Fall 2015 Newsletter

California University of Pennsylvania Honors Program Fall 2015

PASSHE 2015 PAGE 2

Fall 2015 Graduating Seniors

PAGES 4 Summer in Spain PAGE 5

University Honors Program News Writing Consultants Go Cross Country

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hree Honors Program students also working as writing consultants for the Cal U Writing Center presented their scholarship at a national conference in November. Juniors Alex Dawes (anthropology) and Ashley Shilling (English) joined senior Rebecca McDonough (psychology) and Cal U Writing center director Dr. Kurt Kearcher to present “RAD Reflections: Testing Our Assumptions about the Role of Undergraduate Tutors in RAD-Based Writing Center Research” at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing held in Salt Lake City November 6-8.

The writing consultants and director discussed their scholarly work in the Cal U Writing Center as it relates to RAD research, which emphasizes scholarship that is replicable, aggregable, and data supported. The conference drew hundreds of undergraduate tutors, graduate tutors, and professional writing center scholars and directors from dozens of education institutions for three days of programming devoted to writing center practices, scholarship, and administration. The students’ travel was funded in part by Top: Students conversing the Honors Program. before presentation.

Left: Students listening to Dr. Kearcher present.

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PASSHE 2015 Norway Welcomes Cal U Honors Students

By Rachel Constantini

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his past summer, through Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Summer Honors Program, I had the opportunity to become a world traveler.

Never did I think I would be traveling across the ocean to Norway as a college student, and have the chance to see firsthand what another country is doing to reduce its carbon footprint.

I was one of two representatives from California University of Pennsylvania, both of us juniors in the Honors Program.

During the first week of the program, we took two courses at West Chester University, one exploring Nobel Leadership and the second on Environmental Stewardship.

We had a busy week: lectures every day, written reflections on

daily readings, final presentations for each of the classes, watched documentaries to end each night, and we even squeezed in a field trip. One of the highlights of the course work was working with another student to research a past Nobel Laureate. I researched F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, and when we arrived in Norway, got to see the Nobel Peace Prize the pair received.

The second week we spent in Oslo, Norway. There was very little time for relaxing - we were always moving, whether visiting a museum, touring the American Embassy, or rowing a Viking ship.

By far, the highlight of the trip was nominating someone for the Nobel Peace Prize. We presented our nominations in the room where the Nobel Institute actually names the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for that year. My l favorite experience was giving ideas to the friends of

Ă˜stensjøvannet Lake for a trail they plan to build, and studying the native wildlife of Norway.

I learned so much through this program, not just from the lectures, but also from the other PASSHE students. Each of us took the information we learned and have done things on our own campuses to change the way people think about the environment.

At IUP, a student is working with the cafeteria to reduce food waste.

Here at Cal U, I am working with my sustainable recreation class to look at local parks and help them become more ecofriendly.

Top Right: Kirra Lent with Norway student.

Bottom Left: PASSHE group photo.

Above: Rachel Constantini and Kirra Lent pose in Norway.

Newsletter Staff Editors

Zoe Scripter Amelia Lipkind

Contributors

Rachel Constantini Thomas Koenig Karina Sanchez Amelia Lipkind Lindsey Gasper

Cynthia Zelmore Austin Owens Alicia Wadsworth Kelsey Baumgardner Rebecca McDonough

Honors Program News

Honors Program Staff

Director- Dr. M. G. Aune Associate Director- Dr. Craig Fox Secretary- Kim Orslene

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Giving Thanks to Student Honors Advisory Board Members SHAB President Gives a Shout Out to Fall 2015 Members

By Lindsey Gasper

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t has been an honor to serve as the president of SHAB for this past calendar year for so many different reasons that I could never fit them all into this article. I personally have seen a tremendous amount of growth in our Honors community and I’d like to think that SHAB has really helped facilitate that growth through organizing events and further informing our student body. The one thing I am very pleased with is the success of the open SHAB Meetings we held

this semester. These meetings are meant to give Honors Program members a snapshot of what SHAB is responsible for, but also to give students a chance to come forward with any questions, comments, or concerns that they may have. SHAB really strives to please all members of the Honors community to the best of our abilities.

I would also like to thank all of those who participated in our Service Socials this semester!

From all things pumpkin spice to crazy, creative Halloween costumes and cozy hot cocoa, there surely was something for everyone. Of course, none of these

events would have been possible without the undying dedication of all the SHAB members, and the committee members. I would like to thank every one of them for all of their hard work and commitment to improving the Honors Program for everyone.

