Leyla Akil ’23 Studies Psychosocial Oncology with Nichols Alumna

For the past four years, Nichols School has partnered with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to provide a secondary data analysis research opportunity for eight seniors each year. This past school year, a new opportunity for students was created. Nichols has once again partnered with the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to focus on how caregivers’ interpersonal networks shape family outcomes after a child is diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Students collaborated and worked with Dr. Elizabeth Gage Bouchard ’99, Senior Vice President for Community Outreach and Engagement and Professor of Oncology, to develop a research question, formulate hypotheses, conceptualize statistical tests, and analyze statistical results to answer their initial research question. This topic sits at the intersection of public health, sociology, and cancer research.

Seniors who are accepted to this program know that the work ahead of them does not make for an easy or relaxing senior year. In fact, in the spring, when their classmates are breathing a sigh of relief from their college acceptances and AP exams being over, the Research Scholar students are still deep in writing up the results of their analysis in the form of a journal article.

Leyla Akil ’23 is one of the seniors who applied and was accepted for the Psychosocial Oncology program. Below she details what the experience has been like for her this year.

I initially signed up for the new Research Scholars Psychosocial Oncology class as my junior year was ending. It occurred to me that this class would be demanding, and I would still be dialed in with the coursework until the very end of the school year. The thought of this didn’t bother or daunt me because taking this course would mean that, in the end, I would leave with lots of newly acquired skills and abilities. So, when I officially heard that I was accepted into the Psychosocial Oncology course, I was excited. I had an idea of who my classmates would be by the end of junior year, and that elated me further because they were people I knew to be diligent scholars. We were fortunate to be able to work with Dr. Bouchard ’99. Her presence at some of our classes provided us with valuable insight as we began to prepare to write our final journal article aiming to answer the following question: How do caregivers’ interpersonal networks shape family outcomes after a child is diagnosed with pediatric cancer?

The first couple of months consisted of introduction topics that didn’t necessarily have much to do with our main question, but still allowed us to have vital background knowledge so we could understand the future references and topics that we would encounter. We learned how to use resources like PubMed and Google Scholar to find reliable scholarly articles that would help us expand our language around the topic.

A regular segment of our class was ‘Journal Club,’ which was an opportunity for students to pick an article relevant to our discussions and present it in class. At first, this was intimidating because the individual presenting would need to read and understand their article to successfully share it. I appreciated having this task as I was unfamiliar with reading and analyzing scientific articles. This exercise allowed me to develop effective skills that have since helped improve my comprehension of science.

Another focus of the class was how to better perceive and understand data charts and graphs. We ultimately ended up focusing on qualitative data, as it is important to know how quantitative data differed and why it was significant.

At the beginning of the school year, I began to wonder if I was “smart enough” to be in the class. I often felt far behind my classmates during discussions which hindered my ability to participate productively. With the support of my classmates and teacher, Mr. RJ Bouchard, I began to feel engaged when I made a relevant point in class, and my confidence grew. I am truly grateful for the experience that this program granted me. Not only did I learn so much, but the people I interacted with have left me with so many fond memories that I will cherish forever.