At 乐播传媒, student researchers are empowered to ask and answer big questions across numerous fields of study. They tackle everything from human biology and marine ecology, to literature reviews of legal movements and the politics of memory, to media analysis of film, literature, and television.

On April 10, more than 200 of these student researchers presented their work to the 乐播传媒 community and their family and friends during the annual Mount David Summit in Pettengill Hall. 

鈥淢ount David is not just a harbinger of spring and the nearing conclusion of the winter semester, though it is those things,鈥� 乐播传媒 President Garry W. Jenkins said during the day鈥檚 opening remarks. 鈥淚t’s also a chance for our community to come together to celebrate the academic heart of our mission. And it’s an extraordinary opportunity for 乐播传媒 students to show off their research, their brilliant and insightful analysis, and their dazzling creativity.鈥�

In between attending student-led talks and panels, attendees weaved through rows of posters on display in Pettengill鈥檚 Perry Atrium. The room was buzzing with questions, and students were eager to answer, discussing their research methods, their main takeaways, and why they were motivated to pursue their projects.

Most of the student researchers were presenting their senior thesis work, representing the culmination of their 乐播传媒 academic careers. Mount David Summit is a day to celebrate student achievement and the people who supported the students along the way, said Joanne Roberts, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

鈥淚t takes a village to bring an idea from its first spark through its final expression, and we owe a huge thank you to everyone involved, from our committed faculty, to our stellar academic staff, and our invaluable research librarians,鈥� Roberts said.

Learn more about a few of the 200-plus student projects from across disciplines:

STEM

Biology major Zoe Ash 鈥�26 of New York City presented a poster on bottle-nose dolphins鈥� social behavior as it corresponds to how often they do or don鈥檛 follow boats. She conducted research while studying abroad in Croatia, where a day in the lab looked like spending hours on a boat sailing over the Adriatic Sea, snapping photos of dolphins.

鈥淢y favorite discovery from this project was that we see higher social associations in dolphins that follow boats less frequently than we do in dolphins that follow boats more frequently or not at all. 鈥� It tells you that discreet communities are forming,鈥� Ash said.

Also presenting a poster was Enathe Muhawenimana 鈥�26 of Rusizi, Rwanda, a double major in biology and French and Francophone studies, whose project investigated why skin infections are often more severe in patients with diabetes. Her research determined that high glucose level in a diabetic patient was correlated with a higher severity of skin infection. She hopes that her work could be used to advance antibiotic or other therapeutic treatment for diabetes patients.

鈥淟earning about this is so rewarding to me, but it can help people out there as well,鈥� Muhawenimana said.

During an afternoon presentation by members of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships’ Community-Engaged Research Fellowship Program, seven students shared their senior thesis projects. Mathematics major Hope Stafford 鈥�26 of Mountain View, Calif., shared her research on flooding patterns in Providence, R.I. Using a community flood-reporting app called MyCoast, Stafford discovered that floods were likely caused not only by rainfall but also by infrastructure varying across the city.

鈥淭he reason I was using this [app] is to emphasize community voice,鈥� Stafford said. 鈥淲e really want to focus on floods that community members are pointing out.鈥�

During that same panel, neuroscience major Ariya Tayal 鈥�26 of Pittsburgh, Penn., shared her research on how women who are experiencing homelessness access reproductive health resources, a project inspired by Tayal鈥檚 experience working as an emergency room technician and noticing that many women she had met through volunteering in the Lewiston-Auburn community were coming to the ER to access primary care.

鈥淭hat’s such a sad thing to see in our healthcare system,鈥� Tayal said. 鈥淧eople should not be finding out if they鈥檙e pregnant or not at the ER. That’s not appropriate.鈥� 

For her research, Tayal interviewed 19 local women experiencing homelessness and distributed disposable cameras among them for a research method called photovoice, during which participants document their lived experiences and narratives by taking photographs.

In a panel on STEM research, James Hillers 鈥�26 of De Witt, N.Y., presented his research, entitled 鈥淎gent-Based Modeling of Sponge and Algae Endosymbioses.鈥� Looking closely at the relationship between sponge and algae, Hillers used simulations to determine that even though these two symbionts are 鈥渃omparatively unfit,鈥� they thrive together. 

