In her hands: Sophie Ogunsanmi heads to Ph.D. program to help others

Where Sophie Ogunsanmi comes from, community means everything. So when the pandemic shut down in-person classes in 2020, the resulting isolation hit deeper than she first realized.

“Learning became very much in my hands,” said Ogunsanmi, who was then an honors psychology major at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania. “It pushed me to work harder,” she recalled—and nudged her toward an unexpected intellectual journey. 

On May 7, Ogunsanmi will celebrate Commencement with her classmates in the College of Science & Mathematics, supported by family coming to visit from as far away as Nigeria, where Ogunsanmi was born. The award-winning psychological science major and member of the Martinson Honors College is heading next to a doctoral program in neuroscience, where she plans to study the neural effects of traumatic experiences.

Her interest in research was shaped by her personal experiences: growing up in Nigeria, dealing with the pandemic and, later, overcoming a bout with what she called “life-sucking” depression.

Shortly after transferring to Rowan, Ogunsanmi reached out to Dr. Daniel Chandler, a behavioral neuroscientist and associate professor at Rowan-Virtua School of Translational Biomedical Engineering & Sciences in Stratford. She wanted to explore the biology and psychology of trauma, particularly as it related to social isolation stress. Coincidentally, Chandler was interested in the same questions raised by the “epidemic of loneliness” in the United States. Impressed by her background and interest, he told her to come right away.  

“When she reached out to me, it was an obvious fit,” Chandler said. “This was an engaged and ambitious young undergrad who clearly had her own thoughts about what she wanted to study that could easily be plugged into this new project that I was just getting up and running.”

In Chandler’s lab, Ogunsanmi was immediately exposed to the careful work required to answer her questions. She learned how behavioral experiments operate, how to record and track data, how to measure biological changes in the brain, and how to properly follow the strict protocols required to work in Chandler’s lab. 

As they hypothesized, they found social isolation increased anxiety and made the subjects more susceptible to stress responses. With Chandler’s guidance, Ogunsanmi submitted an abstract and presented her work as a first author last year at an international conference hosted by the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., where she received many questions from other researchers.  

"It is pretty atypical for an undergraduate to be doing something like this, especially where it’s entirely self-initiated,” Chandler said. 

In one of her research-intensive courses with Dr. Eve Sledjeski, program coordinator for psychological science, Ogunsanmi mined an old data set to find new answers about how traumatic stress affected mental health among college students during and after the pandemic.  

“Sophie is an amazing student,” Sledjeski said. “She seeks out opportunities because she is driven and she knows what she wants and goes after them.” 

Outside of her academic pursuits, Ogunsanmi dedicated herself to creating a warm and welcoming environment at her clubs and dorm. A community assistant (formerly known as a resident assistant) for her Martinson Honors College dorm floor, Ogunsami regularly hosted get-togethers and floor dinners. She set ground rules, insisting her fellow residents greet each other in passing. 

“You’re not just strangers,” she told them. “Say hello!” 

An advocate for international students like herself, Ogunsanmi led the African Students Association and volunteered to serve as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion senator, so she could raise awareness about the challenges affecting her peers. 

A self-described empath, Ogunsanmi is driven to serve others in every facet of her life, motivated by a simple concept.  

“We are not created to walk this life alone,” Ogunsanmi said. “We need a community of people.”

Every spring, Rowan University highlights one graduating student from each school and college. Read more stories about this year’s featured graduates.