Best wishes to the new members and new officers taking over this coming spring semester; I cannot wait to see what future holds.

Also, a big congratulations to those of us graduating either in December or May: Angela Selby, Skyler Boehm, Andee Stynchula, and John Troutman.

Left: Students pose for pics. Middle: Adam Andresen photo bombs the picture. Right: Brynna Sherony, Lindsey Gasper, and Angela Selby.

Astrophysical Research Student Studies at Baylor University in Texas

By Alicia Wadsworth ver the summer, I contributed to astrophysical research being performed at Baylor University in Waco, TX. I collected lightcurve data for asteroids, and using this data, generated several lightcurves for two asteroids, 51 Nemausa and 135 Hertha. I later submitted these data sets to the Minor Planet Center’s Lightcurve Database, an online resource for

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astronomers and astrophysicists to view asteroid lightcurve data.

This project was done as a preliminary foray into collecting raw lightcurve data for asteroids, with the researchers having the eventual goal of collecting enough data to generate a 3-dimensional model of an asteroid using only its lightcurve data. I am glad to have had the chance to become more involved in advanced scientific research, and I have gained some valuable skills and experience.

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I highly recommend the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for any other students who are interested in making a contribution to their field through research. Students who apply have the chance to work closely with faculty who are actively researching one of many areas in the sciences. The NSF even offers a grant for students who are interested in participating in an REU.

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Graduating Seniors David P. Casey Dr. Laura Miller Honors Thesis: Opportunities and Challenges of Social Media for Athletes Abigail K. Petrosky Dr. Pamela Twiss Honors Thesis: Women in Government: An Analysis of GirlGov Angela Selby Dr. Denise Joseph Honors Thesis: Investigating Ageism in Undergraduates: A Comparative Analysis of Different Academic Majors Shawn M. Shannon Dr. Marcia Hoover Honors Thesis: HEATT: The Other Side of Cross Curricular Education Megan E. Sweeney Dr. Holiday Adair Honors Thesis: The Effects of Mandatory Therapy for Counselors in Training

A Collection of Perspectives Honors Student Interviews Drs. Fox and Persinger

By Cynthia Zelmore

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he University Honors Program offers a wide variety of courses to students to enrich their college experience, and this fall semester a new honors course was offered, Topics in Arts and Humanities. Not only was this class new to the Honors Program, it was newly developed by Dr. Fox and Dr. Persinger based around their mutual research interests.

Dr. Persinger and Dr. Fox teach the class together on Wednesdays from 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM. The class features a wide range of articles and resources for the students to peruse each week. The students familiarize themselves with each article. They prepare to summarize and discuss one article in particular in depth with the other members of the class and the professors. Students also research the background of an author from the readings to provide better context for the material.

In teaching the class

together from different backgrounds, Dr. Persinger and Dr. Fox bring unique perspectives to the material. While they both enjoy discussing and debating the coursework, they arrived at their mutual interests from separate starting points. Dr. Fox is a professor who studies philosophy and comes to discuss art through his pursuit of understanding the way people evaluate the meaningfulness of things. On the other hand, Dr. Persinger is an art history professor focused on the development of art history perspectives who studied the work of art historian Meyer Schapiro for many years. Dr. Fox contacted Dr. Persinger about an article related to Meyer Schapiro and from their discussion grew a wealth of material of potential perspectives and meaningful talks of art that lead to their developing the curriculum for the class.

They hope it will leave students with, as Dr. Fox says, “an openness and awareness to different possible ways of trying Honors Program News

to come to understand art things and to bring that to your later experiences as you go on in life and college and beyond, not even just art things.” Dr. Persinger adds that she hopes students will take away a new “way of approaching things in the world”.

Their discussions are lengthy, the readings and sources are plentiful, and they mix together to create a class of content students are unlikely to find outside the Honors Program. The professors have enjoyed teaching it so far and say that they would gladly teach such a class again given the opportunity. The class had no prerequisite, the professors only asked that students to an interest in the topics and materials of the class. Students across majors and experience level signed up for the class and engage with their professors at length every week. While it is still a new course, the results look promising and perhaps as the class plays out, everyone will come away with a new perspective.

