Wednesday, March 26, 2025
The Texas Leadership Research Scholars Program, which debuted in Fall 2024, is a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board research scholarship and leadership opportunity program for high-achieving graduate students with financial need.
University of North Texas is among only nine public universities in the state selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the program, which awards selected doctoral researchers a nearly $18,000 scholarship renewable for up to four years.
“This program is not only bringing financial support for these doctoral researchers to continue their education, but also giving them access to a peer network and mentoring that will help set them up for career success after they graduate,” says Brenda Barrio, UNT assistant vice president for research and innovation.
A total of six UNT students were named in the first cohort of Texas Leadership Research Scholars — Garrett Cayce in the College of Engineering; Araceli Herrera Mondragon, Celeste Ortega-Rodriguez and Jose Robledo in the College of Science; Christian Quintero in the College of Education; and Emma Wimberg in the College of Music.
Check back on this UNT Research webpage throughout Spring 2025 to learn more about students in the inaugural group of Texas Leadership Research Scholars.
Body Image and Disordered Eating in Aesthetic Sports
For Christian Quintero, who grew up in a single parent household in Brownsville, Texas, the peace of mind knowing he doesn’t have to worry about how to pay for tuition and other educational expenses as a Texas Leadership Research Scholar has been a tremendous relief. Being part of this inaugural group of students recognized also provides a huge confidence boost.
“It was a validation for me that I can do this,” says Quintero, who has been training as a dancer since elementary school.
Quintero loves the freedom he feels performing modern dance. With a less rigid technique compared to other styles in which he’s been trained, Quintero says modern dance allows him to express his “rebellious spirit” in a way that ballet and ballroom dance never could.
But the activity that brought him joy for years also contributed to serious mental and physical health struggles. At the height of his regular dance training, Quintero rarely ate regular meals, sometimes sustaining himself on a solitary protein bar each day.
“Body image is something I’ve struggled with a lot,” Quintero says. “Unfortunately, I experienced my own disordered eating. It wasn’t just dance. It stems back further, but dance didn’t always help.”
As a man in a sport that is predominately female, Quintero said he felt the pressure to look and perform in a certain way to live up to a societal ideal of masculinity in the dance space.
“You have to play into the gender archetype and there’s a pressure to excel in the
sport to shed some of that judgement,” he says.
Now, as one of the first students in UNT’s human performance and movement doctoral program in the College of Education, Quintero hopes his research can contribute to a better understanding of disordered eating in male aesthetic athletes and raise awareness about their experiences.
His faculty mentor Andrew Colombo-Dougovito, associate professor of kinesiology, health promotion and recreation, says Quintero has distinguished himself as a thoughtful, determined scholar.
“The joy he brings to his work is contagious and encourages others to be reflective and considerate within their research practice,” Colombo-Dougovito says.
From UNT News – Research and Innovation by Heather Noel