鈥淚 really like making the visualizations,鈥� Hillers said. 鈥淲henever you’re doing computational work, you produce a lot of data, and it’s kind of a pain to do individual visualization. So getting to create robust scripts that can take a ton of data and visualize it into super nice experimental stuff is super fun.鈥�

In the same panel, Gemma DeCarolis 鈥�26 of Santa Monica, Calif., presented research drawn from her summer internship at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla. The 2024 hurricane season resulted in significant vegetation loss, and DeCarolis studied the impact on sea turtle nesting.

鈥淚 was able to take nesting data, disorientation data, and aerial imagery from Sarasota County GIS,鈥� DeCarolis said. 鈥淎fter I’d done all of this quantification and worked with the data, I did statistical analysis in R, using generalized linear models and beta regressions.鈥� She hopes to continue parts of this research as she moves forward with her studies. 

Social Sciences

Economics major Willa Laski 鈥�26 of Bellevue, Idaho, presented a poster on her senior thesis research investigating the relationship between the reintroduction of the gray wolf to the western U.S. and the livestock ranching industry in that region. Laski鈥檚 research found that lethal control of wolf populations did not have a statistically significant effect on livestock depredation 鈥� meaning that controlling wolf populations with lethal measures did not meaningfully impact, positively or negatively, livestock populations.

During a panel called 鈥淲hat鈥檚 Law Got To Do With It?鈥� three senior politics students shared thesis research that explored the law and legal questions. Their presentations covered centuries of U.S. court precedent and legal writing 鈥� from research by Matthew Peeler of New York City exploring intricacies of legal language dating as far back as the 1700s, to research by Sammy Freeman of Dallas exploring how religious exercise arguments from a Jewish standpoint could be used to advocate for abortion access, to a literature review by Reese Hillman of Wayne, Penn., investigating division in the conservative legal movement during President Donald J. Trump鈥檚 second term in office.

鈥淢y thesis comes out of my desire to make sense of some of Donald Trump’s more puzzling legal actions this year,鈥� Hillman said. 

And as psychology major and community-engaged research fellow Katie Heumann 鈥�26 of Ann Arbor, Mich., shared during the Harward Center鈥檚 presentation, civic engagement can begin long before adulthood. Heumann researched how students experience civic engagement in elementary school classrooms in Lewiston through collective participation and norms like classroom jobs, development of individual agency, and socialization.

鈥淎 lot of these classrooms really fostered pro- social behaviors,鈥� Heumann said. 鈥淭hese were things like respect and kindness, but more importantly, inclusivity. Being a friend to all, celebrating one another, being inclusive, being friends to boys and girls were some of the key things that students talked about.

Arts and Humanities

Lining the walls of Perry Atrium, on the edge of the bustling crowds at the poster presentation, were more than 50 photos from the Barlow Off-Campus Study Photography exhibition featuring countries like Nepal, Chile, Hungary, France, Japan, China, and the Netherlands. 

Some students, like religious studies major Shay Campolongo 鈥�26 of Midlothian, Va., found ways to incorporate visual art into their thesis projects on other subjects. For her thesis research on how people understand and memorialize the United States鈥� Japanese-American internment camps during World War II, with particular attention to memorialization of Buddhists in the camps, Campolongo invited 乐播传媒 faculty, staff, and students to two listening sessions prior to Mount David Summit where she presented her research, led discussions, and invited attendees to fold paper cranes. These cranes, made in every color of the rainbow and with intricate patterns, lined her poster during Mount David Summit.

鈥淛apanese-American internment is a piece of history that is often forgotten, but especially the Buddhist lens, and the way that it was not only racially but religiously motivated,鈥� Campolongo said.

Catalina Passino 鈥�26 of Leesburg, Va., a community-engaged research fellow who presented during the Harward Center鈥檚 panel, connected her psychology thesis research to visual art, inspired by her experience taking ceramics classes at 乐播传媒.

