Paola is a first-year Master’s student from El Salvador. She earned her B.S. in Food Science and Technology from Zamorano University in Honduras. She first came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for an internship in 2021 in Dr. Jaume Amengual’s lab and worked on an animal model for HIV and on an Atherosclerosis regression project. She is now pursuing her M.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition in Dr. Stasiewicz’s lab.  

She is currently working on a milk spoilage project for K-12 schools to understand how, if at all, the rate of milk spoilage changes as an effect of being exposed to different temperature conditions, and the length of time spent in these conditions. She is also working on testing antimicrobial effectiveness against Salmonella on pork meat.  

She enjoys doing yoga, watching comedy movies, and spending time with her friends.