Arcadia University Forensic Science Program

First week back shenanigans!

Earlier this week, the Forensic Science, Physics, and Chemistry departments held a welcome event to ease into the new year and allow students to make new connections!

Wishing you all the best semester! 👏👥😄

Last week, the first years got the chance to talk to some very key players on Arcadia’s campus!
👏👥😄

The Forensic Science Department welcomed four important figures to its orientation for the incoming MSFS students.

Amy Henning, the director of the counseling services at Arcadia, and Theresa Smith, director of student health services, came to speak about the transition into graduate school and the resources available to help. The Director of Public Safety, Ruth Evans, came to speak about the services her department provides the community. Last but not least, Dr. Tatjana Miletic, the Chair of the Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Forensic Science, came to talk to the incoming students about all the excitement to come!! 👩‍🔬👏🧠

Thank you to all of our guest speakers for your time! We can’t wait to see you on campus throughout the year.

HAPPY ORIENTATION DAY!🎉🥳🎊

Today we welcomed the incoming first year students starting in our Master of Science in Forensic Science program next Monday!

We are so excited for everyone! 🎉👏

LESS THAN A WEEK UNTIL ORIENTATION!! 🫡🫡🎉

Here’s a flashback to last year’s orientation. This picture has quite a few familiar faces on campus, such as the rising second years and some of our key faculty members! 👩‍🔬🧑‍🔬🫂

We are all so excited to welcome the incoming first year students to our program and cannot wait to cheer you on!👏👏

Come stop by and see us and Archie the Knight at the Arcadia University Undergraduate Summer Open House event this Saturday, August 10, 2024 from 9:00am-10:00am! 🏠🤩🙌

Come to learn more about the many undergraduate and graduate forensic science opportunities we offer! 🧬🥼👩‍🔬

We have great 3+2 and 4+2 programs that allow you to seamlessly transition from earning your undergraduate to graduate degree as well as an undergraduate forensic investigations minor, join us to learn more!

We cannot wait to see you there! ☺️🥳

Last Friday, the Arcadia University Forensics department welcomed the students of the Forensic Sciences Mentoring Institute (FMI), a program at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education! 🙌🥼🔬

This program allows high school students to spend seven weeks solving crime while learning how to implement real forensic techniques and instrumentation! 🧬🧪🧑‍🔬👩‍🔬

ANOTHER SECOND YEAR GRADUATE SHOUT OUT!! 🥳👏

Congratulations to McKenna Bonn-Savage, a graduate of our MSFS program! ❤️👩‍🎓

Since graduation, she has begun a full time position as a Medicolegal Death Investigator at the Honolulu City and County Medical Examiner’s Office! She has been very much enjoying herself and says this program helped prepare her for this role a great deal. 👏👏

Her favorite part of our MSFS program was attending the AAFS conference in Denver and completing her internship at the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office which allowed her to explore and discover what she really wanted to do with her life!

When asked for tips for incoming freshman, McKenna said, “Make sure you are organized! Don’t be afraid to reach out to your professors, the second years, or even the graduates of the program when you need it. Ask questions and communicate!”

Thank you, McKenna! We are so proud of you and cheering you on from back in Pennsylvania! 👏🥳

Our forensic science community got some sun the other day at the annual Biology Barbecue held on Arcadia University’s beautiful campus! We celebrated all of this past year’s accomplishments and we are so excited to see what this next year brings! ☀️🌻

We hope everyone is having an awesome summer, STAY COOL!! 😎😰🧊

On June 19th, 1865, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were finally notified of their freedom. This marks the day when the Emancipation Proclamation was fully put into effect, despite being issued over 2.5 years prior. Today is a celebration of freedom, justice, and of the African-American community. Join us today in recognizing the significance of this date and our efforts toward an anti-racist culture in America!!

WISHING YOU ALL A SAFE AND HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! 💝🎊🎉🫶

This month and every month, we stand with the LGBTQ+ community. As they make strides in social equality, they continue to suffer disproportionately at the hands of the criminal justice system. We value and respect all members of the forensic science community and the knowledge, experience, and diversity they bring! 🏳️‍🌈👏

OUR NEXT SECOND YEAR GRADUATE SHOUT OUT!! 🤩🤩🥳

Congratulations to Brayleigh Keefe, another graduate of our MSFS program! 🎓🥼🔬

Since graduation, she has been working at Arcadia University as the administrative assistant for the S-STEM program while exploring more options in forensic biology 🙌👏

Her favorite memories of the program were her opportunity to perform research in Dr. Fabio Oldoni’s forensic biology lab and attending AAFS in Denver, CO!