鈥淚 was just amazed about how clay affected me and the restorative effects that I felt personally,鈥� Passino said. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥楳an, we should study this beyond just me.鈥欌��

Passino organized an eight-week clay workshop for children in the Lewiston-Auburn immigrant and refugee community and observed how the children experienced mindfulness, resilience, belonging, and emotional regulation throughout the workshop. For their final project, Passino asked the children to create a clay pot that represented each of them, resulting in a collection of unique pieces that Passino displayed in Olin Arts Center. 

Connor Gerraughty 鈥�26 of Hartsdale, N.Y., presented work on synoptic surveillance in The Truman Show, a project which emerged after a patient process of selecting just the right film and finding just the right lens through which to read the film. Though he certainly learned about Foucault and film along the way, his biggest takeaway was about the writing process. 鈥淭here is no perfect, is what I realized,鈥� Gerraughty said. 鈥淚t’s basically just improving and improving. You could work on it forever and you could still make it better.鈥� 

In response, his advisor, Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies Stephanie Kelley-Romano said, 鈥淚’m so heartened to hear that it wasn’t going to be perfect and you’re okay with that. I love it. My job here is done.鈥�

Two 乐播传媒 College scientists have received nearly $373,000 from the National Institutes of Health for first-of-its-kind research into the genetic functioning of bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

The project draws on new capabilities in high-resolution microscopy that make it possible to observe spatial arrangements of RNA in Borrelia burgdorferi, one of four Borrelia species that cause Lyme disease. This study of variations in RNA location and shape could eventually suggest new medical responses to Lyme, which strikes up to 300,000 people in the U.S. annually.

Receiving the $372,639 grant for the two-year project are physicist Travis Gould, an expert in the field of fluorescence nanoscopy, and biochemist Paula Schlax, who researches gene expression in spiral-shaped bacteria, also known as spirochetes, such as Lyme bacteria.

Biochemist Paula Schlax and physicist Travis Gould pose with Gould鈥檚 STED super-resolution microscope in Carnegie Science Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

鈥淩NA is an intermediate in the process of cells making proteins,鈥� says Schlax, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at 乐播传媒. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to understand generally how production of proteins gets turned on and off when the bacteria move from ticks to mammals and from mammals back to ticks鈥� 鈥� changes in the bacteria鈥檚 environment that change the shape and location of RNA.

鈥淲e know from other bacteria that RNA鈥檚 location inside the cell seems to affect how long that RNA lasts 鈥� whether it’s near the edges of the cell, or the ends of the cell, or spread out evenly inside. Our hypothesis is that how fast RNA gets broken down, or doesn’t get broken down, probably helps the cell decide which proteins to make when conditions change, such as when the bacteria moves from the tick to a mammal or vice versa.鈥�

Variations in protein production could cause variations in the bacteria鈥檚 disease-causing capability. 鈥淭he more we understand that process,鈥� Schlax says, 鈥渢he easier it is to think about new targets for drugs and new therapeutics.鈥�

Until quite recently, the physical limitations of microscope technology curtailed its usefulness in testing such a hypothesis. The bacteria have a characteristic shape, says Gould: very skinny in relation to length. The length is typically around 20 microns, or millionths of a meter, but the bacteria鈥檚 internal diameter is vastly smaller, at about 200 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. (A piece of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.)

鈥淭hat 200 nanometers is, in the best-case scenario, at the limit of a conventional microscope’s resolution,鈥� Gould says. 鈥淪o a conventional microscope can鈥檛 answer these questions about where RNA is within that 200-nanometer cylinder.鈥�

But Gould, an associate professor of physics, is an innovator in imaging technologies that use lasers, fluorescing molecules, and other means to attain much higher resolution. For the NIH-funded research, he has adapted an existing 乐播传媒 microscope that he built and that uses a process called stimulated emission depletion, or STED, to capture images of the B. burgdorferi RNA.

