SSU's NoGAP McNair Scholars project hosted its first annual Student Research Symposium on April 28 in the Cooperage.
Fourteen of the McNair Scholars had prepared three-panel poster boards describing their completed research projects or plans for future research. Members of the campus community-faculty, staff, and other students-were all invited to attend the symposium, and encouraged to speak with the Scholars about their projects.
Seven of those 14 created "active presentations" of their research activities including PowerPoint presentations and other equipment-assisted communication technology.
The $220,000-per-year McNair Scholars project at SSU helps 25 undergraduate students continue their postsecondary studies at a Ph.D.-granting graduate institution of their choice (after they have earned their baccalaureate degree from SSU, of course).
The main purpose of the four-year, renewable grant project is to place more historically underrepresented students in American graduate schools. Eligible SSU students must be low-income students and first-generation students or be a member of one of the four ethnic minority groups underrepresented in American graduate schools: African-American, Latino/Latina (Hispanic), Native American, or Pacific Islander.
Participants must be very motivated and high achieving students, the type of students who have always known they were going to go to graduate school. In principle the project works with these 25 students for two years, their junior and senior years. Thus, it is best if students are identified at the end of their sophomore year (although other arrangements can be made).
McNair Scholars presenting at the symposium are as follows:
Presenters: Heatherann Brunell and Nazim Bal
Title: Effects of Urbanization on North Bay Freshwater Ecosystems: Surveying Diversity of Macroinvertebrates in Sonoma County Waterways
Mentor: Nick Geist, Biology
Presenter: Chad Griffith
Title: A Krasnosel'skii-Type Theorem Involving P-Superarcs
Mentor: Jean Chan, Mathematics
Presenter: Jennifer Badasci
Title: The Empty Chair: Anna Ella Carroll, the Woman in Lincoln's Team of Rivals
Mentor: Kim Hester-Williams, English
Presenter: Carmen Ward-Sullivan
Title: My Aching Heart: A Look at Women and Heart Disease
Mentor: Jeanette Koshar, Nursing
Presenter: Tanya Robertson
Title: Seeding the Future: Germination Studies of An Endangered Plant
Mentor: Richard Whitkus, Biology
Presenter: Carolyn Smith
Title: Native American Basket Making
Mentor: John Wingard, Anthropology
Presenter: Jeff Goodlund
Title: Composition and Production of an "Americana" Quintet Using Digital Technology
Mentor: Will Johnson, Music
Presenter: Lev Woolf
Title: Need for Structure Predicts Reactions to Public Infidelity
Mentor: Heather Smith, Psychology.
Presenter: Octavio Cervantes
Title: Characterization of Cyanophage Plasmid Libraries
Mentor: None
Presenter: Blair Dub
Title: Children with Challenging Behaviors: Understanding the Techniques and Strategies Preschool Teachers use to Help Children
Mentor: Elisa Velasquez, Psychology
Co-authors: Cliff Mettier, Justin Lutterman, and Elyse Hunt
Presenter: Adam Dye
Title: Harmann Differential Image Motion Monitor Data Reduction and Analysis
Mentor: Scott Severson, Physics
Presenter: Linda Smith
Title: Gift Giving in the Therapeutic Milieu
Mentor: Susan Hillier, Psychology
Presenter: Juan Sosa
Title: Determining the Molecular Weight of Chromium Binding Proteins by Freezing Point Depression
Mentor: Carmen Works
Presenter: Melissa Wood
Title: Hippotherapy As an Effective Form of Treatment for Children with Cerebral Palsy
Mentor: Elaine McHugh, Kinesiology
Presenter: Rachel Francis
Title: Stomatal Function of the Genus Camellia
Mentor: Thomas Buckley, Biology
Presenter: Bianca Brenes
Title: Osteological Examination of Skeletal Remains in 17th Century Poland
Mentor: Karin Jaffee
Presenter: Lauren Stavish
Title: Obstacles to Women's Post-Baccalaureate Educational Attainment
Mentor: Sheila Katz, Sociology
Presenter: Danelle Reddy
Title: The Effects of Pisicosins V1a and V1b and their C-Terminals on Listeria
ivanovii
Mentor: Jennifer Lillig, Chemistry
Presenter: Steve Schaerer
Title: The Analysis of Enzymatic Reduction of Chromium (VI)
Mentor: Carmen Works, Chemistry