Honors newsletter spring 13

CAL U April 2013

Inside this Issue:

HONORS NEWS

California University of Pennsylvania

Vol. 1, No. 4

7th Annual Intersections Undergraduate Research Conference

Intersections Conference–p. 1 NCUR Conference– p. 1

By Kaitlin Kachonik

Graduating Seniors– p.2-3

President Jones opened the 7th Annual Intersections Undergraduate Research Conference at the Natali Student Center on April 19, 2013 with a brief talk about the importance of undergraduate research. Once she concluded, UHP along with the Honors Program at Robert Morris University and students from Franciscan University of Steubenville and Governors State University of Illinois came together to share the results of their research. Honors Students presented their research and thesis posters in front of a panel of faculty and respondents who asked ques-

Cleveland Excursion—p. 4 Meet Your Professors—p. 5-7

Staff: Kelsey Baumgardner, Editor Emma Will, Assistant Editor Lauren Griffith, Contributor Kaitlin Enck , Contributor Shawn Reese , Contributor Kaitlin Kachonik, Contributor

Special Thanks:

Dr Aune Dr. Fox Kim Orslene Dr. Gill Dr. Fisanick

Appetamus communiter ad futurum Let us strive together for the future

NCUR

tions throughout. This was a great opportunity for students to network and showcase their hard work from semesters of research.

Participating students from Cal U included: Courtney Killian, Tricia Stoner, Marielle Silvio, Kasey Zemba, Erin Morgan, Michael Ortenzo, Kristie B. Pistner, Caitlin Birmingham, Matthew Kreiser, Erik Potts, Skyler Boehm, Breanne Lincosky and Shelby Zikeli.

Honors Advisory Board members Dr. Gregg Gould and Professor Loring Presst along with Dr. Michele Pagen and Dr. Cynthia Persinger assisted by facilitating the sessions.

An estimated amount of 75 students and faculty members joined together for this event. A special thank you to SHAB Session titles included: Applied and the Cal U Honors Program Math and Accounting, Sports, staff for planning this event!

Culture, Technology, Biology, Literature, and Health.

dents presented their research projects alongside other students representing

by Kaitlin Enck and nearly 400 different universiShawn Reese ties across the country.

From April 10th to During this conferthe 14th, the Honors Proence, senior Valerie Herrero gram sponsored a trip to La displayed her art piece entiCrosse, Wisconsin, so that tled "Elusive Insect Floating nine students under the By," which utilized several guidance of Dr. Craig Fox different art forms including and Dr. Summer Arrigometalwork and found artNelson could attend the Na- work (a honeycomb) in ortional Conference on Under- der to depict a tiny bumblegraduate Research (NCUR). bee floating away from her There, several Cal U stuhive on an umbrella toward

silver metal clouds. This piece was suspended by fishing line in the gallery area along with the other paintings and sculptures shown during the conference. In addition to this, Herrero gave a presentation on Thursday, April 11th where she discussed the process that went into creating this piece and some of the themes that her artwork addresses.

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Honors News

Graduating Seniors Zachary M. Dice Dr. Kalie R. Kossar Honors Thesis: Creating Direct Instruction Lessons from Traditional Social Studies Content

Regina M. George Dr. Ralph J. Belsterling Honors Thesis: The iPad Offers More Therapy Opportunities for Speech-Language-Pathologists: An Examination of its Advantages in Therapy

Frances U. Del Duca Dr. Donald Franks Honors Thesis: Visual Media Anna E. Gerald Series for Student Success Dr. Laura A. Tuennerman Honors Thesis: African American Women and Hair: SocioKaitlin E. Enck Dr. Summer J. Arrigo-Nelson Political Influences on Hair and African American Womens’ Honors Thesis: Sea Otters on Display, Creating Zoo and Changing Perceptions of it During the Last Aquarium Exhibits to be 100 Years. more like Natural Habitats Kelly T. Fitzpatrick Dr. Paul D. Williams Honors Thesis: Calculators: Friend or Foe? Carla M. Fuccaro Dr. J. Drew McGukin Honors Thesis: Theoretical Framework of Event Planning and Management Emma Geiger Dr. Katherine J. Mitchem Honors Thesis: The Twin Effect-A Case Study of Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Amongst Twins Rebecca L. Geiger Dr. Marta S. McClintockComeaux Honors Thesis: Domestic Dad’s Dilemma: Masculine Gender Roles in Reality and the Media

Matthew M. Hamel Dr. Craig Fox Honors Thesis: The Triumph of Realism: A New Model of Bundle Theory Justin M. Johnson Dr. Sarah Downey Honors Thesis: Fantasy Stories: How do we Accept the Impossible?

