Two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College seniors were chosen by the Council on Undergraduate Research to present work in Washington, D.C., during the organization’s annual event, in April.

Both interdisciplinary studies majors, the students are Mariam Alam of Greenwich, Conn., and Natalie Brown of Baltimore, Md. They were among 75 undergraduates from more than 50 colleges and universities selected to take part in the council’s two-day gathering, which honors the participants’ achievements and serves to remind Congress of the importance of funding for undergraduate research.

Alam, whose major focuses on public health, presented research conducted with Maine’s Somali immigrant community that tested the effectiveness of pictograms for conveying medical information to non-English speakers.

Majoring in the politics of education, Brown presented work that examines the best methods for creating equal access to quality education, with an emphasis on fostering voice and political agency in students. (For abstracts of the students’ work, do a browser search on their names here.)

More than 300 students submitted abstracts of their work for consideration by the CUR. “It’s rare enough for a college to get one student selected in a year,” said Pamela Baker, professor of biology and director of faculty research and scholarship at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. “To get two is extraordinary.”

One other Maine institution, the University of New England, was represented at the gathering.

The Posters on the Hill program included a poster session and meetings with members of Congress or their staff. Both students praised the evening poster session, which gave them a chance to explain their research in depth.

“I got the chance to speak with someone from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is relevant to my research, as well as a cartographer who had great insight on the perception of imagery and a representative from the Association of American Colleges and Universities,” Alam says.

She adds, “It was exciting to see what undergraduates at other schools have been researching and to talk to them about the research process.”

Brown agrees. “I had people chatting with me for half an hour about my topic and how it related to what they were doing at their jobs.”

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students met with congressional staff from both Maine and their home states, and Brown also met face-to-face with Maine congressman Michael Michaud.

CUR’s ultimate goal for the gathering is to show the flag for undergraduate research as Congress makes funding decisions.

“It’s important that students meet with the senators and reps,” Brown says, “because they’ll get to see what the next generation is thinking about and looking at, and why.”

The Council on Undergraduate Research, founded in 1978, is a national organization supporting and promoting high-quality research and scholarship collaborations between faculty and undergraduates. The council is a grassroots organization, funded by dues paid by colleges and comprehensive universities.

A consortium of Maine schools has honored a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College student from Virginia and a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ anthropology professor for their commitment to civic engagement.

The Maine Campus Compact, a statewide coalition of 18 colleges and universities, honored the pair in an April 7 ceremony at the Maine State House.

Sarah Davis, a senior from Great Falls, Va., was one of four students at Maine schools to receive the MCC’s Heart and Soul Award. During her time at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, she has led or taken part in programs that help integrate new immigrants and refugees into the Lewiston-Auburn community.

Elizabeth Eames, associate professor of anthropology, was one of three faculty members teaching in Maine to be honored with the Donald Harward Award for Faculty Service-Learning Excellence. The award salutes faculty who integrate community or public service into the curriculum and who work to institutionalize service-learning.

Among other endeavors, Eames has initiated research projects designed to lower the barriers that keep new immigrants from full participation in the local economy. For example, she led students to study , who are bound by their religion not to pay or benefit from interest payments.

Tapping the fields of sociology, anthropology and politics, Davis designed her own major at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, exploring how difference and inequality affect the advancement of social justice.

She espouses a deep interest “in connecting people who might initially see themselves as very different and allowing them to recognize that they’re not actually so different,” she explains, “and to realize that they can still build relationships and conduct really incredible initiatives.”

Davis was a coordinator for the in 2008, and is now president of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Immigrant Rights Advocates, a student group.

Her own project, the Refugee Volunteer Program, works through the Lewiston/Auburn Time Bank to enable ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and immigrants, many of them from Somalia, to exchange services on an hour-per-hour basis. For instance, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students might help immigrants with English-language needs or homework. The immigrants, in return, offer cultural programs at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

In the past two years Davis has recruited 33 students and 12 refugee families to the Time Bank, and matched them all with cross-cultural volunteer partners for service exchange.

“Sarah embraces all the qualities we look for in Heart and Soul Award recipients,” says Liz McCabe Park, executive director of Maine Campus Compact. The other recipients of the award are Rachel O’Brien of Unity College, Elaine Tsai of Bowdoin College and Christina Young of Southern Maine Community College.

What appeals to Davis about community involvement is the wealth of ideas and real-world perspectives that a diverse group of people can bring to an issue. “There’s tons of knowledge and wisdom that you can really only discover from actual hands-on experience and engaging with people,” she says.

Eames has been a robust and imaginative advocate for service-learning at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. In 2008, “Production and Reproduction” produced a that expanded and augmented a Maine Department of Labor report on Somali employment. In the 2009, the course worked with Androscoggin Bank and Somali immigrants to explore the requisites of Islamic banking practices.

Eames’ students have presented their results in such formal settings as bank meeting rooms and the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce. “What I love,” says Eames, “is that, at such moments, my theoretical and geographically remote readings on alternate moral philosophies spring to life!”

Maine Campus Compact aims to lead the way in reinvigorating the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. Its participating institutions seek to transform their campuses so as to develop better-informed and proactive citizens, stronger communities and a more just democratic society.

The Donald Harward Award for Faculty Service-Learning Excellence recognizes faculty who integrate community or public service into the curriculum and who work to institutionalize service-learning. The award is named for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Emeritus Donald W. Harward, a valued founder of Maine Campus Compact and former board member of national and Maine Campus Compacts.

This year’s other Harward recipients are Craig McKewen of Bowdoin College and Lorrayne Carroll of the University of Southern Maine.