Spring Hill College

Spring Hill College

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

SHCURS Award Winners!

Everyone did such a great job presenting today. The judges and attendees were impressed with the projects and your ability to present professionally. Congratulations to Excellence in Presentation award winners: Caitlin Teahan, Chelsea Dore, and Lauren Brunson. Congratulations to Honorable Mentions: Jay Hay and Jesus Iglesias!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Participants and Project Titles



PRESS RELEASE:
Spring Hill College Undergraduate Research Symposium (SHCURS)

Over 50 students, across several disciplines, will be presenting 23 projects during the Spring Hill College Undergraduate Research Symposium (SHCURS). The SHCURS provides students with the opportunity to present their research, internship and classroom projects to a larger audience. The symposium also provides a space for students, faculty, and the community to examine the connection between research and education. Student attendees who are not yet involved in research will discover that attending the symposium is a great way to learn about the broad range of opportunities available at the Spring Hill College. Attendees are welcome to stop by the Gautrelet Room any time between the hours of 3:45-4:45pm on April 13, 2011. The event is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The Friends of the Library will sponsor two Honors Convocation Research Awards for student projects of exceptional quality: 1) Special Collections - $250: Awarded to research that demonstrates substantive utilization of the Burke Memorial Library’s special collections including Archives and federal depository materials, and 2) Print & Digital Collections - $250:
Awarded to research that demonstrates substantive utilization of the Burke Memorial Library’s print or digital collections.

In addition to the Friends of the Library Awards, there will be two Excellence in Presentation awards sponsored by Workshops Etc!, Inc. 

During the time of the SHCURS, the art students, Studio Art Seniors and Graphic Design Seniors, have senior exhibitions up in the Fine Arts building. Studio exhibits are in the Eichold Gallery and Graphic Design exhibits will be in the Bedsole Gallery off the front entrance hall. Upstairs in the Mini Rotunda Gallery we will have part of the Chapel Exhibition up. The exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of St. Joseph’s Chapel. Painting, prints, photographs, drawings and sculpture are represented in the exhibit.

For more information, please contact Jamie Franco-Zamudio at jfrancozamudio@shc.edu or Gentry Holbert at gholbert@shc.edu.



Event coordinators, Jamie Franco-Zamudio and Gentry Holbert, would like to thank the following individuals for donating their time and expertise in order to make this event possible: George Sims, Ramona Hill, Bret Heim, Stuart Babington, Sara Boccardo, Sharee Broussard, Amanda Collins, Don Culberson, Elizabeth Dexter-Wilson, Linda Grizzle, Lisa Hager, Matt Johnson, Terren Mathers, Murry Mutchnik, Tracey Parman, Margarita Perez, Michael Piafsky, Carolyn Simmons, Royce Simpson, Meg Smith, Tracey Parman, Richard Weaver, Rachel Cedeck, Gwen Brightbill, Emily Healy, Abby Berger, and Kat Jakubak. Special thanks to the Psychology Department and the Office of Student Affairs.



SHCURS Participants

Kathleen Harmon and Kimberly Nichols
Internship/Practicum Review
Title: Resilience Studies and Recovery
Advisor: Dr. Litwiller

This project explores "Resilience Studies" in relation to the Gulf Coast recovery efforts after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In particular, we examine the ways in which communities react to disaster. While some communities are more corrosive, others may be more therapeutic. We explore how different recovery efforts fit into the models of therapeutic and corrosive communities, using Project Rebound as an example of a way to assist more corrosive communities and the oyster reef build as a therapeutic recovery effort. By taking a closer look at some of the recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast in light of "Resilience Studies," we can begin to gain insight into the best ways to respond to disaster. 

Emily Landrieu, Kameron Paige Malone, and Jasmine Williams
Film/Video/Graphic
Title: The Badger Beat
Advisor: Dr. Kotchemidova

Caitlin Teahan
Seminar paper
Title: “Ready for Rugby!”: A Public Relations Event for the Mobile Area Rugby Foundation
Advisor: Dr. Kotchemidova

Since the late 90s a number of camps and after-school programs for at-risk youth are beginning to center around sports as their medium of betterment. A one-day event, ‘Ready for Rugby!’ was created to promote the benefits associated with youth sports. The success rates of programs such as Harlem RBI and Tenacity are increasing and served as condensed models for the Mobile Area Rugby Foundation’s ‘Ready for Rugby!’ event. The event took place at Spring Hill College in conjunction with the at-risk youth members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama on February 5th, 2011. The Mobile Area Rugby Foundation aimed to increase the children’s interest in a new sport that would provide them with physical, sociological and psychological benefits. Studies show that sports make up the largest group of after school activities available for youth. It has been reported that organized sports have become a gateway to academic achievement and increase chances of attending college. Youth that participate in organized sports are less likely to drop out of school and connect with their peers (Rosewater, 2009). After the event, two of the three clubs that attended implemented a rugby program per the children’s request. Multiple forms of local media and outlets related to Spring Hill College covered the event. Not only do programs and condensed versions of programs into event form similar to ‘Ready for Rugby!’ pave the way for new sports, in this case rugby, but research also argues the monumental and shared benefits of successful sports programs for at-risk youth. The evaluation of such an event took place through the measurement of: participant response, media coverage and written contact between the two non-profit organizations involved.

