URSP Student Christina Mathews Researches if the Efforts of Humanitarian NGO's in the Dominican Republic are Wasted

     For the past three summers I have had the opportunity to go on ten day service trips to the Dominican Republic near the border of Haiti. During these trips, I interacted with several humanitarian NGOs who were working to eliminate human rights violations. Their main strategy for achieving this goal was to work on improving negative attitudes and removing ethnic hatred of Dominicans towards Haitian immigrants. I remember one NGO trying to persuade a school to allow the children of Haitian immigrants to enroll by promoting the idea of racial equality to its teachers. Yet, as the NGO quickly realized, at the core of this issue was not racial discrimination, but rather the fact that these children of Haitian decent did not have Dominican citizenship, and thus could not officially be enrolled in the school. 

      This experience influenced me to question NGOs’ lack of attention to and monitoring of the Dominican government. While I believe it is important for NGOs to foster better relationships between Dominicans and Haitians, I am researching whether or not they would be more effective at eliminating discrimination and bringing humanitarian aid if they put a much higher priority and focus upon interacting with the government. This research project resonates with my future goal to work with humanitarian NGOs in Latin America to improve human rights conditions and empower marginalized groups. Seeking an answer to a research question is similar to building a jigsaw puzzle. This semester I have spent countless hours reading through books, articles, and NGO reports as I work to collect the “pieces” to my puzzle. 

      Recently, I found an article with potential- perhaps even a central piece to my puzzle! The article accuses American NGOs of perpetuating rights violations in the Dominican Republic by failing to monitor the allocation of money and other resources they have given to the government. While I have yet to find and assemble the rest of the pieces, I am hopeful that the finished product will contribute to the peace building capacity of the local NGOs.

URSP Student Brandon Moore-McNew and A Green Satchel

     Have you ever had a lot of different things suddenly come together at once? That’s how I got interested in this project! I was working with military folklore and war poetry both to spark essays for classes and to better understand my own experiences as a soldier. I learned there’s still a lot of work to be done in providing people with a more comprehensive view of military life. As someone who carries a lot of labels, including “poet” and “veteran,” I felt obligated (and excited!) to contribute to that work.

     Ultimately, I want to put my art in the service of others. My goal is to teach creative writing to help people engage difficult experiences and gain creative control over such events. In the meantime, for this project, I’m just immersing myself in my field and seeing how my own work relates to what’s already out there. My faculty advisor and I communicate frequently through a wiki, which we also use to share resources. We meet in person regularly, too. Mostly, though, I’m reading poetry and books about poetry, analyzing them, writing imitations, and honing my own ability to articulate what I need to articulate in the thesis.

     Sometimes, that research turns up really surprising stuff. This week, I learned that medieval romances and their adaptations shaped the literature surrounding World War I in ways I’d never expected. For instance, in British writing, you can find poems, plays, and prose accounts all revolving around the scene of soldiers bathing. Different writers at different points in the war used this theme in various ways: to show the innocence of youth, to contrast freedom and discipline, to emphasize the fondness of officers for their men and vice versa, to show the vulnerability of naked flesh to shrapnel, are all examples.

URSP Student Kathryn Leonelli Examines Present-day Beliefs Surrounding Differing Styles of Leadership

     As my undergraduate career nears completion this May, I can easily reflect on what I’ve learned as a Communication major over the past four years. In my classes, we analyze the way that society interacts in small group, intercultural, and organizational settings. In the Spring semester of my sophomore year, the professor of my Organizational Communication class assigned us a research paper where we examine a current trend or topic that is occurring in organizations across the world. Around this time, Marissa Mayer was appointed as Yahoo CEO and was receiving negative publicity from the media because she was a woman who was about to go on maternity leave due to her pregnancy. However, she proved everyone who doubted her ability to balance an executive role and her maternal responsibilities wrong when she turned Yahoo’s third quarter earnings completely around. She transformed Yahoo, notably a “sinking ship,” back into the profitable company it once was. I focused my research paper on the rising number of women in leadership and board positions, using Marissa Mayer as an example, which I felt evidenced a cultural evolution that would continue to show an increase of women into managerial roles. 