When asked for one piece of advice, Brayleigh said “Take advantage of every opportunity to gain hands-on experience. Whether it’s in class, through research, or an internship, these opportunities provide invaluable lessons!”

Thank you, Brayleigh, for your dedication and hard work; we can’t wait to see all you do in the future.👏👏

OUR FIRST SECOND YEAR GRADUATE SHOUT OUT!! 🎓🥳🎉

Congratulations to Haley Bibey, a recent graduate of our MSFS program! 👩‍🔬👩‍⚕️

Since graduation, she has been working full time as a Laboratory Support Specialist at NMS Labs in one of the LCMS departments.

Her favorite parts of the program would be the external internship opportunity, the ability to learn about multiple disciplines of forensic science, and the close relationships she formed with her peers!

When asked for one piece of advice, Haley said “Take it all one step at a time, and always believe in yourself and your abilities! It might not feel like it in this moment, but you really can do this!”

Thank you, Haley, for your contributions to this program and all your hard work; we’ll always be cheering for you! 👏👏

Come see us at the Arcadia University Undergraduate Summer Open House event this Saturday, June 1, 2024 from 9:00am-11:00am in the Great Room! 🏠🤩🙌

We would love to tell you more information about the many undergraduate and graduate forensic science opportunities we offer! 🧬🥼👩‍🔬We have great 3+2 and 4+2 programs that allow you to seamlessly transition from earning your undergraduate to graduate degree, join us to learn more!

We cannot wait to see you there! ☺️🥳

Huge congratulations to two recent graduates from the Arcadia forensic science community, Jocelyn Royal and Hope Rozycki! Jocelyn received their Bachelor of Arts in Biology with a minor in Creative Writing and Hope received her Bachelor of Science in Biology!! 🧬🔬🧪

Post graduation, Jocelyn is planning on working for a local pharmaceutical company and then attending graduate school next year. Hope is a member of the 3+2 Forensic Science program at Arcadia, so she will be returning to Arcadia for one more year to complete her Master’s degree! 👩‍⚕️🎓🙌

Congratulations Hope and Jocelyn, can’t wait to see how far you both go!! 🎉🥳🎊👏

Today, we honor every brave person who served this country. Join us in showing our appreciation for the troops today! Wishing everyone a safe and happy Memorial Day! 🇺🇸🦅❤️

Extending the biggest congratulations to our graduated Class of 2024 Master of Science in Forensic Science (MSFS) students! 🤩🎓

We are so proud of each and every single one of you! We know you will all do incredible things in the future and we are eternally grateful to have been alongside you in this part of your journey.

Congratulations!!! 👏🥳🎉😊

Congratulations to second-year MSFS student, Shayna Kasher! ✨

Shayna is the Class of 2024 recipient of the Fredric Rieders Award of Excellence in Forensic Science 😊

This award is given to the graduating student who achieved the highest grade point average in the Arcadia University MSFS graduate forensic science program — a student who demonstrates excellence in the field of forensic science.👩🏻‍🔬🧪

We are so proud of you and all of your hard work, Shayna! 👏

🌟Capstone Post #3🌟

Check out these photos of the last three second-year MSFS students presenting their final Capstone Research presentations last week! 😊

In this post, we display the research projects of the following second-year MSFS students who graduate… tomorrow!!! 🫢🤩

• Brayleigh Keefe: “Investigating the Applied Biosystems SeqStudio Genetic Analyzer for Human Identification Purposes.” 🧬

• Sophie Lee: “Evaluation of the FORCE Panel on Alternative Reference Materials.” 💇‍♀️💅

• Kourtney Albert: “Evaluation of Urine for Cannabinoid Content.” 🍃🧪

Excellent work, ladies! 👏

✨ Incoming Capstone Post #2!!!✨

As promised in our last post, today, we are showcasing three additional second-year MSFS students presenting their Final Capstone Research presentation last week! 🤩

These amazing second-year students and their exciting research projects are listed below:

• Scarlet Neilson: “Body Fluid Identification from Mixed Samples and Male DNA Confirmation Utilizing SERATEC PSA and PMB Tests.” 🩸🧬

