Isabelle Vargas
Isabelle Vargas will graduate with dual bachelor’s degrees with four majors in neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and medical humanities. Over the course of her undergraduate career at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), she pursued interdisciplinary research spanning neuroscience, psychology, and sociology, including studies examining the effects of childhood trauma in people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), the biological embedding of early life adversity in canines, and experiences of loneliness among people with disabilities.
Vargas currently serves as vice-president of UNO’s Nu Rho Psi, the national neuroscience honor society. Bridging her academic work with community impact, she served as President of the Youth Advisory Board (YAB) for the Threshold Continuum of Care, a voting member of the Threshold Board, and a member of the Nebraska Statewide YAB, where she advocated for youth experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, helping shape community-based housing solutions informed by her lived experience.
After graduation, she will complete a post-baccalaureate position at the Institute of Human Neuroscience at Boys Town before pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience with a focus on serious mental illness in human research.