025 Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators conference. The conference was held April 4-5 at DeSales University in Center Valley. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Penn State Altoona’s Integrated Social Science Research Lab (ISSRL) swept the undergraduate research poster competition at the 2025 Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators conference (PACJE). The conference was held April 4-5 at DeSales University in Center Valley.
This is the second year in a row the lab won first, second and third place in the competition.
Madison Adamiak, a third-year student majoring in criminal justice, and Ally Black, a first-year student majoring in criminal justice, took the first-place award for their project titled “Locked and Unloaded: Assessing Gun Owners’ Storage Practices & Safety Training,” which looks at individual- and state-level variables that influence American gun owners’ use of safe storage methods. The team used data collected from a national sample of gun owners to show that state laws requiring safe storage have no effect on owners’ use of safety mechanisms, but individual safety training and income do. They also found that older gun owners, those living in the south and those living in metropolitan statistical areas are the least safe with their weapons.
Makaylah Bangura, a fourth-year student majoring in multidisciplinary studies, teamed up with University Park undergraduate students Riley Fegley, Ellee Garver and Yusra Haroon and won second place for their study of college students’ abilities to identify consent and sexual assault in experimental vignettes. The team reported that many students in institutions across the nation do not fully understand the nuances of consent and sexual assault. They said their work further highlighted the need for educational courses targeted at specific student populations to increase awareness, reporting and prosecution of sexual assault.
Rounding out the trio of award-winning projects was a poster by Katelyn Kurtz, a fourth-year student majoring in accounting, Kara Harbrige, a second-year student majoring in business management, and Ray Ncube, a second-year student majoring in international politics, which examines a community intervention program for the Pennsylvania State Police. Their study shows that the intervention was associated with improvements in perceptions of police and knowledge of rights in interactions with officers.
“Our research this semester has been extremely rewarding,” Kurtz said. “PACJE is my favorite conference, and I am grateful we were able to place third this year.”
In addition to participating in the poster competition, students attended the conference, learning from panels and roundtables comprised of experts in the field.
“This was a great educational experience,” Adamiak said. “I was able to learn about other research projects from other students and educators from many different places, as well as present research that my colleagues and I worked on all year.”
Ncube agreed.
“PACJE was a fantastic experience with great results for the University and for the lab,” he said. “Having a one-two-three finish for two years in a row speaks volumes about the students within our lab and the advisers who oversee it.”
The Integrated Social Science Research Lab is embedded in the criminal justice and sociology programs at Penn State Altoona. It is coordinated by Nathan E. Kruis, associate professor of criminal justice, and Nicholas J. Rowland, distinguished professor of sociology. The ISSRL is made possible by Penn State Altoona's Division of Business, Health, Humanities, and Social Sciences, headed by Nicholas L. Pyeatt.
Marissa Carney