Summer Patton, John Trinh, Alina Richardson, Caressa Ely, and Brannan Griffin

Research Poster
Title: Spring Hill College Students Attitudes Towards GLB Individuals
Advisor: Dr. Hager

Lauren Brunson and Chelsea Dore
Research Poster
Title: Human Preferences for Symmetry in Human Faces, Tribal Art, and Abstract Art
Advisor: Dr. Hager
Our study was conducted for three purposes. First, we wanted to determine if humans can detect symmetry in the realm of abstract and tribal art and in faces. Second, we also wanted to establish if symmetrical images are preferred over asymmetrical images. Lastly, we wanted to determine if females showed a greater preference for symmetry than males. The different participants were shown a slide show of faces or of abstract and tribal art. All of the images shown in both groups had the original image and its symmetrical counterpart created by the researchers. There were 45 participants some students from Spring Hill College and others from the community, in our study. The participants’ preferences for symmetry were determined using a proportion of symmetry variable which resulted in a score that indicated their preference for symmetry in decimal form. A raw score of how many symmetrical images participants chose in each trial was tallied and then divided by 10 (number of trials) resulting in a percentage score. We named this percentage score the proportion of symmetry variable. Our results only confirmed one of our hypotheses: there was a significant difference in the experimental group participants were placed in, F= (1,45)= 4.61, p=.038. The importance of this study was to determine how much of a role symmetry plays in people’s preferences and to determine if symmetry can be detected in other aspects of life besides human faces, such as art.


Justin Phares
Research Poster
Title: The Effects of Exercise on Self-Esteem and Body Image
Advisor: Dr. Hager

Objective: To test the effects of exercise on self-esteem and body image, while utilizing verbal reinforcement. Method: Women (N=60, 19-23 years) were surveyed at scheduled times. They were surveyed using a Student Esteem Survey and the BDDE-SR. The bottom one-third of this group was contacted and placed into either an experimental group, which would receive verbal reinforcement during training, or a control group. The women were then given exercise therapy for eight sessions. After every other session, each woman would complete the PDSQ-S. At the end of the study the females were then retested using the BDDE-SR. Result: A significant interaction was detected between the results of the BDDE-SR between the Verbal Reinforcement group and the control group. There was also an interaction detected for the results of the BDDE-SR for all participants regardless of group. There was a main effect seen for the individuals on the PDSQ across participants. Conclusions: This study shows verbal reinforcement benefits during exercise for individuals seen to have low self-esteem and negative body image. It was also seen that exercise alone was found to increase self-esteem and body image regardless of verbal reinforcement or control. However, there was no significance between the groups for the within, only pre- and post-test differences.

Research Poster
Title: Freshman Experience
Advisor: Dr. Franco-Zamudio



Education is one key factor for determining future employment success (Jencks, 1979; Robinson, 1994); therefore, there are consequences for students leaving college before degree completion (Tinto, 1993). The first year of college is an important year for students socialization and integration (Tinto, 1993). At present, 35% of college freshman in the United States leave college before entering their sophomore year (Marklein, 2011). While there is no simple explanation for college attrition (Sostek, 2008; Tinto, 1993), college-wide systems, policies, and programs can impact student success and subsequent persistence to degree completion (Venezia & Kirst, 2005).
In order to assess student perceptions of one Spring Hill College (SHC) program, Freshman Seminar, and overall satisfaction with the freshman experience, the Freshman Experience project was developed. The overall goal of the project is to gain a better understanding regarding how freshman at SHC experience the transition to college and whether freshman perceive that SHC is providing them with a satisfactory experience. Based on previous research, it is expected that the freshman who are more satisfied with SHC and most integrated into the college campus, will persist to degree completion at higher rates than their counterparts.

