California University of Pennsylvania Honors Program
Students and staff take on big city life PAGE 2
Spring 2014
Spring 2014 graduating seniors PAGES 4 & 5
University Honors Program students take Kentucky by storm PAGE 6
University Honors Program News
SHAB Makes Changes
2 new juniors. Adding these students this they hope to have a more visible Student Honors Advisory Board works to make some im- gives SHAB a full board to work with. role in the Honors Program. They’ve The SHAB has officially instituted also started teaming up with the diportant changes By Kelsey Baumgardner
The Student Honors Advisory Board has recently begun making changes that they hope will help their program grow. To start off the changes the SHAB has rewritten their constitution. By doing this they made room for any changes they wanted to make. The SHAB started off the year by holding elections. The result of the elections added 4 new freshman and
4 committees: social, service, admissions, and mentoring. These committees will serve to help them have a more noticeable presence in the Honors Program. All committees are run by their respective chair with a group of students to help carry out all plans. The SHAB is hoping to plan even more events in the upcoming year. They want to give students plenty of chances to be actively involved in the program. In doing
rector to figure out ways to eliminate drop out and help retain students. The SHAB president, Brittany Kusniar, is excited about the changes being made. “The SHAB was in its beginning stages of restructuring this year but I have high hopes for next year that we will be able to do more for the program and be more visible to students,” said Kusniar. Keep an eye out for changes within the next year.
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Life in the Big Apple Students and staff take on big city life By Lauren Griffith Twenty-two honors students and two professors stormed Times Square in New York, New York on March 2730 for their Auteur Theory of Film class. The instructor, Mr. Aune, teaches the class to a mix of students in all years, and with a variety of majors. The group survived the nine hour bus trip to the Big Apple on Thursday, and then went to dinner at Butterfield 8, where exquisite food was dined on. Friday included a trip to the Museum of the Moving Image, which is the largest and most extensive museum about film. Later that night students attended Francios Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, filmed in 1959 at the Film Forum. The 400 Blows is one of Mr. Aune’s favorite movies. Students ate at the infamous Car-
negie Deli on Saturday for lunch, where Shawn Reese and Jared Sofranko dined on a sandwich called The Woody Allen. After eating, the students visited different areas of New York for their class project, which was to compare a scene in any of the films watched in class this semester and how it appears in person. Destinations included the planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History, the Queensboro Bridge, and a ride in a classic NYC taxi. While a consistent heavy rain all through out the day dampened things, many of the students continued to explore NYC. The subways and taxi cabs were also options for a few of them to hop out of the rain, as the students were free to use these at their convenience. NY style pizza was enjoyed for dinner at John’s Pizzeria, which was converted into a restaurant since initially used as a church. The stained glass windows
and a large mural remain in the building, which made for a pleasant view. In their free time, several students visited the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 memorial, and various shopping centers. As for traditional tourist activities—they made sure to participate in some too. Purchases were made at street clothing vendors, knock-off handbags were bought, and streetside food vendors were stopped at. Several students, including Rebecca McDonough, posed next to the Statue of Liberty figures to get their pictures taken. The one staple of New York that was missed was the Naked Cowboy. The students returned to Cal U late Sunday afternoon, with their bags and souvenirs in hand. Although they were all exhausted from a weekend on the go, nearly every one left with a smile on their face from some time well spent.
Left: Students wait for the subway in NYC. Top: Sydney Priester looks at an early moving image and the Museum of the moving image. Bottom: Peter Barcousky stands in front of an exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image. Right: Megan Sweeney and Danielle Marino look at a zoetrope at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Newsletter Staff Editors
Kelsey Baumgardner Emma Will
Contributors
Lauren Griffith Brittany Kusniar John Troutman
Honors Program Staff
Director- Dr. M. G. Aune Associate Director- Dr. Craig Fox Secretary- Kim Orslene
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Honors Program Alumna Starts Own Business Alumna starts her own photography business By Kelsey Baumgardner In January of 2014 Alumni Frances Del Duca started her own photography company. The company is a side project . She is currently working full-time for the Elizabeth Forward School District in the technology department, as a substitute teacher (K-12), and as a long-term substitute teacher for fourth grade. She is very excited about the start of her company and truely loves what she does. Some samples
Honors Classes HON 201 and Dr. Fox By Emma Will 1) What is your class about and what, ideally, do you want your students to take away from it? My class is about logic; specifically about the mathematical study of logic and how it relates to reasoning generally considered. Thus, the course is about quantitative problem solving (which is the title). I’d like students primarily to gain some appreciation for a careful consideration of language and ways we can justify reasoning embodied in it. 2) Are there any stories or important points you want to share about the class? This semester I’m using a Peer
of her work can be seen below. According to the company website, “Del Duca Photography captures professional photographs customized to each client! We provide optional image retouching that includes, but is not limited to: airbrushing, blemish removal, teeth whitening, and wrinkle reduction. Some photographic options are: pop art imagery, custom text and/or colorization, personalized cards/ posters, and canvas and metal art. We photograph on location and in our studio and utilize green screen technology to provide cus-
tomers with endless background options! Photographs and custom photographic videos are available at the conclusion of each portrait session or within 72 hours for weddings, events, and sports teams. We create photographic videos available for download, email, and/or to post to Facebook and are dedicated to exceeding our customer’s every expectation!” Del Duca Photography has 2 photpgraphers, both active members of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Visit their website,www.delducaphoto graphy.webs.com for more information.
