Congratulations to Kayla Muncy and Jeremy Johnson, our two valedictorians for the 2013 graduating class. Kayla has been a URAP scholar with Dr. Johann in Biochemistry for the past four years. Jeremy has been a URAP scholar with Dr. Vern Miller in Chemistry for the past four years. We can’t wait to hear you speak tomorrow at graduation! Best of luck to you!
Seniors Kathleen Ouyang and Thomas Emerson presented their research projects at the ASIANetwork National Conference in Nashville, TN on April 12. Their research projects were based from their Freeman Research Trip in China from this past May (see blog post from Feb. 19, 2012).
They presented posters during a 3-hour long session. Kathleen’s topic was about the “National Museum of China and Chinese National Identity” and Thomas’ topic was on the “Revival of Buddhism in Contemporary China”. In addition to the poster session, they also attended various academic panels while at the conference.
For more information on the ASIANetwork National Conference check out: https://www.asianetwork.org/conferences/annual-meeting/
Roanoke College invites you to the “Alumni Weekend Showcase of Research & Creativity”, which takes place on Friday, April 12, 2013. Oral Presentations will be held in Fintel Library in the basement and Poster Presentations will be on the first floor of the library from 6-9pm. Students and faculty from all disciplines will be sharing their research and creative works on a variety of topics. All are welcome. Free to the public.
Some of the poster presentation topics include “Group Dynamics: The Qualities of a Successful Group”, “Fanatical about Facebook”, “Technointerruption and Social Life of College Students”, “Printmaking in the Classroom”, “College is Worth It!”, and some of the oral presentation topics include “The Relationship of Law and Violence in Apartheid South Africa”, “Chaotic Dynamics in the Heart”, “Michelangelo’s Victory” and much more!! Be sure to check back here on the RC Research blog during the next few weeks for highlights from the showcase.
The program (including abstracts) is available here: https://roanoke.edu/Documents/research/Program2013SP.pdf
Each evening during the Week of Experiential Learning, we will feature a speaker as well as posters of student study abroad experiences, service-learning experiences, internships, creative/artistic work, and research. Students from all disciplines will participate. Please roam throughout the first floor of Fintel Library and stop to talk to students as they stand by their posters. All events are free and open to the public.
Drawing for Amazon gift cards every evening
Drawing for an iPad Mini for those students attending at least 3 out of 4 events
Tuesday, April 9 – Study Abroad and May Travel
6:00 Social
Help yourself to drinks and snacks provided by the Office of Experiential Learning.
6:30 Keynote
Dr. Paul Hanstedt
Roanoke College Professor
Author of Hong Konged
7:00-9:00 Student Posters
Please roam throughout the first floor of Fintel Library and stop to talk to students as they stand by their posters.
Wednesday, April 10 – Service-Learning
6:00 Social
Help yourself to drinks and snacks provided by the Office of Experiential Learning.
6:30 Keynote
Nathan Proutey
Roanoke College Alum
Peacebuilders Coordinator, West Center for Youth
7:00-9:00 Student Posters
Please roam throughout the first floor of Fintel Library and stop to talk to students as they stand by their posters.
Thursday, April 11 – Internships
6:00 Social
Help yourself to drinks and snacks provided by the Office of Experiential Learning.
6:30 Keynote
Brittany Beheler
Roanoke College Alum
Corporate Recruiter, Advance Auto Parts
7:00-9:00 Student Posters
Please roam throughout the first floor of Fintel Library and stop to talk to students as they stand by their posters.
Friday, April 12 – Research & Creativity
6:00 Social
Help yourself to drinks and snacks provided by the Office of Experiential Learning.
6:00-9:00 Student Posters
Please roam throughout the first floor of Fintel Library and stop to talk to students as they stand by their posters.
6:00-9:00 Student Oral Presentations
Listen to students present their research and creative works in the basement of Fintel Library. New presentations every 10 minutes.
For updates, please like us on Facebook at: facebook.com/RCResearch
Help to promote the RC Showcase submission deadline – this Friday, March 29 – by printing a poster. Choose one below, featuring students from various departments. The posters are PDF and formatted to print on 11×17 paper. However, you can choose “fit to printable area” to print on 8.5×11 paper. Thanks for helping to promote this deadline.
Roanoke College Junior, Tiara Mehic, recently presented her paper, “Kant’s Just War Theory”, at the George Washington University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference in Washington, DC earlier this month. This is Tiara’s first year doing research at Roanoke but her second time presenting. This past November she also presented at Sweet Briar College along with other students from Roanoke.