Haley Higgins and Teagan Tonsmeire
Research Poster
Title: The Impact of Eyewitness Evidence on Juror Decisions
Advisor: Dr. Hager

Steve Edwards
Research Poster
Title: What Went Wrong: Slow Katrina Response
Advisor: Dr. Litwiller

My research project examines the factors that led to the late help response to Hurricane Katrina victims. I explore the response of local and state government who were overwhelmed with the devastation of Katrina. I also analyze the FEMA organization because they were under new leadership and had a delay in moving in and helping the Katrina victims. Finally, I explore the process of making it possible for places to receive help and how long and frustrating it can be for some government officials, governors, mayors, and other people as well.

Wendi Williford
Research Poster
Title: Examining the Stigma of Mental Illness: High Prevalence Illness Versus Low Prevalence Illness
Advisor: Dr. Hager

Jessica Rae Logan and Tori Fleming
Research Poster
Title: Lost in the Storm of the Media: Race, Poverty, Media Coverage and Disaster Response on the Gulf Coast.

Advisor: Dr. Litwiller
Our project explores how the social factors of race and poverty have affected the media’s coverage of natural disasters on the Gulf Coast, with a primary focus on coverage of the 1906 Hurricane, Hurricane Frederic and Hurricane Katrina.  Exploring the disaster preparation and recovery efforts in communities where race and poverty dominate social struggles, we draw conclusions about how the media’s mishandling of the coverage in these areas has negatively affected disaster efforts.

Emma Pitchford and Stephen Heacock
Research Poster
Title: The Relationship Between Personality, Arousal, and Testing Environment
Advisor: Dr. Hager

The topic of the research that was conducted was to look at the relationship between personality, arousal, and testing environment.  The personality factor that was being tested was extraversion.  Extraversion is considered to be the ability in which an individual interacts within society.  We looked at the effects of background noise on testing performance and arousal of extraverts and introverts when they were completing comprehension tests.  Extraverts tend to be more involved in the social scene while introverts are more concerned with reflection and thought.  Introverts and extraverts were chosen for this study by administering the Big Five Inventory to 53 participants.  The 53 participants were recruited from a variety of psychology classes and organization on the Spring Hill College campus.  After scoring the Big Five Inventories the researchers narrowed down the participant pool to 26.  These 26 individuals ranged on the extremes of introversion and extraversion.  After selecting the 26 individuals they were asked to complete a second session in which they would take two reading comprehension test.  These tests were conducted in the psychology laboratory on the Spring Hill College campus.  This session took no longer than 40 minutes.  During this session the individuals completed two comprehension test, one test taken the silent condition and one test taken in the background noise condition.  Background noise was compiled using the 1000 Sound Effects Soundtrack.  During these sessions blood pressure and pulse rate were monitored every two minutes.  This allowed the researchers to collect the readings and analyze the data to see if there were significant arousal variations.  Our results concluded that extravert performance was not better when they were tested in the background noise condition.  We also concluded that introverts became more aroused in the background noise condition when compared to extraverts and they also performed better than the extraverts in both the noise and silent conditions.   

Research Poster
Title: Gender and Emotion
Advisor: Dr. Franco-Zamudio

According to several emotions scholars, societies contain emotion cultures, which include beliefs about gender and emotion (Cancian, 1987; Gordon, 1992; Thoits, 1989). Part of U.S. emotion culture is the long-standing and widely held belief that women are both more emotional and more emotionally expressive than men (Thoits, 1989). In fact, research has revealed that women are more emotionally expressive than men, but men and women might not differ in terms of experienced emotion (Kring & Gordon, 1998).
Our emotion culture also includes beliefs about the frequencies and distributions of specific affective experiences and behaviors among men and women. Women are believed to feel and express sadness more frequently than men, whereas men are believed to feel and express anger more frequently than women (Hochschild, 1981 in Simon & Nath, 2004). Beliefs about men’s and women’s subjective feelings and expressive behavior are evident in everyday social life as well as in popular culture—including self-help and advice books, literature, music, television, and film.

Research Poster
Title: Gender and Leadership: Perceptions of Assertive Leaders
Advisor: Dr. Franco-Zamudio



For centuries, philosophers and theorists have been attempting to understand and suggest ideal concepts of leadership (Sorenson & Goethals, 2004).  Today, a great deal of research is dedicated to determining which types of leaders and leadership styles garner the greatest results (Cawelti, 1987; Chemers, 2000; Goleman, 2000).
Approximately two-thirds of employees report difficulties working with leadership within their organization (Hogan & Kaiser 2005). This can be related to fact that some leaders lack the capabilities to communicate with their staff members effectively. Leadership may vary, both in gender and in stylistic approaches, such as assertiveness.
The current study examines whether ratings of men and women leaders differ depending upon their perceived level of assertiveness. The study consisted of a questionnaire that asked Spring Hill College students to report their reaction to four different videos: female assertive leader, a female non-assertive leader, a male assertive leader, and a male non-assertive leader.

