茄子视频

Sidney Wilson Devotes VSU Summer to Studying Impact of Hustle Culture on Overall Wellbeing

Sidney Wilson and Dr. Ellis Logan were among six student-faculty teams selected for the 2025 Blazer Summer Research Institute at 茄子视频. They spent the summer investigating the concept of success and wellbeing in a world that seems to encourage an all-or-nothing mentality.

VALDOSTA — Sidney Wilson of Valdosta, Georgia, recently teamed up with Dr. Ellis Logan from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice to investigate the concept of success and wellbeing in a world that seems to encourage an all-or-nothing mentality.

Prioritizing middle school, high school, and college students, Wilson sought to discover how hustle culture impacts emotional, mental, and physical health. She interviewed a number of subjects about their responsibilities at school, work, home, and other areas and how trying to meet those demands was impacting them positively and negatively.  She also examined each subject’s worth ethic, including what drives their unique approach to daily tasks and how social media might be playing a role in that.

She said that being able to conduct sociological research is “one of the greatest things I have been able to do” as a student at 茄子视频.

Wilson’s “Impression Management at Work: Hustle Culture’s Effect on Wellbeing and its Expression on Social Media” was one of six projects selected for VSU’s 2025 Blazer Summer Research Institute. She received a $1,000 scholarship plus compensation for any expenditures related to her research.

The Blazer Summer Research Institute is a highly competitive program for motivated faculty and undergraduate students who are ready to explore exciting, hands-on research. Funded by the Division of Academic Affairs, University Advancement, and private donors, the special summer initiative offers a unique experience focused on real-world, potentially life-impacting, research projects.

“Research, especially student-directed research, provides students with the opportunity for hands-on, experiential learning that applies the lessons from the classroom to an issue of interest and importance to them,” said Logan, assistant professor of sociology. “For this Blazer Summer Research Institute project, my student came up with the research question, developed the hypotheses, and designed the data collection methodology. As an undergraduate, she is doing things in academic research that I did not do until my second year of graduate school. The results and conclusions, which will be published and presented at academic conferences, will improve her knowledge of an issue of significance to her. But more importantly, the experience of designing a study, collecting data, and analyzing it — with all the mistakes, achievements, and serendipitous moments that come with empirical research — provide an invaluable experience that cannot be replicated in the classroom.”

Wilson is excited to have an opportunity to contribute to the scientific literature on the impact of hustle culture on a young person — because ongoing research has shown that ambition can be a good thing when it is met with a more balanced approach that also prioritizes personal fulfillment.

She anticipates graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology and a Minor in Spanish in May 2026. She will then pursue an accelerated Master of Science in Sociology through VSU’s Applied Sociology 4+1 program.