• Haley Bibey: “A Quantitative Confirmation Assay of New and Emerging Synthetic Cannabinoids by LC-QQQ-MS.” 👩‍🔬🧪

• Mikayla Siegfried: “Qualitative Analysis of Natural and Alternative Cannabinoids in V**e Products Through the Development and Validation of a GC-MS Method.” 🍃🥼

We are so proud of all of your hard work, ladies 🤩👏

**e

On Tuesday, May 7th, our second-year MSFS students presented their final Capstone Research presentations,
their last milestone before graduation next week! 🫢🤩

We are so very proud of them and how far they have come since starting in our program! 😊

Over the next few posts, we will be showcasing photos of each of these students during their Capstone presentations as they deserve recognition for all of their hard work! 👏✨

This post highlights the following second-year MSFS students and their Capstone projects:

• Shayna Kasher: “Method Development and Validation for a Quantitative Panel of Psychoactive Adulterants of Illicit Drugs of Abuse.” 💊💉

• McKenna Bonn-Savage: “A Protocol for Detecting ‘Touch’ DNA Samples from Skin-to-Skin Contact in a Simulated Physical Assault.” 🧬🙌

• Lauren Hoopes: “Prediction of Biogeographic Ancestry using DIP-STR Markers in U.S. Populations.” 🧬👁️👩🏼‍🦰

Amazing work, ladies! 🤩👏

Stay tuned for additional posts over the next week!

We have reached the END of the Spring 2024 Semester!!! 🫢 We are so proud of all of our students for their hard work this year 🤩

Enjoy some photos of our first-year MSFS students in their Forensic Biology (Serology) laboratory classes throughout the semester!

Similar to their previous forensic serology exercise, students were given pieces of evidence with possible biological stains. In these cases, they were given evidence with potential blood, urine, and semen biological stains.🩸💧

With the use of alternative light sources (ALS), the Kastle-Meyer test for blood, the Hemastix test for blood, the Acid Phosphatase Spot test for semen, and the RSID-Blood, RSID-Urine, and RSID-Semen immunochromatographic tests, they were tasked with determining which of their biological stains on their evidence could potentially be identified as blood, urine, and semen respectively.

Incredible work, first years! 🤓👏

Check out second-year MSFS student, McKenna, at her external internship at the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office (MCCO)! 🤩

During her external internship at the MCCO, McKenna observed and assisted with autopsies, responded to death scenes, screened various calls, assisted with data collection, handled and processed evidence, took forensic photographs, reviewed medical records, helped with the intake and release of human remains, and performed various record administration tasks. 🥼🩸📸

She found her external internship at the MCCO extremely valuable. In fact, she hopes to pursue medicolegal death investigation in the future!

We are proud of you and all of your hard work, McKenna! 😊👏

Jocelyn Royal, a Biology undergraduate student who worked in Dr. Fabio Oldoni’s forensic biology laboratory, showcased their hard work on their literature review on last Friday, April 26th on Capstone Day!

Throughout their research, Jocelyn investigated the biological mechanisms of shedder status. Shedder status is a commonly studied phenomenon related to trace DNA analysis, where individuals can be categorized based on how much DNA they leave through their shedded skin cells when they touch an item or a person 🧬👋

Hope Rozycki, a current first-year student in our 3+2 undergraduate-to-graduate Master of Science in Forensic Science (MSFS) program, presented her undergraduate thesis work on Capstone Day as well. Her work was titled, “Effects of different coverings on decomposition and their implications on forensic science.” Hope’s laboratory-based research was performed with Professor Stephanie Rainer, Professor and STEM Laboratory Coordinator, on campus. 🐖🔬

“It was such an honor to work with Stephanie Rainer on this research,” Hope explained. “This project at Arcadia gave me the opportunity to gain extremely valuable laboratory experience that I will take with me throughout the rest of my graduate studies.”

Hope is one of many students who have been extremely successful in their transition from undergraduate-to-graduate studies in our 3+2 MSFS program. You can be just like Hope and get your Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree at Arcadia University in only 5 years! 🤩

Learn more about our 3+2 program via this link: https://www.arcadia.edu/majors-and-programs/pre-forensic-science/

Check out our first-year students in their Forensic Chemistry Lab performing their Solubility and Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) lab exercise 🤓

In this lab, students practiced preparing solid drug powders for subsequent chemical analysis. They used various solvents to perform a dry extraction to examine the overall solubility of powdered drug materials and performed a thin layer chromatography (TLC) experiment to separate multiple compounds of interest in a single unknown white powder.