Tiara had never considered getting involved in research at Roanoke until a professor suggested the idea to her. “The paper I presented at the conference had been a term paper I wrote for Professor Wisnefske a year ago, and I was so passionate about the subject that I was excited to present it to an audience” she explains. Dr. Ned Wisnefske was her faculty mentor and she stated that he “was very helpful in guiding me in the right direction when I explained what I wanted to write about as well as answering any questions I had pertaining to the material.”
Tiara’s research paper was about Kant’s Just War Theory where she argued that “Kant was a Just War Theorist by setting up his Theory of Morality, Theory of Justice, establishing grounds for pacifism and realism, explaining Traditional Just War Theory and finally comparing it to Kant’s Just War Theory.” The paper took about two months for her to complete it and following that she submitted it to the Philosophy Club at George Washington University. Tiara was one of only nine participants chosen to present at this conference and the only one from Roanoke.
For students considering research, Tiara advises to definitely get involved. “It is a great experience to present your own work and be able to defend your position/research. The fact that you’re willing to present your research looks especially good on resumes. And the connections you make along the way aren’t bad either. I’ve made friends at these conferences, I’ve been able to stand in front of an audience and answer difficult questions about my research, I’ve been able to gain experience, and none of that would have been possible unless I made the effort to try.”
Roanoke College sophomore, Annie Shreckhise, recently attended the SEACSM (Southeast American College of Sports Medicine) Annual Meeting in Greenville, SC to present her research project: “Determining Physiological Demands in an Open-Skilled Sport: A Case Study Investigating Women’s Lacrosse Practice”. Annie is a URAP student and began this program last year as a freshman. This conference marked her first time presenting off campus, and several other students from Roanoke attended as well to present and participate in an exercise Trivia Bowl.
Annie worked with Dr. Matthew Rearick as her faculty mentor as well as Brittany Frost who worked in concurrence with her in collecting data. The goal of this project was to determine the physiological demands of women’s lacrosse practices. Multiple types of data were collected from one player during four practices of varying intensities. The data can then be used to create “more specific and better aligned training regimens.”
Annie states that she decided to pursue research opportunities because “having the chance to work one-on-one with a professor on a project that is so intriguing was an opportunity that I could not let pass by. Many students don’t have this opportunity until they are in graduate school; I feel that it is a great way to prepare for my future.” Annie worked directly under Dr. Rearick’s supervision, but she was given freedom with the direction that she wanted to take this project in. “Working one on one with a professor is one of the greatest benefits of pursuing an education at a small, liberal arts college. This interaction has allowed me to extend my studies outside of the classroom into a close-knit environment where I can explore areas of research specific to my field” she explains. Dr. Rearick also states that working one-on-one with a student is “without question my favorite aspect of teaching. In a one-on-one situation you can really connect with what students like to do and what they are interested in; you can also tap into what they do well and what they struggle with academically. It allows me to truly customize the learning experience for them.”
As for the experience of presenting at a conference, Annie notes that it was an “incredible experience. When discussing research with other students and professors that have pursued an education related to health and exercise science, presenting becomes more interesting and more challenging. New ideas evolve as details of the project are discussed in greater depth. It has also opened my eyes to all of the available career paths in health and exercise science as I was able to talk with other students and professors that share this common interest.” Dr. Rearick also points out that this is “the time when my relationship with students becomes less teacher-student and more mentor and colleague. I love that transition.”
For students considering research opportunities, Annie advises that “students should take full advantage of available research opportunities. The professors are incredibly helpful and push you to explore and investigate your own questions. It teaches you to apply what you have learned in the classroom to an area that is of personal interest. Involvement in research teaches you to integrate and apply the knowledge you have gained through a variety of disciplines. My URAP experiences have had a huge impact on my college career, and it is a great way to prepare for graduate school.” Dr Rearick also points out that “the best learning often occurs when we are trying to solve a problem or question that is important to us. Research is very much like that. And I think it’s important to point out that “research” is not necessarily this high ideal, unreachable for some. Anyone and everyone can do research at some level. It’s simply a matter of figuring out what you really enjoy and then aggressively pursuing it.”
Returning students: Interested in living with other students who care about their schoolwork? Apply to live in the new Scholars Community next year.
Download and complete this application and turn it in to Dr. Lyon’s office (West 238) by next Monday, February 25.
The community will be housed on the 2nd floor of Allegheny (part of CAR) in single rooms. Live with like-minded students. More details can be found via this site.
The purpose of the Scholars Living-Learning Community is to provide academically-minded students a supportive environment, and to provide the College with a group of students who will be engaged in academically-focused College events. We plan to give residents additional mentoring from faculty members, including additional preparation for graduate or professional school, experiential learning activities, and resume builders. We plan to provide an alternative to Saturday night partying by sponsoring movie nights every week at 10pm in the hall (students from outside of the LLC are invited to attend as well). We expect participants to adopt a service organization in Salem or Roanoke and for each member of the LLC to engage in a certain number of community service hours each semester.