Going from older microscopy technologies to Gould’s newly updated STED 鈥渋s like putting on glasses for the first time.鈥�

Specifically, he added another laser to the instrument that expands its imaging capability from two to three dimensions. Going from older technologies to this latest iteration, says Schlax, 鈥渋s like putting on glasses for the first time.鈥�

Complementary to the STED technology, the researchers and their students will use a technique called fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) that deploys fluorescent probes to specific parts of the 鈥渢ranscripts鈥� that the microbe鈥檚 DNA imparts to its RNA.

The research will be the first to identify patterns of transcript localization within B. burgdorferi, and, notably, the first research to use STED microscopy for this sort of localization within any spirochete.

This is significant given the range and impact of diseases caused by such bacteria, including syphilis, yaws, periodontal disease, and leptospirosis, whose effects include kidney failure.

Joining Schlax and Gould in the project are 乐播传媒 students and research associate Anna Bowsher, whose position is funded by the NIH grant. The work entails growing B. burgdorferi microbes in the lab, affixing individual cells to slides, and introducing DNA molecules, complete with fluorescent tags, that are tailored to activate a specific RNA response.

Then the slides will be examined with Gould鈥檚 STED microscope, and the results compiled into a spatial-distribution analysis of different types of RNAs. The team hopes that they will have results to report by summer 2020.

The project will involve both thesis students advised by Gould and Schlax and students doing summer research. 鈥淭hese kinds of projects really are great for students to see how science is done,鈥� says Schlax, 鈥渁nd hopefully get their names on some papers and keep them interested in science.鈥�

With the use of fluorescing molecules now standard practice in high-resolution microscopy, STED imaging achieves enhanced resolution through a technique of selectively switching off such molecules. STED is one of a number of so-called super-resolution techniques developed to bypass the diffraction limit, a limit on the resolution of conventional microscopy imposed by the length of light waves.

Gould estimates that all told, there are likely two dozen or so labs equipped with commercially available STED microscopes, and another handful that use custom-built instruments like his.

Two years ago, as part of a sociology class on power and inequality, Abby Westberry 鈥�19 helped map the locations of shelters and other services for people experiencing homelessness in the Lewiston-Auburn area. In so doing, Westberry learned of a group not often included in discussions about homelessness: those who live for months or even years in motels.

The motels tend to be two or three miles away from the Twin Cities鈥� downtowns 鈥� outside the range of public transportation, and a long walk for someone wanting to get to a housing office or jobs center.

Westberry learned that 鈥渋ndividuals in motels struggled to access these services based on their physical isolation,鈥� she says.

She has just completed her senior honors thesis, 鈥溾�楤efore its Smell Became Me鈥�: Motel Residency and the Politics of Belonging,鈥� on the topic of motel residency and its connection to housing insecurity.

Sociology major Abby Westberry ’19 of Readfield, Maine, poses on the outskirts of Lewiston. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

She鈥檚 one of the very first academic researchers to tackle the subject.

鈥淪he鈥檚 onto something that鈥檚 received very little attention in the academic literature,鈥� says Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, who taught the original class on power and inequality and who was Westberry’s thesis adviser.

American motels emerged in the mid-20th century as inexpensive and convenient accommodations for motorists. With no background checks or upfront costs (like a security deposit) for customers, they often become the last resort for people who can鈥檛 afford to rent an apartment, or whose eviction histories or criminal records make them ineligible for other housing.

News outlets like the and have documented the lives of motel residents. The Florida Project, a feature film about a child living in a rundown motel near the opulence of Disney World, won a variety of accolades.

But when Westberry looked for scholarly research on long-term motel residency, she found relatively little 鈥� just one study on how motel residents access food, and a nonfiction book, Exiled in America, on the lives of a single motel鈥檚 occupants. (Westberry will defend her thesis in front of a panel that includes that book鈥檚 author, Kent State sociology professor Christopher Dum.)

Undeterred, this year Westberry interviewed more than a dozen residents of several motels in Lewiston-Auburn, as well as people who work at service providers like shelters, legal firms, and prisoner reentry groups. She used a method called community-based research, in which community partners, such as service providers, guide the framing of the research project.

