Student work showcased Wednesday
More than 500 students displayed projects at the eighth annual Student Research
and Creative Endeavors Exhibition Wednesday in the Student Activity Center.
Gail Scukanec, The College of Graduate Studies associate dean, said she was impressed
by the number and level of student projects on display.
“Each year has gotten better in terms of the variety of presentations we
have,” she said. “We’ve gotten students from all fields to participate.
It really does demonstrate the strength of our students and faculty. There is
excellent work here.”
Scukanec was also pleased with the number of attendees.
The College of Graduate Studies Assistant to the Dean Lisa Boyd was also pleased
with the exhibit.
“It’s beyond my expectations,” she said. “The students and
faculty are wonderful. There’s a lot of participation. There are a lot of
cool projects and displays. People who didn’t come missed out.”
Melinda Meyers spent two years researching the experiences of hospice patients.
“We turned the research into a transcript, and we’re trying to get it
published,” Meyers, Plainwell junior, said. “We did it for personal
growth and as a learning experience.”
Displaying her work at the exhibit will help her education, she said.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to help me as I go into grad school.
And it helps me to see what other students are doing,” Meyer said.
Since January, Luciana Shepard, Mount Pleasant senior; Lisa Driskell, Colombiaville
sophomore; Courtney Wright, Oscoda senior; Jessica Paulson, Daggett senior; Kim
Drogowski, Tecumseh sophomore; and Cara Medbury, Muskegon sophomore, have been
studying parent and student concerns surrounding study abroad.
“It’s about the concerns that students and parents have about study
abroad and how their concerns changed over time,” Paulson said. “In
the beginning, students and parents rated their concerns higher than while they
were abroad. The students overestimated the parents’ level of concern in
all areas except for food.”
They are also reviewing how study abroad students change after the experience.
“Overwhelmingly, students cited personal growth and development and a greater
understanding of other cultures,” Drogowski said. “Parents cited the
same results.”
The students enjoy displaying their work because they want to communicate their
findings, she said.
“It lets other people know the validity of their concerns and to reassure
parents that there are great outcomes in the end,” Drogowski said.
Miranda Bailey, Drummond Island senior, used about one year’s worth of research
to determine whether or not the Virgin Mary is a goddess. She studied ancient
goddesses as well as several authors as part of her research.
“I looked at ancient goddesses and the Virgin Mary and the connections between
the two,” she said. “I came to the conclusion that Mary acts as a goddess,
but the Catholic Church would never acknowledge that.”
Bailey enjoyed the opportunity to communicate her work with others.
“It’s awesome to let other people see the work I’ve been doing,”
she said. “It was important for me because I’m Catholic, and there are
certain things I don’t agree with. Mary is such as important person for women
in that religion.”
John Doonan, Detroit senior, spent six months researching four African-American
playwrights from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.
“It’s about African-American playwrights and the equal rights movement,”
he said. “I went through and gave a description of how their dreams were
deferred. I analyzed the characters in the plays and related them to the Civil
Rights Movement.”
Communicating research is also important for Doonan.
“It think it’s a very good program,” he said. “It’s a
chance for me to present what I worked on. There are a lot of people who don’t
realize what African Americans had to go through. It’s important to me because
I didn’t realize what they went through.”
Kim Brickel, Richmond junior, attended the exhibit to support friends who were
presenting.
“I was kind of shocked that undergraduates do all this stuff that is over
my head,” she said. “They’re taking initiative to do this kind
of work.”