Mentor in the course, Michael Ortenzo--though he’s also taking the course for credit. He holds office hours every week, and students meet with him to discuss work. He’s not an expert on the material, but he’s another place for students to turn for help. He’s also a good intermediary between the class and me. He and I will reflect on the Peer Mentor idea after the semester, and I hope to use it again in the future.
4) Is there anything (stories, history, education etc) that you would like to share about yourself?
3) How did you come up with the idea for this class and why did you want to teach it? I normally teach logic courses in the Philosophy Department. For this Honors version, I’m using a different text (actually the one I first used as a student) and I’m teaching somewhat different material. I had wanted to see our Honors students working on logic, and they’ve not disappointed!
I took my first logic course in my 2nd year of college & liked it right away (even though it was at 9am three days a week). I took three more logic courses in college. Then in grad school, I made sure to always do one course in logic or philosophy of logic/math every semester. While doing my PhD, I did coursework in the Math department as well. One thing that appeals to me about the subject is its rigor; this is especially appealing in Philosophy, where rigor can sometimes be lacking. In a semester such as this current one, when I’m teaching both philosophy of art and logic courses, I appreciate that I get to explore seemingly opposite aspects of the field of Philosophy. It’s all good for the soul, as one might be tempted to put it.
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Graduating Seniors
Students are listed alphabetically with the name of their advisor and thesis title.
Cynthia E. Anchor Investigating Variation Associated with Visual Estimates of Cover
Professor Kelley Flaherty
Justin K. Antolin Dr. William Dieterle Using Calorimetry to Verify the Power Output of a Homemade Class IV Laser Caitlin C. Birmingham Dr. Sarah Meiss Comparison of the Ecology of Three Agricultural Soils, One Treated with Synthetic Pesticides, One with Organic Pesticides, and One without any Pesticides Traci M. Davis Dr. Carol Bocetti Comparison of hunting capabilities between Red-tailed Hawks with monocular vision versus binocular vision David Drescher Dr. David Argent Macroinvertebrate Diversity Along Tenmile Creek Watershed Following Resource Extraction Ellie K. Gass Professor Alex Bezjak Breaking the Barriers: The Underrepresentation of Women in STEM Domains and the Obstacles Limiting Their Involvement Caitlin M. Green Dr. Robert Skwarecki Play with Your Brain: Age Related Differences on Performance with Memory Improvement Apps
Honors Courses HON 340 and Dr. Aune
2) Are there any stories or important points you want to share about the class?
By Emma Will
The class seems to be going well. There is a broad range of interests and experiences, which keeps the class from becoming too predictable. One side note, the students seem to have learned how to communicate in their own form of sign language.
1) What is your class about and what, ideally, do you want your students to take away from it? I hope that, in general, students will gain a more critical approach to watching film, that they will be less passive in their consumption of images and sounds. More specifically, I hope that they will learn the formal language for analyzing film and be able to use it in formal and casual situations.
3) How did you come up with the idea for this class and why did you want to teach it? I have taught film courses of various types in the past and almost always enjoyed them. This
course, looking at location and auteur theory came out of notes that I had made about those past classes -- ideas and questions came up that we could not pursue then. So I organized this class to try to answer them. 4) Is there anything (stories, history, education etc) that you would like to share about yourself? Though most of my formal graduate training was in Shakespeare and British Literature, I did study film quite often. I try to sneak film into most classes I teach, so it is a real pleasure to be able to teach a class of nothing but films.
