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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

Note to editors: Article is courtesy of the Kansas State Collegian.
News release prepared by: Hannah Blick, hlb@k-state.edu

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

K-STATE STUDENT FROM KANSAS CITY, KAN., ACTIVE IN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

MANHATTAN -- As her light brown ponytail bounces with her nods of enthusiasm, Jane Grdinovac talks about her passions: traveling, toast and researching.

Grdinovac, senior in psychology, Kansas City, Kan., is an undergraduate researcher at Kansas State University and recently gave a presentation on her work at the 13th annual K-State Graduate Research Forum, an honor extended to only 25 undergraduates.

The title of Grdinovac's presentation was "Effects of Greek Affiliation on Stress and Burnout Levels."

"She was quite professional," said Robert Downey, Grdinovac's research adviser and K-State professor of psychology, about her presentation. "I thought she did an excellent job presenting her findings clearly and explaining her work to the judges and audience."

Grdinovac attributes her success in life to her tight-knit family. Her parents met, fell in love and got married -- all in one week. Her parents, Josip and Ana Grdinovac, are Croatian and were both born and raised there, living periodically in the U.S. When Grdinovac turned 2, the family moved permanently from Croatia to Kansas City, Kan., where her parents opened a barbecue restaurant.

"We all worked in the restaurant while we were growing up," Grdinovac said. "I loved it because I got to be around my family and it was just a great atmosphere."

She has an aunt and uncle with several children whom she lived next door to in Kansas City.

"My parents would move across town or to a new neighborhood, and my aunt and uncle would just move next door to us each time," she said. "It was crazy."

She also has an obsession with eating toast.

"It's just so good," she said. "I can't help it -- I eat like four pieces a day, at least."

Though she is close to her family, Grdinovac said she has always been independent, so when it came to look at colleges, she said she knew K-State was the right school for her. Neither of her parents has attended college, but they strongly encouraged all three of their children to pursue degrees.

"They just really wanted us to be successful, and so they pushed us to apply and go where we wanted," she said. Her twin brother, Joe, also attends K-State and is a senior in mechanical engineering.

Grdinovac, who graduated from Piper High School, decided to enroll as a psychology major, though she was still uncertain what she wanted to do for a career. During her freshman year, she took a clinical psychology course that she said she didn't enjoy. However, she also took an industrial psychology course, taught by Downey, and said the class is what sparked her interest in industrial psychology.

"I like it because you get to increase employee satisfaction by doing more than just sitting and talking," Grdinovac said. "With the clinical side, you just hear all of the emotions, and you don't always feel like you're helping anybody."

Grdinovac took another of Downey's classes, and he mentioned undergraduate research to the students. It caught her attention, so she contacted him and the two met to discuss researching job burnout, job flow and work exhaustion -- all effects of a response pattern of emotional exhaustion.

One of her first independent projects focused on the college stress levels of a local sorority her senior year, including factors like depersonalization and personal acceptance.

"We were trying to find the differences between Greeks and non-Greeks," Grdinovac said. "But we didn't find too much difference in their stress levels, only a minor bit."

As a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, Grdinovac said life can be hectic, trying to balance Greek activities with her classes and her research work. She also is a K-State honors list student; a member of Psi Chi, the national honor society for psychology; and has served as a counselor for K-State's Wildcat Warm-up.

Downey said Grdinovac is a meticulous researcher and has innovative ideas when planning her next step. "She is always thinking ahead," he said. "She is just a responsible, intelligent young student. I see great things from her."

Though she is anxious to graduate and put all she has learned to use, Grdinovac said she would like to attend graduate school before she begins a professional career. Grdinovac also said she has dreams of traveling, working in foreign countries and different cities around the U.S.

"I just don't want to be tied down," she said.