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Summer in Spain Student Has an Experience of a Lifetime Abroad

By Karina Sanchez

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his past spring semester, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad in beautiful Alicante, Spain. It is located on the southeastern coast, and from my apartment I had a view of the ocean and of mountain-top castle ruins. The city is small enough that you can get to anything you need by walking, and big enough that you never run out of new things to do and see. Over the course of my five months there, I attended classes at the University of Alicante four days a week, taught English twice a week to a group of Spanish middle school students, and took advantage of all my long weekends through travel or exploring Alicante. Adjusting to life abroad took a couple of weeks, and taking classes entirely taught

in Spanish was definitely a new experience. However, as new as everything was to me, by the time it came time to leave Alicante it felt like I was leaving home all over again.

Studying abroad offered me opportunities of a lifetime; I was able to travel to places I had only ever dreamed of one day seeing.

During my time abroad, I was able to explore new cities in Spain, as well as London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Pompeii, and even ventured to Morocco. I walked ancient streets, celebrated in the madness of the Fiestas de Carnival, sat atop the London Eye at sunset, wandered through the Parisian catacombs (at times alone) just before closing time after having stood at the top of the Eiffel tower, explored more ruins than I could count and was able to quite literally step back in time, got

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culture shock and food poisoning, visited awe-inspiring museums, cathedrals, and castles, and met so many new, amazing people that I will never forget. I hope to be able to return to Alicante, and to continue to travel as much as possible. I may even pursue a post-graduate degree from the University of Valencia in the future.

To anyone thinking about studying abroad – or going abroad for any amount of time – I say take any opportunity that comes your way, and to make the absolute most of your experiences while they last!

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PSU’s Nanotech Manufacturing PSU Offered a NMT Program to Students Over Summer

By Thomas Koenig

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uring the summer of 2015, two California University of Pennsylvania UHP students attended the 18-credit nanofabrication manufacturing technology (NMT) program offered by the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). The students offered their unique background in theoretical physics to a group-work based environment. Classes were held three hours per day each day of the week for 12 weeks. In addition to learning the theory behind manufacturing processes, the students were also exposed to state of the art machinery. Included among the numerous tools used were the scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron beam lithography (E-beam lithography), atomic force microscope (AFM), and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). These tools

Honors Field Trip

Dr. Fisanick’s Class Takes a Trip to Wheeling, WV

By Austin Owens

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n October 15-16, 2015, students from Dr. Christina Fisanick’s Honors 150 class spent time in Wheeling, West Virginia to conduct research for their digital storytelling projects. Upon arrival at the cabin at Ogelbay Park in Wheeling, WV, we prepared ourselves for a dinner sponsored

by Alpha Delta Kappa’s Iota chapter and attended by local media, a lecturer, and most importantly, prominent supervisors, managers, and experts on the historical sites

were housed in a multimillion dollar clean room, which required the students to gown in full bunny suits.

Experiments conducted involved deposition, etching, and characterization of various materials.

Half-way through the series of courses, the students were challenged to write a group paper on various topics. One student was assigned to write a fifty-page paper on gold nanowires as sensors; the other student was assigned a paper of similar length on nanoantennas and photonic crystals. After submission of their first group papers, the class quickly moved through additional content and was assigned another term paper. The requisite page length was 70 pages, assigned to be completed within three weeks.

One student was assigned to write on solar cell fabrication and took the liberty to extensively discuss solid state physics principles vital to the function of the cell.

He additionally tutored several group members in solid state physics to ensure their understanding

of processes at the atomic level.

The other student was assigned to write on fuel cell fabrication and application. The fuel cell designed was 125 cubic centimeters with enough power output to fuel a car. The student was the only member of his group with a solid background in chemistry and led his team through the oxidation-reduction chemical processes associated with fuel cell technology. He worked closely with a graduate of North Hampton Community College in designing a novel fabrication process from scratch.

Both projects were well received. The students both remark on the unique experience offered to them by the program, and how much they learned about fabrication processes and techniques. One plans to attend graduate school to earn a PhD in materials science, focusing in nanotechnology while the other intends on earning his PhD in high energy particle physics.

we were researching. After dinner Dr. Javersack, a retired history professor and Dean of Liberal Arts at West Liberty University, gave a brief but informative history of the city of Wheeling.

The next morning my partner (Jacob Rice) and I began our research in Wheeling by capturing the geography of the city on camera. Once we entered our site, Independence Hall, it became clear that there was much more to take in about Wheeling, West Virginia than we had anticipated. And we know from talking to our classmates that they found their sites equally captivating. In addition to Independence Hall, this semes-

ter’s Honors 150 students are researching and presenting digital stories about West Liberty University’s Rare Books Room, Oglebay’s Glass Museum, Oglebay’s Mansion Museum, and the Ohio County Public Library’s Archives and Special Collections. We will be back in Wheeling on December 5 from Noon to 2 pm at the Ohio County Public Library to premiere our digital stories. The event is free and open to the public.