Rachel Vidrine and Ashley Derenbecker
Research Poster
Title: Academic Turning Points: Examining the Effect of Peer Support on Retention
Advisor: Dr. Franco-Zamudio

Undergraduates often experience significant highs, lows, and turning points throughout their time in college (Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 2005; McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001). The characteristics of these influential moments can have an impact on academic retention. Academic peers play a part in the construal of highs, lows, and turning points and the subsequent actions taken in response to them (Callahan, 2008; Franco-Zamudio, 2009). This study examines the effect of peer support on undergraduate students’ commitment to persisting to degree completion. Of particular interest is whether students turn to peers during academic lows and turning points and whether peer support affects retention. 

Chalisse Peltier and Christian Franco
Research Poster
Title: Embracing the Mission: The Impact of Collective Identification on Academic Retention
Advisor: Dr. Franco-Zamudio

The centrality and salience of specific collective identities can have an impact on behavioral involvement and commitment to the context relevant to those identities (Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). For example, identification with context-relevant identities (e.g., academic), better predicts academic performance, motivation, and retention than identification with sociodemographic identities (Eccles & Barber, 1999; Franco-Zamudio, 2009; Osborne & Walker, 2006). 

The current study examines whether students draw upon specific aspects of their college identity, in this case a southern, Jesuit college’s mission, during the development of their academic identity. Of particular interest is whether the college’s mission to “take the time and make the effort to teach and act with justice, with care and in the service of others” and  “through informed dialogue with the world's cultures, religions and peoples, we promote solidarity with the entire human family” are is central to students’ academic identity. More specifically, we examine whether identification with the college’s mission contributes to feelings of belonging on campus and in turn facilitates engagement (i.e., academic retention). 

Matthew Malus
Research Poster
Triple Label Fluorescence Localization of GAP-43 In Vivo Following Peripheral Nerve Crush in Transgenic Mice
Advisor: David Dean

Alexandra Michelle Golik and Melanie Johnson
Research Poster
Cancer & Nutrition
Advisor: Terren Mathers
Division of Nursing

The purpose of this project is to inform the audience about the effects nutrition has on preventing complications and the changes needed after the diagnosis of cancer. Nutrition is vital in health management, especially in the prevention of cancer with antioxidants. The effects of cancer also cause the patient to change their diet to fit the body’s needs in fighting the disease, and to supplement certain treatments used to battle the cancer.  This presentation explains the disease of cancer and its categories.  It explains the causes, symptoms, and side effects that affect what a person diagnosed with cancer may eat. The goal of changing one’s nutrition, once diagnosed, is to provide the body with the right nutrition to fight the disease. It is also important to be aware of drug and nutrition interactions, for some nutrients may improve or counteract the effects of a drug a patient may be taking.

Rachael Buzbee, Kylie Casey, Meredith Bodet, and Mary Margaret Schmidt
Research Poster
Cardiac Risk Diet
Advisor: Terren Mathers
Division of Nursing

The purpose of this project is to explore the proper diet for “Cardiac Risk” clients. The research includes background information on the cardiovascular system and the nutritional aspects of care.  An explanation provides information about the healthy intake of nutrients including red meat, fiber, fruits, and nuts, as well as a description of foods that are limited, such as fats, dairy products, and high sodium foods.  Cultural and psychological factors of placing a client on a very restricted, low sodium and low fat diet are also identified.  These factors include culture based foods and traditions, and psychological factors such as acquired tastes/preferences and foods that act as mood stabilizers for clients.  Awareness of these dietary changes can enhance the life of a patient.

Lindsay Sherrin
Art Graphic
One Pixel at a Time
Advisor: Janden Richards

Alina Richardson
Research Poster
Camp Changes Lives: The Effects of Summer Programs on Adolescent Development
Advisor: Jamie Franco-Zamudio


James (“J”) D. Hay, IV
Seminar Project/ Internship Practicum Review
“Boys will be Boys?” Facing the Reality of School Bullying
Acting advisor: Jamie Franco-Zamudio


Beth Burgert
Seminar Paper
Title: The Affects Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons have on Crassostrea Virginica
Advisor: Charles Chester



Friday, February 11, 2011

Friends of Spring Hill College Library Undergraduate Research Awards

Friends of Spring Hill College Library Undergraduate Research Awards
     
Special Collections - $250
Awarded to research that demonstrates substantive utilization of the Burke Memorial Library’s special collections including Archives and federal depository materials.

Print & Digital Collections - $250
Awarded to research that demonstrates substantive utilization of the Burke Memorial Library’s print or digital collections.

Applications will be available soon. 

SHC Symposium will be held during National Undergraduate Research Week

http://tinyurl.com/4ztx8vu