Ashley M. Koval Dr. Matthew J. Price Honors Thesis: Synthetic Modifiation of Spiropyran Molecules Matthew D. Krinock Dr. Sarah L. Meiss Honors Thesis: Examination of the Effectiveness of Antibiotics on Biofilms Brittney Lees Dr. Susan D. Ryan Honors Thesis: The Process of Studying Abroad: Analyzing Universities Involvement and

Effectiveness from Students' Perspective Angelina M. Lorenzo Dr. Connie Monroe Honors Thesis: Learning Spanish at a Young Age Melissa R. Lupinacci Dr. Mary Seman Honors Thesis: The Improper Implementation of Full Inclusion: We are Leaving Children Behind Andrew J. Marra Dr. Laura Hummell Honors Thesis: Residence Life Training Prototype Kathryn L. McAndrew Dr. Paula B. Caffrey Honors Thesis: Prevention of Tumor Cell Resistance to Chemotherapy Chad A. Morrow Dr. Christina Fisanick Honors Thesis: Creating an Honors Video Advertisement: California University of Pennsylvania’s Honors Program George M. Niezgoda Dr. William E. Dieterle Honors Thesis: The Next Earth to Space Transportation System: An Update on the Feasibility of Geosynchronous Space Elevator Concept Kirstie B. Pistner Dr. Rebecca A. Hess Honors Thesis: A Review of Literature Regarding ExerciseInduced Rhabdomyolysis

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Honors News

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Continued from page 2 Caitlin R. Sowers Professor Maggy Aston Honors Thesis: Organic Architecture and how it can Improve Your Life; Viewing Architecture Through the Eyes of Frank Lloyd Wright Samantha C. Zelenka Dr. Carol I. Bocetti Honors Thesis: Opening Size and Vegitation as Predictors of Butterfly Species Richness and Dusted Skipper Abundance in Northern Michigan Continued from page 1

Rebecca E. Zych Dr. Emily M. Sweitzer Honors Thesis: A Psychological View of Security Failures in Soft Target Attacks

Congratulations

me, and in order to have a welldeveloped, thought-out project, you Herrero presented to a packed room of need to be interested in the work. If interested students and faculty. you aren't, you're really just speaking Cal U junior David Drescher the information of someone else's inand senior Kaitlin Enck together preterests and heart, not your own." sented a poster project that they had During the three days that this created on Invasive Species in Mada- conference lasted, Cal U students gascar. Senior Samantha Zelenka also were able to attend a wide variety of presented a poster examining the rela- sessions and poster presentations tionship between vegetation and butspanning such various topics as Literaterfly populations in northern Michigan. ture, Natural Sciences, Education, and Lastly, senior Justin Johnson premuch more. Within these categories, a sented his poster "Fantasy Writing, an student could find any number of interAncient Art," which looked at the imesting research topics from the role of portance of the fantasy genre through- music in Jewish culture to the issue of out history. morality in the TV show Dexter.

Regarding her experience at Concerning his project, Justin Johnson NCUR, Herrero had this to say: "Be said, "It was just a fascinating topic for open to the speakers and new experiences. There is something really remarkable about meeting people from all over the nation and often the world. What I love about NCUR are the massive learning experiences in which you can completely submerge yourself. This is a place where people are talking about ideas they are wholeheartedly invested in and have the potential to change you."

Along with these undergraduate presentations, NCUR also brought Showcasing their “cheese heads� in this picture in three plenary speakers from left to right are: Valerie Herrero, Angela Selby, who each gave a speech about their lives and how Shawn Reese, John Troutman,and Stephanie Moore.

Seniors!!! they got into the fields that they are currently working in today. On Thursday, Will Steger spoke of his role as a polar explorer and his adventures dog sledding and kite skiing in the Arctic.

He went on to explain how the global climate change has affected these Polar Regions.

On Friday, Dr. Hazel A. Barton told her story of how she came to be a cave microbiologist, as well as some of the more scientific aspects of her work.

She stressed that you do not need to know exactly where you are going and that there are many different paths to get there. A more artistic approach came from Saturday's speaker, Bill Miller. Singer and songwriter, Miller alternated between his musical performances and his sometimeshilarious, sometimes-heartrending stories of growing up as a Native American facing issues of racism and selfdiscovery and how his struggles led him to where he is today.

