Newswise — From creating hip-hop choreography, to comparing spinal cord regeneration in red back salamanders and red spotted Newts, to interviewing Pueblan immigrants, more Ursinus College students than ever are spending their summers in extended scholarship with faculty mentors " with fewer distractions than during the busy academic year.
At the tenth anniversary of the inaugural Summer Fellows Program, the number of participants has grown from some 25 students to close to 90 this year, encompassing about 25 percent of the student body.
Committed to providing selected students with the opportunity to do focused research with faculty mentors, Ursinus invests about $4,000 in each non-grant funded project, which includes stipends for student and mentor, housing, and research expenses. The college also provides weekly lunches, speakers' honoraria and portions of grant-funded research, depending on the grant guidelines.
"The summer research program at Ursinus is one of the strongest in the country," says President John Strassburger, a longtime proponent of undergraduate research. "It has grown because of the college's commitment to support the program, and the commitment to support the program has grown because of the high quality of work coming from the students. Our former Summer Fellows all point to the critical thinking skills they acquired as Fellows as contributing to their success after graduation, and the benefits of continuing their summer research as honors projects or having a body of work to present at regional or national conferences."
New this year is a 10-week environmental science focus, Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), which supports women and minority students interested in environmental science, and is funded for three years by the National Science Foundation. An unusual aspect is that it invites participants from institutions other than Ursinus.
This group, which is studying terrestrial and aquatic environments, has its own extracurricular schedule with a trip to John James Audubon's home and a related Audubon exhibit at Ursinus' museum of art; and trips to Longwood Gardens and the National Constitution Center.
Divided in three small groups, one group is studying the environment's effects on nearby Darby Creek. Another is looking at the effects of leachate from a federal Superfund site on the density and diversity of the freshwater diatom community. The other students are studying the relationship between two extreme halophiles, organisms which have adapted to extremely salty environments, one of which produces a substance that kills the other. Biology Professors Kathryn Goddard, who obtained the grant, with Anthony Lobo and Peter Small are the faculty mentors.
Of the entire group of Summer Fellows, some 25 students are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF); the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Merck/ AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program (Merck Company Foundation/American Association for the Advancement of Science); American Chemical Society; NSF's Research in Undergraduate Institutions, as well as the NSF's REU.
Students present summaries of their completed research in a public presentation at the end of the program, this year July 28.
Projects are in all disciplines. Some of the projects this year include:
"Specific Immigration Flows: The Case of Pueblan Migrants in New York City," (Travis High, Class of 2007, of Strasburg, Pa., with mentor Rebecca Evans, associate professor of politics and international relations), will investigate trends within Mexican immigration to the U.S. to demonstrate that immigration is healthy and strategically important for New York and a crucial release valve for the state of Puebla in south central Mexico. With field research from both locations, he will address that the complexity of immigration must be understood before government policy is made.
"The Leadership Attributes of Abraham Lincoln and Successful Modern Leaders," (Tyler Johnson, Class of 2007, of New Hartford, Conn., with mentor Stephen Bowers, professor of business and economics and Executive-in-Residence) will examine Lincoln's leadership tactics and strategies; identify specific characteristics and decisions that allowed him to be an effective leader during times of crisis; and discuss whether these attributes are prevalent within modern leaders. It was influenced by a leadership course Bowers teaches.
"A Comparison of Spinal Cord Regeneration and Stem Cell Migration in Red Back Salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, and Red Spotted News, Notophthalmus viridescens," (Rachel Margolis Class of 2007, of Dresher, Pa., and Erin Vanselous, Class of 2007, of Fleetwood, Pa., with mentor Ellen Dawley, professor of biology), will use antibody staining to locate the formation and migration of stem cells and compare spinal cord regeneration in red spotted newts and red back salamanders. The salamanders are of interest because they autotomize their tail normally as an anti-predator strategy while newts do not. The study expects to find more rapid regeneration in the salamanders. The students will review how survival mechanisms, like spinal cord regeneration are accomplished, and speculate on how various environmental pressures act on shaping variations between newts and salamanders. The research could be useful in understanding spinal cord regeneration in higher vertebrates.
"Music Arranging and Composition for Low Brass Ensemble," (Joshua Solomon, Class of 2008, of Flanders, N.J., with mentor Holly Gaines, assistant professor of music). An East Asian studies major and music minor, Joshua plans to attend graduate school for ethnomusicology. For his project, he will be learning the techniques of musical composition and arranging theory to be applied to a final arrangement of "Over the Rainbow" for brass choir. He has played brass instruments since elementary school, in jazz, brass and wind band settings, and also with a community-based tuba/euphonium quartet.
"Breaking the Wall: Interaction Beyond the Television Screen," (Felicia Chou, Class of Class of 2007, of Hsinchu, Taiwan, with mentor Gregory Scranton, assistant professor of media studies), based her project on the idea that the population can be taught to question predominant ideas propagated by the media by actively questioning and intervening with the decisions of movie characters on screen. Taking Augusto Boal's "Theater of the Oppressed," and applying it to new media in a film would allow the audience to intervene with the plot of a movie via a DVD menu through which the viewer decides the best course of action to resist hegemony. This, theorizes Chou, could empower the audience to take control of their lives and take action to end oppression.
"The Validity of Real Hip Hop Dance and the Innovative Influence on Concert Dance," (Ramon Clark, Class 2007, of Baltimore, Md., with mentors Chris Aiken and Cathy Young, assistant professors of dance and theater), will produce a choreographic piece to be presented in the fall concert for the Ursinus College Dance Company and will be submitting applications to perform in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and a national college symposium on dance, the American College Dance Festival. The project will also yield a research paper on how contemporary modern dance has been influenced and changed by Hip-Hop dance and African-American movement, which is growing in exposure through movement by having more of an appearance on the concert stage.
"Building a Director-Theater," (Blair Reddish, Class of 2007, of Harrisburg, Pa., with mentor Domenick Scudera, associate professor of theater and dance), will investigate how a stage director effectively prepares for, and executes a successful contemporary production of Shakespeare, while assisting Scudera staging "Two Gentlemen of Verona" for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival. Blair plans to reproduce the play on campus during the fall semester.
"Athletics Admissions Advantages and Classroom Performance of Recruited Athletes," (Justin DeAngelis, Class of 2007, of Allentown, Pa., with mentor Heather O'Neill, professor of business and economics), will address the perception that student athletes are treated differently in the admissions and financial aid processes. O'Neill has studied these issues, and they will be revisited and updated, with the addition of looking at class time missed by athletes.
Ursinus College is a highly selective, independent coeducational liberal arts college located on a scenic, wooded 170-acre campus, 28 miles from Center City Philadelphia. The college is one of only 8 percent of U.S. Colleges to possess a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Its web site is located at http://www.ursinus.edu.
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