Honors Program News

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Making the Magic

Internship with the “Happiest Place on Earth”

By Kelsey Baumgardner

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very little girl dreams of some day working at Disney world. Last semester I made that dream come true. After years of looking I finally decided to take a chance and apply for the Disney College Program. This program allows students to live and work at Disney World for up to a full year. With this program students from all across the world find themselves in Orlando working for the mouse.

For the length of my pro-

gram I worked merchandise in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When I found out where I would be working it was safe to say I was less than thrilled. It wasn’t my dream spot, but looking back on it I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It became my home and I had a family to get me through the long 14 hour shifts while still keeping my Disney smile.

While I was there I really confirmed the fact that I wanted to work for the company for the rest of my life. Spending six months in the happiest place on earth made me realize it really is just that. Every day I spent there gave me a reason

to smile. Knowing I was making a difference in a families’ vacation was truly a magical experience.

Because of the Disney College Program I now have friends all across not only the country, but the world. The program has also given me new goals in life. It helped me find myself and who I want to be. The program gave me the room I needed to grow and I now know if I make a wish and do as dreamers do, all my wishes will come true.

Right: Kelsey Baumgardner posing in front of the iconic castle at Disney World.

NCHC Fall 2015 NCHC Students Head to Chicago

By Rebecca McDonough A group of 18 honors students traveled to Chicago from November 11-15 for the 50th annual National Collegiate Honors Council conference. Opportunity carried them notably on the wind through Millennium Park, the John Hancock Center, Navy Pier, a dog park, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Students presented their research in a variety of formats, including poster sessions (Emily Dickey, Haley Bashada, Shelby Zikeli, Skyler Boehm, Leah Sead-

er, Nicole Stephens, Andee Stynchula, Abby Beatty, Adam Andresen, Rebecca McDonough, and Sami Ringel), roundtable discussions (Angela Selby, Leah Seader, and Lindsey Gasper), idea exchanges (John Troutman and Jared Sofranko), presentations (Ethan Klersy and Laura Owens), and a drama master class (Kayla Grimm).

Abby Beatty received the award for best environmental sciences poster for her research on herbicides. This is the second year

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in a row that a Cal U Honors student has won a best poster award.

As it was the 50th annual meeting, the conference concluded with an elaborate gala, termed “college prom” by its attendees.

The celebration featured a unique dinner, improv comedy show, live band, and a keynote address.

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Interview with an Alumni Success Story from Cal U Alumni

By Amelia Lipkind

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awrence Murray is a 2009 Cal U Honors graduate with a degree in Communications Studies and a focus in radio and television performance. Once he graduated, he went back home to Philadelphia and got involved with a volunteer organization called City Year which is a program that helps students and schools succeed. In California he decided to go back to school for a graduate’s degree at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in 2012. Through Annenberg, he had the privilege of traveling to Sochi for the Winter Olympics as a communications intern for the United States Olympic Committee. This was when he started

to finally get into what he had always wanted to do: Sports Journalism. As of March 2014, he graduated from Annenberg and soon after he picked up a job working for Fox Sports 1, covering basketball. Since December 2014, he has been working for the NFL Network as a researcher. While at Cal U, he learned that the Honors Program was going to push him more academically, but help him in the long run. At first, coming to Cal as a freshman, he did not intend on going into the Honors Program, but he got a well needed push from a professor and he ended up sticking with it. He admits that without the Honors Program, he probably would not have made it into grad school. He goes on to say that his most memorable moment in the Honors Program was his thesis.

He may not have been the most

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involved student when it came to excursions or conferences, but his thesis was his favorite memory of the Honors Program and something that he is very proud of. His thesis was on Hip Hop and Media over the last twenty-five years and he did attend a conference that took place here at Cal about hip hop music.

He also gave words of advice for the students here at Cal U. Relationships are everything.

Working on relationships outside of the classroom is something to focus on and develop. Feel free to get out of your comfort zone, but still have control over the situations you put yourself in. Make relationships with peers, professors, advisors, etc. because they are the ones that will help you with your goals. Grades can only carry you so far.

E-mail: honors@calu.edu Twitter: @CalUHonors