    My professor raved about my paper to the entire Communication Department and suggested that I apply for the Honors Research Program and continue to study this phenomenon. With her guidance, I drafted my research proposal and decided to study the attitudes and expectations of recent graduates about to enter the workforce on working for a female boss. I was accepted into the Honors Research Program and hope that having research experience will support my long-term goal of getting into a competitive grad school. In addition to graduating with honors, I will be able to identify if the cultural shift of women into leadership roles is welcomed or admonished by prospective employees that represent the future of the workplace.

     Every week, I meet with my faculty sponsor and we discuss different ways that I can accomplish this study. I have been working on revising some parts of my proposal to give it a richer dimension and refine my methodology and procedure. In addition, every week I continue to edit my survey that will be used. This week, I have discovered that my study will now include my hypothesis about leadership styles, and three research questions that explore gender bias, the combination of variables and their impact on perception, and the correspondence between what subjects say they believe and how they actually respond. While there are many studies done about gender and leadership in organizational contexts, my study focuses exclusively on the attitudes of young millenials that are about to enter the work force. Hopefully my research will show a progressive societal change in organizational settings.

URSP Student Kevin Kruczek Researches Religion, Explanation and the New Interdisciplinary

     My interest in my current project peaked during my seminar class last semester. In that class I was able to read a vast variety of literature in my own field of religious studies on topics ranging from method, approach, defining the subject matter, and pedagogy (which are all intrinsically related). During the class I discovered that I disagreed with nearly all of the contemporary scholarship on these subjects and I even wrote a paper voicing my position for the class. My professor then approached me and informed me that she was working on a project that dealt similarly with some of the critiques I had made. This project relates to my long term goals in more of an indirect way. As a Christian, it is often the case that my scholarship is viewed as biased or even anti-intellectual, however, I do intend to pursue graduate work so that I am more equipped to offer critical analysis of the field of religious studies and suggest a better model. But my graduate studies will be more in Biblical studies and philosophy than in religious studies in particular. 

     My week to week work has been consistent in that I spend the large majority of my time reading. I have read several articles written by philosophers of science on method, logic, the purpose of science. I am currently reading John Calvin’s Institutes on the Christian Religion and Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth (about 1700 pages altogether). One thing I have discovered this week is that it is far better to ask questions than to offer answers.

URSP Student Katie McDonald Researches Design and Fabrication of Ultrasound Probe Stabilization Cuff for Upper Extremity Prosthetic Control Research

      I have always been very interested in prosthetics and prosthetic design. The project that I am currently working on is to advance the sensing- and control-strategies used in upper extremity prosthetics, my means of ultrasound imaging. We are hoping to minimize the inefficiencies brought about by EMG movement recognition, which is currently the most widely used sensing strategy for prosthetics. After graduating, I would love to contribute to the efforts of making prosthetics more financially accessible to those in need as they are extremely expensive, and, in most cases, patients need more than one device to serve different needs. 

     Most days when my team meets at the lab, we first go over what we’re hoping to accomplish together for that day. Since we all have different schedules, we usually can only work together for a few hours at a time throughout the week, trying to be as efficient as possible. Currently, we are in a heavy data collection cycle. My teammates are refining the computer algorithms in order to have the most accurate data processing, while my main objective has been to collect as much data as possible. In order to have consistent data from each subject, the ultrasound probe needs to be in the exact same location of the forearm, and have little to no external movement or shifting from the desired location.

     Earlier in the semester, I designed and fabricated a cuff in hopes to stabilize the probe, reduce the noise generated by movement and vibration before the cuff was used, and to position the probe in a consistent location with slight adjusting between subjects. I am currently collecting the data necessary to test the efficacy of the probe, and hope to have some quantitative data by the end of the semester!