Westberry has had plenty of opportunities for community-engaged learning and research. After volunteering in local schools through the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, she took several community-engaged courses. This summer, she received a Ruggles Fellowship to support her research on motels.

鈥淩esearch doesn鈥檛 matter if it鈥檚 not put to good use,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou should make it meaningful to people鈥檚 lives. When you actually go and ask people what they need, not only do you find a lot of subjects that need to be researched, that require academic attention, but you also get knowledge that meaningfully helps those communities 鈥� not necessarily coming from me, but coming from community partners.鈥�

Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, Westberry’s thesis adviser. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

After interviewing the motel residents, Westberry took care to maintain confidentiality by using pseudonyms, omitting mention of illegal activity involving the interviewees, and combining the actual motels into one fictional establishment, Valleyview.

By talking to the residents of Valleyview about how they came to live in the motel, their positive and negative experiences, and their own recommendations for policy changes, Westberry concluded that motel residency reinforces housing instability, though the residents support each other and form strong communities.

Motel life is inherently isolating, Westberry found. Valleyview is miles away from town, along roads without sidewalks. If a resident doesn鈥檛 have a car, holding down a job, attending a community event, or visiting a social service provider means walking for hours.

A motel room generally can鈥檛 be a mailing address, which means residents have to take extra steps to do things like receive mail, sign up for services, or vote. The rooms themselves might have a microwave but no other cooking facilities, so residents鈥� only option is processed foods. Often several people share a small space, fraying tempers.

Paradoxically, even though paying for a motel room from month to month would cost less over the course of a year, some residents can only afford to pay a week at a time. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 build up their money, so they end up paying more overall just because they don鈥檛 have the saved capital,鈥� Westberry says.

Gaps in social services can make it difficult to move out of a motel. Motel residency doesn鈥檛 fall under the definition of homelessness that many funding agencies use, meaning residents can鈥檛 access the services that receive state and federal funding 鈥� or they technically make too much money to qualify for income-based programs.

Of course, motel residents themselves already know this, as do some of the social service providers who work with them. Janice Lara-Hewey, a social worker at Catholic Charities Maine, used to run a homeless outreach program that, at times, included motel residents.

Lara-Hewey has seen the same realities that Westberry outlined in her thesis 鈥� indeed, she told Westberry about some of them: The nearest grocery store might also be the most expensive, you might have to lug a load of laundry to the laundromat without a car, or you might miss an appointment with a social service agency because of another emergency.

But Lara-Hewey points out that those challenges are not unique to motel residents, and the same systems that lead to motel residency 鈥� things like skyrocketing housing costs, inadequate funding for public housing and social services, lack of access to good food 鈥� also lead to people living in shelters and cars, or veterans facing homelessness, or college students not being able to find adequate food.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about people who are in motels,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about people in general, and people who are struggling, and the importance of all of us being kind and compassionate, and understanding that, for most of us, we鈥檙e one emergency away from being in the same boat.鈥�

Some residents had felony records or sex offender status that made them ineligible for public housing.

Despite the difficulties, Westberry found that people in motels form strong friendships and networks of support, ranging from giving each other rides into town to lending a microwave or money in a pinch.

鈥淵ou saw that particularly among members of the community who were recently incarcerated, where they formed a lot of support networks amongst each other to work through all of the vast changes they were experiencing,鈥� she said.

Westberry hopes to show the thesis to the community partners she interviewed and worked with, in order to influence future policies. She asked residents what local services could do to help them specifically, to 鈥渕ake sure recommendations and solutions we鈥檙e proposing toward community issues derive from the needs of individuals affected,鈥� she said.

Solutions that help long-term motel residents could include investing in more public housing, expanding public transportation to reach motels, broadening definitions of homelessness so that motel residents are eligible for more programs, and modifying tenancy rules so motel residents have greater protections against removal.

鈥淚 wanted something that wouldn鈥檛 just sit on the shelf at the end of the day and molder away,鈥� Westberry said. 鈥淚 want something that鈥檚 derived from a community-based need and seeking to address community issues. I do think that that鈥檚 a really valuable way to conduct research.鈥�

Short Term has started. And for 10 乐播传媒 students, Short Term is off to a great STA/RT.

