Penn State student combines forensic science, Spanish through research abroad

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Growing up in Texas, Penn State student Colleen McKenzie was first introduced to forensic science by watching crime shows with her mom. Her interest deepened when she took a class in high school and began learning more about the role science can play in criminal investigations.

“Forensics showed me that I could use those science skills to do something that could really help people,” she said.

At the same time, Spanish had long been part of McKenzie’s life. Growing up in Texas exposed her to the language, and she used it frequently while working as a cook in high school.

Rather than choosing between those interests when she came to Penn State, McKenzie decided to pursue both. Now a third-year student double majoring in Spanish and forensic science, she has built an academic path that she hopes will prepare her to use scientific and language skills together in her future career.

“I realized that organizations like the FBI really value language skills,” McKenzie said. “I already had that background in Spanish, so I thought, ‘Why not become as fluent as I can and have that be another skill I can bring into my career?’”

Through forensic science in the Eberly College of Science, McKenzie has gained hands-on experience working through mock crime scenes and practicing techniques used in forensic laboratories. She also serves as secretary of the Forensic Science Club.

Her Spanish studies, meanwhile, have taken her well beyond the classroom.

McKenzie participated in faculty-led programs in Ronda and Cádiz, Spain, where she lived with a host family and immersed herself in the Spanish language and culture. She said the Ronda program, in particular, marked a turning point in her language development and gave her the confidence she would later need to use Spanish in a professional scientific setting.

Those experiences were made possible in part by enrichment funding through the Liberal Ars Career Enrichment Network. McKenzie said she initially assumed studying abroad would be financially out of reach until Professor of Spanish Miguel Ramírez Bernal encouraged her to explore the funding available.

“Without the funding to go abroad, I would have worked to save that money by being a cook over the summer and missed the opportunity for a year,” McKenzie said. “The Ronda program is really the moment where my Spanish improved the most, and I never would have been able to go work in Barcelona and speak Spanish professionally before the program.”

McKenzie returned to Spain this past summer for an internship in Barcelona with the IQAC-CSIC Nanomedicine for Therapeutic Applications group under Ibane Abasolo. There, the two areas of her Penn State education came together as she conducted scientific research in a Spanish-speaking professional environment.

“It’s not common for me to be able to combine my professional scientific interests with my Spanish interests in State College,” McKenzie said. “Being able to talk about things like DNA and genotyping in Spanish pushed me to learn how to express things I had only ever talked about in English.”

During her internship, McKenzie contributed to research exploring new approaches to treating disease. One project examined hyperthermia as a potential treatment for breast cancer using a mouse model. Researchers used a biomedical device to heat tumors and study whether the treatment could slow their growth or reduce their size. McKenzie also received training in ultrasound techniques at IQAC-CSIC.

McKenzie received enrichment funding through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network again to help support her summer internship in Barcelona. Together, the funding she received for her education abroad programs and internship allowed her to first strengthen her Spanish through immersion and then apply those skills in a professional scientific setting.

McKenzie’s research experience abroad built on the work she had already begun at Penn State. In 2025, she joined Associate Professor of Biology Aimin Liu's lab through the Pennsylvania State Grant Consortium, where she began researching sirenomelia, a rare developmental disorder, using a mouse model.

Her work has included genotyping embryos and studying their development to better understand the genetic factors and developmental pathways that may contribute to the disorder.

“As a freshman, I was able to do something hands-on and learn one of the most basic skills in my field,” McKenzie said. “It changed my life because not everyone gets the opportunity to do that.”

Since then, McKenzie’s role in the research has continued to grow. She received a Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Statewide Scholarship for the 2026–27 academic year and, in August, began a NASA-funded Pennsylvania Space Grant research appointment at Penn State.

In her current role, McKenzie combines laboratory and computational research to investigate developmental pathways associated with caudal regression and sirenomelia in mice. Her work includes analyzing single-cell RNA sequencing data to better understand genetic signaling and cellular processes involved in early embryonic development.

Her Spanish studies have also helped McKenzie develop the vocabulary needed to communicate her scientific research to different audiences. Before presenting a research poster in both English and Spanish, she independently studied Spanish scientific terminology. During the presentation, Ramírez Bernal and Teaching Professor of Spanish Susana García Prudencio offered feedback that helped her become more confident discussing her work in Spanish before her internship in Barcelona.

McKenzie’s cancer research also connects with another important part of her Penn State experience. She serves as president of Everyday Benefitting THON, a special interest organization that supports Penn State THON and its efforts to assist children and families impacted by childhood cancer.

As McKenzie looks toward her career after Penn State, she said she hopes to work as a DNA analyst, potentially with a laboratory exploring emerging technologies in areas such as genetic genealogy and the prediction of physical traits from DNA. While she once viewed the FBI as a potential destination, her Penn State experiences have introduced her to a wider range of possibilities in forensic science.

Spanish has expanded those possibilities even further. McKenzie said she hopes to use the language professionally and would consider returning abroad to work in a Spanish-speaking country.

“There are other positions abroad, and even crime labs in the U.S. look for candidates with language skills who are well-rounded,” McKenzie said. “Taking on a second major in Spanish has broadened my opportunities in applying for jobs.”