EC Wisconsin News

Lakeland University senior Livy Heling, a first-generation college student from West Bend, Wisconsin, is pursuing her passion for neuroscience through both academic and extracurricular activities. This summer, Heling participated in the University of Madison’s Cellular and Molecular Biology of Stress Summer Research Program. The 10-week program selects only 15-30 students annually from around 350 applicants.

Under the guidance of Meyer Jackson, Ph.D., The Kenneth S Cole Professor of Neuroscience at UW-Madison, Heling focused on studying the hippocampus in mice. Alongside graduate student Sumedha Sengupta, she dissected mouse brains and used electrical pulses to examine plasticity in hippocampal neurons—a process considered important for memory formation.

“Because of my previous research experience (at Lakeland), this was kind of a continuation of that because both were neuro related,” said Heling about building on her earlier work with the Lakeland Undergraduate Research Experience. “It was cool to go to a large school where they get a ton of funding dedicated to research. I had never lived in a city before, so that was also a cool experience to be in Madison and have time to explore.”

Heling’s decision to attend Lakeland was influenced by receiving the 2022 LU Science, Technology & Education full tuition scholarship after a recruiting visit as an accomplished tennis player at West Bend East High School. “Getting that scholarship was huge,” Heling said. “Even before that, Lakeland was my top choice. I was hoping that would work out here.”

On the tennis court, Heling has earned several honors: she is a three-time Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Scholar-Athlete Award winner; she received the 2022 NACC Freshman of the Year award—the first Muskie athlete to do so—and achieved All-NACC status in 2023.

Last fall, Heling became one of five fall sports athletes selected by the conference as an inaugural recipient of the NACC Faculty Athletics Representatives Award. The honor recognizes academic performance, athletic contributions, and service to campus life; only ten individuals are chosen each year among thousands across 14 schools.

Beyond athletics and academics, Heling serves as co-president of Lakeland’s Biology Club and participates in Math Club. She has volunteered with children’s programs at her local library and coached youth tennis players before working as an assistant coach providing individual instruction.

Her experience also includes working last winter as a resident assistant at Cedar Community in West Bend—helping residents with daily needs—a role she found rewarding but one which confirmed her preference for laboratory settings and research.

This fall, Heling plans to apply for doctoral programs aiming to continue her work in neuroscience research. She values close faculty support at Lakeland University: “For my interview, he helped me with the questions I might get asked and what I should ask which was really helpful,” she said about Associate Professor Andrew Karls, Ph.D., her advisor. “I feel like I get a lot of support here. Being in the LURE program gave me research experience where I learned some techniques that others might not have.”

“I hope to continue to do neuroscience research and maybe be a professor. I’m really interested in memory formation. There’s something special about neuroscience that made me interested in that over other sub areas. I think I am curious about things, really anything.”