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Graduating Seniors Kaitlyn J. Kelly The Small Mammal Community within the SAI Farm Ecotones
Dr. Carol Bocetti
Caroline L. Kibbe Professor Malcolm Callery Music Oft Had Such a Charm: A History of Technology, Techniques, and Designing The 39 Steps Kelsey E. Nuhfer Communication Disorders Majors’ Views Towards Older Individuals
Dr. Robert Skwarecki
Kayci L. Shanaberger Effects of Caffeine on Cartilage Development Among Bird Lineages
Dr. Louise Nicholson
Alyssa R. Skinner Professor Greg Harrison The Smear Campaign: A Woman’s Right to Sexual Expression and Taking Back the Power of Words Used to Degrade Women Anne L. Sternberger Dr. Louise Nicholson Characterizing the Morphological and Epigenetic Effects of Nicotine and Bisphenol A in Chicken Embryos Emma K. Will William Morris and the Medieval Manuscript: A Study of Influence and Comparison
Dr. Cindy Persinger
Ross J. Young Dr. Lisa Kovalchick Go on the Go: Integrating GNU/Linux from Scratch with the World’s Oldest Board Game
PASSHE Summer Trip A look at the 2013 summer excursion By Alyssa Skinner When I first heard about the 2013 PASSHE Honors trip I was so immensely excited. The trip took us to London, Salzburg, Vienna, Venice and Rome. I was really looking forward to visiting Italy as I have taken art history course after course while studying for my Graphic Design degree here at Cal U and was looking forward to seeing the masterpieces I’ve only studied in textbooks. I had never even heard of Salzburg before the trip and it was probably last on my list to be excited over simply because I didn’t know anything about it. Little did I know. Below is an blog entry from a blog I was required to keep for the length of the trip describing how I felt about Salzburg; Dear Mom and Dad, I love you very, very much but I regret to inform you that I will not be coming home. I have fallen in love. I know I am young and innocent. I know I have
my whole life ahead of me. But this is real love. I promise you. I will have all that I need here, because I have love. Yes, I will miss you. And I will have to find out how to finish school via online classes. I will have to make some sacrifices but what are these insignificant details in the face of love? Right? Sadly, no I am not referring to a man (nor a woman for that matter) but a city! Salzburg, Austria. It’s beautiful, like a fairy tale, storybook beautiful. I think it’s my new happy place; you know that mental place you go when doctors are giving you shots or you see something terrible like the plumber’s behind. Green parks full of statues and gorgeous architecture, shady nooks in which to lunch or read, small town feel, beautiful boutiques, friendly people, clear blue lakes pure enough to drink out of, and night life to satisfy any night owl. Everything you could want in a small Austrian city. Eve and I went exploring today. We got lost and it was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I have never been so happy to be lost before in my life. Walking around and staring up at these buildings, I feel like I’m star-
ing at history. I feel like I know my way around the city now, and I know enough German to get me back to the hotel. Speaking of, please wire me money to hire a German tutor so that I may master the language while I am here. Danke. I’ll write often (this is probably a lie I can barely keep up with my blogs). Come visit sometime! Wish me Luck, Alyssa Check out her blog here, http://drunkenapples.blogspot.com/
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Honors Students Attend NCUR
University Honors Program students take Kentucky by storm.
By John Troutman Recently eighteen Cal U Honors students had the opportunity to travel to Louisville, Kentucky to represent the University Honors Program at the 28th Annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research, hosted by the University of Kentucky. At this conference there were 4200 students from around the world. From April 3-5, 2014, our students attended multiple oral and poster sessions covering a multitude of topics. We were fortunate enough to have fourteen of our students present at the conference. When asked about her poster presentation, sophomore Katie Liebel thought the
experience was “rewarding and beneficial.” She continued to say, “Everyone was very supportive and interested to see what you have completed.” This was Liebel’s first time attending a professional conference. Throughout the conference, students were able to network with other academia and professionals. This was a great opportunity for all the attended. Other noteworthy events from the conference include plenary speaker Dr. T. Pearse Lyons, the founder and president of Alltech (a top-10 animal health company). He spoke with conference attendees about how he started his own business even though he was always told he could never succeed with it. He explained all the hard work that went in to it and how he soon became the biggest sustainability research cor-
poration in the state of Kentucky. In addition to the educational aspects of the trip, students were also able to enjoy the area. Students appreciated different cultural foods, such as French, Thai, and Indian cuisine. They attended art shows and visited Keeneland, a local horse racing track. Overall the students of the UHP represented the university well and benefited greatly from the conference. Junior and SHAB president Brittany Kusniar highly recommends the conference for interested students completing research. “NCUR is a wonderful opportunity for students to present their research in a welcoming and open environment,” Kusniar stated. Next year’s conference will be held at Eastern Washington University located in Cheney, Washington.
Left: NCUR attendees stop for a group picture. Top: Students enjoy some conversation over dinner. Bottom: Students pause from looking at dinner choices for a picture. Right: A few attendees admire a piece of artwork.
Intersections Conference Heads to Robert Morris
Cal students travel to RMU to present research By Kelsey Baumgardner
On April 25, 2014 Robert Morris University will host the eighth annual Intersections: Undergraduate Research Conference. At the conference various students form the California University of Pennsylvania Honors Program will present re-
search that they have done . This conference is held every year. It alternates location between California University of Pennsylvania and Robert Morris University. According to the Robert Morris University Honors Program website, “Each year the Honors Programs of California University of Pennsylvania and Robert Morris University are pleased to co-host the Intersec-
tions Undergraduate Research Conference together, highlighting the various intersections between disciplines, research, and methodologies from undergraduate students in the region.” The Honors Program will be sending 16 students to the conference at Robert Morris to present their research in various topics of study.