鈥淗ere I go,鈥� says a somewhat pensive Zsofia Duarte 鈥�18 as she lowers her index finger toward the track pad of her laptop.
And with a click, Duarte clears the biggest and most pressure-packed hurdle of her thesis project: the online submission of her 115-page document to the college鈥檚 searchable scholarly database known as SCARAB.
Duarte is sitting in a quiet part of Ladd library; appropriately, she鈥檚 near the 乐播传媒 history section. While she鈥檚 flying solo as she navigates the various dropdown menus of the SCARAB form, this pivotal moment is bookended by friendship and community.
“Wow. I just want to sit here and stare at it for awhile.”
Earlier, friends surrounded her for a 乐播传媒 tradition, in which first-years help seniors bind a hard copy of the thesis (hard copies aren鈥檛 always required, but seniors love the tradition). Later, she鈥檒l go to dinner with friends at a cozy Lewiston restaurant, Boba, famed for its fusion of French and Asian cooking.
She clicks the pad, the file uploads, and she’s greeted by an official-looking confirmation form. “Wow,” she says. “I just want to sit here and stare at it for awhile.”
An environmental studies major and one of the college’s Community Engaged Research Fellows, Duarte examined the local food movement as it plays out at the Lewiston’s farmers market, specifically looking at the experiences of Somali Bantu food producers.
Friends surround Zsofia Duarte ’18 after the traditional binding of her senior honors thesis.
While all 乐播传媒 seniors complete a thesis or capstone project, a select few 鈥� less than 10 percent of the class 鈥� are invited to conduct a supercharged version of thesis, the honors thesis.
An honors thesis is an academic triathlon. It鈥檚 months of research, often beginning in the junior year; months of writing and revising under the guidance of a faculty adviser; and then the submission and concluding defense, in which a committee of scholars interviews and challenges the thesis conclusions.