Each year, the Short Term Action/Research Team, a program of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, pairs students with local nonprofits for intensive five-week projects.

Working 20 hours a week in coordination with Harward Center staff, the students conduct extensive research 鈥� it could be creating and conducting a survey, interviewing people for an oral history, or designing a volunteer program.

鈥淭hese students are mobilizing some pretty sophisticated skills and capacities.”

Darby Ray, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒College)

By the end of the term, the students will present a concrete, actionable product to the community partner, whether it鈥檚 a promotional video, a food security plan, or a subsidized housing database.

Each student brings specific research experience to the team, says Harward Center director Darby Ray.

Especially for the six seniors, the projects are a culmination of research-oriented skills they鈥檝e learned at 乐播传媒, from making videos to data mining and GIS mapping to working across cultures.

鈥淓ven though they are only undergraduates, these students are mobilizing some pretty sophisticated skills and capacities for their off-campus projects and partners,鈥� Ray says.

They are also diligent and fast-learning, said Healthy Homeworks president Amy Smith, who worked with a STA/RT member last year and is taking on another this year.

鈥淭o have somebody who鈥檚 bright and hardworking and willing to do anything, that goes a long way,鈥� Smith said.

Here are this year’s projects.

Create a history of nursing at Central Maine Medical Center

The students: Courtney Porfido 鈥�18 of Ramsey, N.J., and Matthew Glasgow 鈥�19 of Salt Lake City

The partner: Central Maine Medical Center, located near 乐播传媒, serves Androscoggin County and is home to the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute and the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing.

The project: Porfido and Glasgow will interview women, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, who went to the Maine College of Health Professions, CMMC鈥檚 nursing/imaging school.

Matthew Glasgow ’19, who along with Courtney Porfido ’18 will help create a history of nursing at CMMC, talks about his research on reflux disease at the 2018 Mount David Summit. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The product: Interview transcripts and documentary-style video that capture the experience, viewpoints, and memories of the nurses

Bring volunteers into a new women鈥檚 home

The student: Zsofia Duarte 鈥�18 of Portland, Maine

The partner: The Center for Wisdom鈥檚 Women, a weekday drop-in center in Lewiston that offers women community-building and healing programs

Women who attend or volunteer at the Center for Wisdom’s Women in Lewiston show off a calendula salve, a product of the center’s herbal business, Herban Works. This Short Term, Zsofia Duarte ’18 will help the Center create a volunteer program for a new residential facility. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The project: Develop a volunteer program for Sophia鈥檚 House, a planned residential facility for survivors of trafficking, addiction, and incarceration

The product: A list of volunteer positions and a plan for recruitment and training, plus a written report, oral presentation, and video introduction to be used in volunteer training

Support prisoner education through data

The student: Hanna Condon 鈥�18 of Key West, Fla.

The partner: College Guild, a Brunswick, Maine-based group that provides free correspondence courses to people who are incarcerated nationwide

The project: Create a survey to improve communication with volunteers, streamline office procedures, and provide data and stories for public relations, grants, and donations

The product: A survey tool and template, adaptable to those being surveyed, that helps staff understand the strengths and weaknesses of the program

Increase food access in public housing

The student: Sophia Thayer 鈥�18 of West Boothbay Harbor, Maine

The partner: Lewiston Housing Authority, which operates Blake Street Towers, a public housing facility for senior citizens and younger people with disabilities

The project: Create a survey to examine food insecurity at Blake Street Towers and use the data to consider programs and partnerships with other community organizations that can enhance residents鈥� food security

The product: A food security plan for Blake Street Towers 聽

Document housing conditions in the Tree Streets

The student: Zev Carter 鈥�18 of Mattituck, N.Y.

