Allegheny College has garnered national acclaim for its excellence in engaging students in faculty-mentored research experiences — from their first year on campus through their Senior Comprehensive Project. Donors to the Our Allegheny: Our Third Century Quest campaign have helped to set the stage for students from all disciplines to benefit from those remarkable research opportunities. During the campaign, President Emeritus Richard Cook and Terry Lahti established an endowed fund that encourages and facilitates student research and creative activity. It provides student stipends, materials and essential project-related travel assistance. Cook says that his own undergraduate research experience with a chemistry professor was “literally life-changing.” He explains that it encouraged him to work independently, challenged him to consider questions that no one had previously answered, and pointed him toward graduate school and a career in academia. Cook and Lahti were made honorary members of the Class of 2006, when they also were awarded the Alumni Medal for their distinguished service to Allegheny. Cook was also awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters upon his departure in 2008. Allegheny provides unparalleled opportunities for exploration and discovery beyond the classroom, Cook says. He notes that, out of hundreds of baccalaureate colleges in the nation, Allegheny was the only one selected for the inaugural Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishment from the Council on Undergraduate Research in 2016.
— AND BRINGS JOY TO ITS BENEFACTORS
“I had the privilege of seeing it every day for 12 years with students and faculty and experiencing their activities, their presentations and their work,” Cook says. “It was invigorating to see that relationship between Allegheny’s very talented and dedicated faculty and curious, hardworking students. It is such a transformative
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