Work / 04
CU Change
Research at CU CHANGE, a health and neuroscience lab, where I earned my way in as a freshman and they ended up trusting me with the whole operation.
Research Assistant · Aug 2023 – Jan 2026 · CU Boulder
What it was
CU CHANGE, a health and neuroscience lab at CU Boulder running since 2014, studying the factors behind health and risk behavior. I cold-approached the professor who co-ran it after a freshman psychology class, cleared a summer of interviews, and joined as a research assistant by sophomore year.
- 2.5 yrs
- on staff, 25+ hrs/week
- 6
- studies worked
- 10 min → 3s
- screening time cut
- 1st
- undergrad certified in phlebotomy
- NAPTP
- phlebotomy certification, 2025
- 2 summers
- stayed full-time through both
Six studies over two and a half years
AMBER
Aging and Marijuana: Benefits, Effects, and Risks
How cannabis affects cognition in older adults.
SONIC
Study on Nutrition, Insulin, and Cannabis
The interaction of diet, insulin, and cannabis use.
QUARTZ
Cannabidiol and Older Adult Cannabis Users Study
A placebo-controlled study of CBD and THC effects on cognition and motor control in older adults.
PISCES
Perceptual Influences from Smoking Cannabis
Cannabis effects on cognition and physiological response.
ARCTIC
Affective Response to Cannabinoids in Individualized Contexts
Cannabinoid effects on mood and emotion across settings.
MOVE
Marijuana and Other Variables in Exercise
Cannabis use in relation to exercise and recovery.
What I did
- Stayed two and a half years at 25+ hours a week, including two full summers, after switching off the premed track most assistants leave on.
- Built AI-assisted screening and scheduling tools that cut evaluation time from roughly 10 minutes to 3 seconds, moving more participants through the studies. This was years before Ardvarq.
- First undergraduate the lab ever certified in phlebotomy (NAPTP, 2025), then built the standard the lab now uses to certify other undergrads. Drew blood, both venipuncture and capillary draws, in support of data collection.
- Ran the operation end to end: recruitment, screening, scheduling, and data collection on large health and behavioral studies under IRB protocols.
- Managed large datasets in REDCap and SPSS and kept them clean and ready to analyze.
What I took from it
- Can run a research operation end to end: REDCap and SPSS data management, IRB protocols, recruitment, and blood draws.
- My phlebotomy certification became the standard the lab now uses to certify other undergrads, so the path scaled past me.
- Two and a half years and the full operation, on a study line where most assistants leave inside a semester.