Qualifications:
Senior Brayden Gerrie and Professor Elizabeth Holbrook recently had an article published in the International Journal of Exercise Science. The article is titled The Evolutionary Role of Physician Assistances Across The United States, Canada, And The United Kingdom and looks at the evolution of the Physician Assistant (PA) position from the perspective of healthcare systems in those countries. It also gives an outline of the educational requirements, projected student debt-to income ratios, as well as position availability.
Brayden started work on this article as an alternate option for May Term when he did an internship this past summer with Dr. Lintner and his PA in Houston, TX. “My interest in becoming a PA after graduating from Roanoke is really what motivated me to undertake this entire project. Being an injury prone Canadian that has travelled to a few different countries and attended school in Canada, NZ and the US, I have had the opportunity to get a glimpse of how each healthcare system works. My reason for choosing the countries that I did is because they seem to be where PAs have had, or could have the biggest impact.” Brayden explains.
Brayden began working on the article over the summer during his internship as well as throughout the fall semester with his faculty sponsor Dr. Holbrook. After editing and revising, an original draft of the article was submitted to the Journal and the editors expressed interest in publishing for their upcoming Journal publication. Brayden expressed that they “were very excited but knew that if it was going to be published that some portions of the paper should be edited or added to so that the best possible paper would be published.”
This was Brayden’s first experience with research at Roanoke and of his faculty sponsor he states that: “Dr. Holbrook was a tremendous help with the entire project. Her experience with so many publications was really what made the difference between this paper going from a word document on my desktop to a publication in a journal. Working with Dr. Holbrook really gave me some tremendous insight as to how and what goes into a published article. We corresponded by email over the summer and when I came back in the fall we met over a series of meetings to discuss the editing process. I am truly lucky to have had her as a teacher over the past four years. She seems to have an endless energy towards anything she is teaching or working on and I cannot thank her enough for her effort, input and especially patience throughout the entire project.”
For students considering doing research, Brayden advises that “if you are interested at all in a topic or career path and wish to do research, all you have to do is ask. The professors here are more than willing to help you along the way. When I asked Dr. Holbrook to sponsor me for this project, she may have been more excited than I was and I have no doubt that most other professors at this school feel the same way.”
Check out Brayden’s article here: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijes/vol6/iss1/1/
At the Family Weekend Showcase of Research & Creativity this past September, four different research topics from the Health and Human Performance department were showcased. Dr. Elizabeth Holbrook is the faculty mentor who is currently working on these research projects. Besides presenting at the Family Weekend Showcase, two students from the HHP department will be presenting in Greenville, SC in February and two students will be presenting in Indianapolis, IN in June.
One of the topics was “The Roanoke Valley Community Healthy Living Index” which is focused on “changing health policy in the Roanoke Community”, explains Dr. Holbrook. “Since this is an exercise science it is easier for real world application, testing people in live settings”. With community-based collaborative research, they are assisting in the renewal efforts of the Hunt Park and West End neighborhoods in Roanoke. Through research methods that include using census data, Geographic Information Systems, and the implementation of a resource developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control, Dr. Holbrook and her students are helping to identify “environmental and sociocultural barriers and facilitators to healthy living” within these neighborhoods.
Dr. Holbrook also states that working one on one with students is “fantastic…it helps me see my own research from a different perspective. When you’ve been staring at a research question for awhile, that perspective is very helpful.” Not all of Dr. Holbrook’s research assistants are HHP majors. Currently one of her URAP students is a business major and as Dr. Holbrook explains, “the skills she brings are invaluable”.
Just last month, a total of five HHP faculty members and eight HHP majors attended the 75th annual Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (VAHPERD) convention held at the Hotel Roanoke. A total of six presentations were made at the convention and in addition, Rebekah Adams and Brayden Gerrie were recognized as “outstanding majors” at the convention. Dr. Michael Maina & Dr. Julie Maina were among the faculty members who attended and really enjoyed the experience. They were “both so proud to see the level of enthusiasm and professionalism displayed before and during their presentations…It was also very gratifying to do something with the students outside of regular courses at Roanoke College.”
As for students considering research opportunities, Dr. Holbrook advises that they “definitely need to get involved, the skills students learn in research are applicable for the rest of their lives whether directly or indirectly.” Dr. Michael Maina also encourages students to “pursue any research or topic that they find interesting. Research occurs in so many various forms. Students should talk with their professors, staff, friends, and other members around the campus community. Personally, many exciting research opportunities have developed simply through collaborating with others and sharing ideas within and outside of my specific discipline.”
For more information on faculty research interests, and to see where your interests might match, go to: https://roanoke.edu/Academics/Learning_Firsthand/Research/Faculty_Research.htm
