With the COVID-19 national public health emergency officially coming to an end just two weeks ago, members of UCLA’s class of 2023 will be the first to graduate having spent most, if not all, of their academic years living through a pandemic — and all the uncertainties, anxieties, and physical and mental health challenges that has entailed.
Among those graduates will be fourth-year psychology major Leah Likin, who has mined these experiences for her highly original and deeply personal honors capstone project, which has won a Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Research and Creativity as part of UCLA’s current 10th annual Undergraduate Research Week.
Likin’s experiences and, in particular, her struggles with mental health during the pandemic — which at their worst necessitated inpatient psychiatric treatment — served as a springboard for the ambitious project, which in…