On Sunday, April 14th, these Honors students and faculty returned home amidst freezing rain and piling slush. Although the weather was less than ideal in Wisconsin, students and faculty enjoyed their experience at this year's NCUR. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse hosted a successful conference despite the unseasonable weather. The town of La Crosse was one of hospitality and warm regards, and hopefully, Honors students attending next year's NCUR will enjoy the experience as much as these students did.

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Honors News

Cleveland Excursion: Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and the 37th Annual Cleveland Film Festival

By Lauren Griffith The first weekend of April brought California’s campus nice weather, and brought Dr. Fox’s HON 330 Topics in Culture and Society ‘Wittgenstein, Art, and Film’ class to Cleveland. While the excursion was partially for the class, any student interested was invited as well. While in downtown Cleveland, we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as the Cleveland International Film Festival. In the downtime, students visited the public library, as well as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

the French film Bad Seeds, a thriller with a dramatic storyline.

Our first film on Saturday, also a French film, was Le Grand Soir, a comedy that followed the main character, a punk who called himself Not, and his brother, JeanPierre, as he accepts the punk lifestyle for himself. After a short break, we went back into the theatre to see our last film, a documentary titled Google and the World Brain, which told of the billion dollar empire that Google has created. It seemed that each of the 15 students on the trip had a different opinion on each of the films and which one was their favorite. Both students and Dr. Fox led and commented in on thoughtful discussions afterwards.

MOCA has three different levels.

The third floor showed off contemporary artists Kate Gilmore’s work, along with the 13-minute film “The Paradise Institute” by Janet Cardiff and Georg Bures Miller. The second floor housed the corporate offices and a childs area. The first floor showcased Corin Hewitt’s art, along with the MOCA gift shop and café, which sold local artists works as well. With souvenirs and bags in hand, we took the train back to our hotel.

Sunday morning brought us back to California—or close to it. A little bit of bus trouble gave us a short delay, but didn’t put a damper on the rest of the weekWe were scheduled to see end. Going to Cleveland was a four films—two on Friday night, wonderful opportunity and an aweand two on Saturday night. While On Saturday we all hopped some learning experience, and we missed our first film on Friday one that I won’t soon forget. onto the train towards the Munight due to a longer wait on dinseum of Contemporary Art. The ner than expected, we still caught

Honors News

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Meet Your Professors

By Emma Will

This Spring 2013 semester the Honors Program offered several unique classes for students to choose from. The Newsletter staff decided to interview the professors about their classes and provide you with an explanation of their classes in their own words.

HON 265-Global Transitions: It’s About Time - Dr. Swarndeep Gill What is your class about and what, ideally, do you want your students to take away from it?

There are 13 students in the class. Ideally what I want my students to take away is to understand to what degree our understanding of time has been constructed and socialized and the reasons why it is the way it is. With that foundation laid I like to contrast this with the way humans perceive time and look for ways in our life in which we can become masters of time instead of time often being the master of us.

What kind of assignments will be typical of the class?

I try to instigate a lot of discussion in class, and this is also part of the grade as we deal with different aspects of time, measurement, and culture and how those factors are connecting. The project for the semester is a group project is for students to invent a new system of keeping time. Either by inventing a new calendar, or by inventing a new clock. The goal being that they create something that is perhaps more conducive to how we think, what makes us happy, and how we can be most effective. This is a real challenge for most people, because the way we measure time is very ingrained into us as

how it should be, but the first time led to some very interesting results and I am positive that it will this time too.

Are there any stories or important points you want to share about the class?

Well if someone were to ask me “Why they should take the course?”, I would say the following as a response: “The story of time is a fascinating one, and one that does not get told. In school we learn about exploration of the special dimension, but we never learn about the exploration of time. Since things exist in both space and time, why should time be a forgotten dimension, especially when it is ever-present in our lives. In fact as humans we can stay in the very same spot, such that space does not change, but time is always passing. Thus understanding time and how we perceive it is important to understanding ourselves.”

How did you come up with the idea for this class and why did you want to teach it?

My inspiration for becoming interested in time came from a conversation I was listening to between two friends while I was in graduate school. One friend had recently read an article about the subject of time and how the measurement of time is very linear and how it may be possible that because we measure time that way, that it may have

an impact on linearizing our thinking, and wouldn’t be interested in we measured time differently. At the time I thought to myself “that’s stupid, how else could one measure time?” It took some learning before I realized how arbitrary our measurement of time is, and I realized that my initial reaction is probably how most people react and that perhaps it’s a good thing to wake us up out of that complacency towards the concept of time.

