Monday, April 28, 2025
Isabelle DePalma, 17, of Long Beach, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead, has been selected to present her original research at the Association for Psychological Science Convention May 23 to 25 in Washington D.C.
DePalma is one of 11 girls from the school chosen to present this year.
“It felt like a big honor to me because of all the work I put into the paper, and researching and being a part of the research program at Sacred Heart for the past four years,” DePalma said.
She is among a select group of high school students who have been invited to take part in one of the field’s most prestigious international gatherings. The APS convention typically features research presentations from college undergraduates, graduate students and faculty from leading institutions such as Stanford, Princeton, Columbia and Georgetown universities. Fewer than 150 pre-collegiate researchers have been invited to present since the first conference 38 years ago — and 65 of them have come from Sacred Heart, where DePalma conducted her research.
Her study, “Unveiling the Divisive Web,” explores how social media algorithms contribute to adolescent division, especially on sensitive topics like race, gender and politics. DePalma found that social media platforms tend to push divisive content to users, which has a larger impact on certain demographic groups.
“I found that women and minority adolescents perceive social media as more divisive than others, and the findings emphasize the need for media literacy to mitigate the algorithmic influence,” DePalma explained. “And I came to the idea because I did this during the election year, and during the election year there was a lot of division on social media and in the news. So, I wanted to see how this translated to adolescents and how adolescents perceived this.”
DePalma’s research was evaluated in a blind-review process, by judges who were unaware that a high school student had produced the work. It will be presented on a poster at the convention, where she will have the chance to discuss her findings with other attendees, most of them professionals in the field of psychology.
The science research program at Sacred Heart combines Advanced Placement Capstone courses — AP Seminar and AP Research — with scientific research in a variety of fields, including psychology, oncology, computational chemistry and environmental science. For projects in life and physical sciences, students often conduct research in professional labs at institutions like Hofstra University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
“I think my goal is not just to have them accomplish things and win awards, (and) get into better colleges, which they do, but also when they get to college, to be able to excel once they get there,” Sacred Heart science research teacher Stephen Sullivan said. “I’m personally very fond of emails telling me about how they’re a sophomore and they got into a junior seminar, or in freshman year, they were the only ones in their bio lab that knew how to read and analyze scholarly articles.
“I want them to be prepared for college, whether that college is Binghamton, Albany or Dartmouth,” Sullivan, who will accompany the students to Washington D.C., continued. “I want them to be better prepared than their peers, which is a ridiculous and unreasonable ask, and every time I ask them to do something unreasonable or unfair, they have a remarkable tendency to exceed my unreasonable expectations.”
Sullivan also highlighted the program’s strong sense of community, noting that the students form close bonds over their four years of high school. While they may not have had much in common when they started, they develop into a tight-knit group. He reflected on how rewarding it is to see young women supporting one another and thriving in a competitive academic environment.
“I’m really, really proud of them,” Sullivan said. “At this point, I get to sort of stand back when I’m down there,” he added, referring to the conference in Washington. I will have 11 girls presenting 10 posters at the same time. I generally just run around and take pictures of them presenting; I’m not that directly involved. I suppose I feel more like a soccer coach than I do like a football coach. I’m not calling plays; I’ve prepared them, and now it’s time for them to just go out and talk to the professors and talk to the grad students and explain what it is they’re doing.”
