CHLOE SFERRA
Staff Writer
If you were in Burton Morgan last Thursday, you probably heard the commotion from Knobel Hall. In Knobel, social sciences and humanities students who participated in the Summer Scholar Program were able to present their research to anyone interested.
The Summer Scholar Program allows students to work with a professor as they dive into any research topic of their choice. This year, 107 students participated in the program in hopes that the experience will push their scholarly abilities to the next level. Students can stay on or off-campus as they spend the summer studying and developing a thesis.
This event showcased 31 students’ projects thanks to funding from 35 funding sources. The projects varied from the impact of political friendship to the balance between science and fiction.
Maggie Gorski ‘17 proudly displayed her poster on “The Use of Patent and Botanical Medicines in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century America”.
“It was a lot of hard work, and it was a lot of figuring out how to do that hard work,” Gorski explained. “If you’re not working in the lab you’re either working in the library or your dorm. The reason I struggled is I didn’t realize how much work it would actually be.”
Gorski continued to explain her research on patent history and how rewarding her summer exploration was to her academics. The students presenting were all very eager to talk about their posters.
Rachael Barrett ‘17 and Peter Heft ‘18 gladly shared their experiences with those attending the presentation.
Barrett’s project was titled “I Could Not Help Loving a Sailor’: Maritime Families and Transatlantic Separation in Nineteenth-Century New England.” Her research was able to take her to Boston to explore archived letters from sailors and their loved ones. “It gave me another dimension to my major, which is history, and was something I haven’t done before.”
“I got to meet a lot of people and go to conferences,” Heft said as he explained his work on his project that focused on object-orientation ontology. “I studied the view that the human mind is not the most important thing and we can focus on objects in the world without human consciousness.”
Both Barrett and Heft agreed that the presentation portion became a lot easier once they got into the flow of the event.
“It’s hard to summarize a one-hundred page paper on a single poster,” Heft noted.
Barrett added that she just needed to start talking about her presentation to become excited about the exhibit.
This showcase displayed only a handful of the students that were summer scholars. Their ideas were all very unique and many talked about the passion they discovered as they completed their research. Creative writing and fine art students will be presenting their research next. That event will take place at 11:45 a.m. in the Bryant Arts Center on Sept. 22.
Photo Courtesy of Hannah Kubbins/The Denisonian