Is there anything (stories, history, education etc) that you would like to share about yourself?

Perhaps one of the odder things people might ask, is why a meteorology professor is teaching this course? I will admit that I am not an expert, but the measurement of time is directly linked to the process of change, which I think every scientist is fascinated with. Scientists are always measuring change in one way or another, and the more accurately we’ve been able to measure time, the better we have been able to understand the process of change. The weather is always changing. climate changes, and so I think a scientists’ perspective is appropriate on the subject of time, although I think it would be great if, as the course evolves, I can include perspectives on time from people in other fields of study too.

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Honors News

Meet your Professors Cont.

HON 250: Honors Composition II Dr. Christina Fisanick

Are there any stories or important points you want to share about the class?

What is your class about and what, ideally, do you want your students to take away from it?

If students do the writing, their writing will improve. I do not assign busy work. Every assignment has a purpose.

Honors 250 is about learning to conduct better research and to use it effectively in a variety of different genres. I want my students to be able to be confident about incorporating credible sources into their work and to think of creative ways of sharing information with others.

How did you come up with the idea for this class and why did you want to teach it?

What kind of assignments will be typical of the class?

Typically, students write four essays that incorporate research, including a paper that narrates their research process, a Toulmin argument that requires that they look at multiple sides of an issue, a Rogerian argument that leads to a compromise, and a paper that asks them to be reflective about their argument styles.

I love teaching writing. Students need to learn how to break out of high school writing expectations and learn how to make arguments using research rather than simply writing informational research papers.

Is there anything (stories, history, education etc) that you would like to share about yourself?

Like many students at Cal, I earned my degrees from state schools. I have a lot of love for state school systems and the power they have to transform students into critical learners and strong civic-minded citizens in their communities. Cal has so much to offer; take advantage of all of it.

Interview with Dr. Kearcher What honors class are you teaching this year?

This semester, I am teaching a section of HON 250, Honors Composition II. How many students are in your class?

I have 29 students in my section of HON 250.

What is the main focus of the class?

The focus of the class is to de-

velop student writers' understanding of research writing and to provide extensive practice in developing their research and writing skills. The class emphasizes the rhetorical aspects of research writing, and presents doing research as a means to address these rhetorical needs.

Students in class have written a variety of shorter papers in preparation for preparing a longer final paper.

By Kelsey Baumgardner

What do you feel is the students’ favorite part of your class?

I believe that students enjoy the workshopping we do in class.

For each paper, the writers have the opportunity to respond to other writers' drafts and to receive responses to their own work.

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Honors News

Meet your Professors Cont.

Continued from page 6

What is your favorite part of teaching an honors class?

I enjoy the students' willingness to engage with the class material and the assignments. The students have good questions, which lead to good discussions.

Interview with Dr. Fox

By Kelsey Baumgardner

stein, in particular what he says about word- and sentencemeaning. Recently, I've been interI'm teaching two Honors courses ested in the Philosophy of Art, bethis year: HON 499 Honors Thesis cause I think questions about art (fall) and HON 330 Topics in Culand its meanings are often similar ture and Society (spring). to questions about words & sentences and their meanings. In particular, I've been interested in cerHow many students are in your tain movies that seem to be doing class? something philosophical in a similar We have 11 in my Topics course way to how Wittgenstein does phithis term. losophy. So in this class, I'm providing an introduction to Wittgenstein's philosophy via reflection on What is the main focus of the art. It's culminating with our turning class?

The course is called, "Wittgenstein, to movies now (and this began with Art, and Film." It's focused on my our excursion to the Cleveland Inresearch over the past few ternational Film Festival). years. My PhD research was on the philosopher Ludwig WittgenWhat honors class are you teaching this year?

What do you feel is the students favorite part of your class?

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine that students are interested in giving some serious thought to movies. Another thing that they might find interesting--at least I hope they do--is taking a course that deals directly with a faculty member's area of research. This doesn't happen frequently at Cal U. What is your favorite part of teaching an honors class?

My favorite part of teaching an Honors course is the students. I'm able to have higher expectations for their work and the efforts they'll make. Happily, they live up to those expectations every class session.

Honors Scholarship Winners

The Robert Sumara Honors Program Scholarship for 2013-14 will be awarded to: Lauren Griffith The Norman and Ellen Hasbrouck Honors Program Scholarship for 2013-14 will be awarded to: Brittany Kusniar

Congratulations to our Honors Program Scholarship recipients!

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Honors News

The Semester in Pictures

Congratulations on another semester students!

Have a good summer and see you in the fall!