The skills they learned in this lab are fundamental for future work with solid drug samples in a forensic chemistry laboratory 💊🥼

Amazing work, first years! 😊

On Tuesday, April 16th, we had the honor to welcome Dr. Athina Vidaki, an assistant professor and researcher from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, to give a guest lecture titled, “Forensic serology at the next level via tissue-specific RNA/epigenetic/microbial analysis,” in our first-year Forensic Biology class. 🤩

During this lecture, Dr. Vidaki discussed how alternative markers other than DNA, such as mRNA (messenger RNA) and miRNA (microRNA), can be used in serological analyses for tissue-specific identification in forensic samples. She talked about how mRNA, miRNA, DNA methylation, epigenetics, and microbial analysis can all potentially be utilized as additional identification tools when processing forensic casework.

After providing an overview of the research into these various alternative approaches and how they work, Dr. Vidaki discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each of these techniques in the context of their application to forensic samples, which are often not as pristine or as high-quality as the reference samples used for forensic biology research. 🧬🥼

It was a pleasure to have you, Dr. Vidaki!

We were so thrilled to meet everyone today at the Arcadia University Undergraduate Spring Open House Event! 🤩✨

Did we miss you? 😮 Don’t fret!

You can use the following links below to learn more about the undergraduate, undergraduate-to-graduate, and graduate forensic science opportunities at Arcadia University 😊🥼🧬🔬🧪👩‍🔬

MSFS Program: https://www.arcadia.edu/majors-and-programs/forensic-science-masters/?fbclid=IwAR2GQG4RgN3hWx76JKzsFP_g1CzTa3X4QpdgV809RChDKexjjf9FqP3rYuw

Pre-Forensic Science Program: https://www.arcadia.edu/majors-and-programs/pre-forensic-science/

Forensic Investigations Undergraduate Minor: https://www.arcadia.edu/majors-and-programs/forensic-investigations-minor/

#2024

Come learn more about our forensic science programs at the Arcadia University Undergraduate Spring Open House event this Sunday, April 28, 2024 from 9:00am-1:00pm! 🧐🤩

Here, we can tell you more about the many incredible undergraduate, undergraduate-to-graduate (3+2 and 4+2 programs), and graduate (MSFS) forensic science opportunities we offer! 👩‍🔬🧑‍🔬🧪🥼🧬🔬

Please use this link to register for this Sunday’s event: https://www.arcadia.edu/events/2024-04-28/undergraduate-spring-open-house/

We cannot wait to see you there! 😊

Happy ! Today, we join the National Human Genome Research Institute to empower the public, sharing our work in forensic DNA research and development.

The scientific development of DNA analysis tools and technology is increasing crime lab efficiency and producing more just outcomes. Learn how NIJ-funded projects are driving innovation:

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/forensics/forensic-dna?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=dnaday2024

Yesterday our first year MSFS students presented on their Research Project Proposals! 🤩

They have been working diligently over the past semester writing and editing their research proposal, having regular meetings with their advisory committee, and even beginning the process of training in their respective laboratories! 🤓🥼

We are so proud of them and all of their hard work and cannot wait to see their projects progress over the next year 👏😊

See below a list of all of the exciting research projects our students are working on this year! 🧬💊🧑‍🔬

Dan Leitholf: “Persistence of Trace DNA samples in a Carjacked Scenario.”

Allison Blocker: “LC-QQQ-MS Method Development and Validation for the Quantitative Analysis of Drugs in Postmortem Blood.”

Jaycie Esteban: “DNA in Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Identify Drugs & the DNA Within.”

Brielle Etze: “Development of a Quantitative Analytical Method for Analysis of Illicit and Novel Benzodiazepines in Tablets using LC-MS-MS.”

Hope Rozycki: “Investigation of DNA Contribution from Trace Samples recovered from a Hammer used in a Simulated Assault Scenario.”

Natalie Vice: “Assessment of Trace Drug Amounts on Currency as a Tool for International Drug Surveillance.”

Sean Lordo: “LC-MS/MS Analysis of Arylcyclohexylamine Derivatives in Urine via Dual Mode Extraction.”