The partner: Healthy Homeworks, an organization that seeks to improve urban housing

The project: Pull public records about buildings in the Tree Streets neighborhood and take pictures of residences

Healthy Homeworks, which works to improve the condition of urban residential buildings, is creating a database of housing in Lewiston’s Tree Streets neighborhood. (Jay Burns/乐播传媒 College)

The product: A more complete database that helps increase access to safe and affordable housing

Create a plan for digitizing a museum鈥檚 archives

The student: Allison Cormier 鈥�19 of Deer Isle, Maine 聽

The partner: Museum L-A, which tells the story of working people in Lewiston and Auburn

The project: Develop written policies, procedures, research summaries, and volunteer training to digitize the museum鈥檚 archival materials

The product: An executive summary of the work and copies of materials developed

Compile statewide subsidized-housing database

The student: Alexis Hudes 鈥�20 of Owing Mills, Md.

The partner: Pine Tree Legal Assistance, which provides civil legal advocacy, information, and education to low-income people in Maine

The project: Find each subsidized housing project in Maine and list the location, owner, number of units, type of subsidy, and time limitations on the subsidy

The product: A written or electronic database of all subsidized housing in Maine which PTLA staff can use to help clients defend their rights

Promote a prisoner re-entry program

During a 2017 poster session, Rachel Chappell ’18 talks about her summer internship in photography and video. Chappell will create a video during Short Term to promote a prisoner re-entry program. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The student: Rachel Chappell 鈥�18 of Baltimore

The partner: Catholic Charities, whose REPAIR program focuses on prisoner re-entry and support

The project: Create a video that highlights REPAIR鈥檚 work, mission, vision, positive outcomes, and community benefits of supportive services for men and women re-entering communities from prison or jail

The product: A promotional tool that encourages community partners, volunteers, employers, landlords, and government agencies to join the REPAIR network and support fundraising

Create a social justice鈥搊riented group for girls of color

The student: Angela Eustache 鈥�20 of Lynn, Mass.

The partner: YWCA Central Maine, which works to eliminate racism and empower women

In 2017, 乐播传媒 students teamed with Lewiston High School students to create a mural in the YWCA gym. The mural’s theme is “Women of Color Leading Change.” The project was guided by artist Carolina Gonz谩lez Valencia of the 乐播传媒 art and visual culture department. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The project: Preliminary research, program and curriculum development, outreach to the Oakland-based Radical Monarchs program, and creation of a badge program

The product: A plan for a program for girls of color in grades 4鈥�6 who attend the YWCA鈥檚 after-school program. The program would be led by women of color and help girls of color talk and learn about identity, social justice, activism, self-care, local and state history, and immigration.

Well-represented at the annual Mount David Summit, more than 50 Bobcat varsity athletes either presented research posters or participated in the one of many academic discussions.

We caught up with three of them to discuss their research and hear how both sports and academics have their ups and downs.

Football captain and psychology major Frank Williams ’18 of Brookline, Mass., wanted to research a pivotal social issue: police shootings of unarmed black people.

He worked with Associate Professor of Psychology Michael Sargent to come up with a project that investigated the relationship between feelings of power and shooter bias.

Baseball player Reed Mszar ’18 of聽Manassas, Va., a double major in biochemistry and sociology, took his research into the local community, combining his interests to take a look at聽Lewiston鈥檚 French-Canadians who suffer from familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited genetic condition that creates very high levels of cholesterol at a young age.

Rower and chemistry major Amelia Wilhelm ’18 of Charlotte, N.C., looked at聽Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes the tick-borne illness Lyme disease. She examined how the bacterium cycles between tick and host and the genetic process known as “mRNA decay”, which cells use to turn off gene expression.

Whether it’s academics or sports, success requires “hard work and dedication,” says Mszar. Plus an ability to bounce back from setbacks. “Some days there鈥檚 frustration. You strike out a couple times in baseball, or find a data point that might not be significant. It all relates.鈥�

Kate Moody ’17 of Charlottesville, Va., is one of five 2015 recipients of a RISE internship in Germany. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

Tiago Correia ’17 of Oeiras, Portugal.

Five 乐播传媒 students are taking part in sophisticated research projects in Germany this summer as part of the Research Internships in Science and Engineering program.

Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst or DAAD), RISE offers about 300 students from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom the opportunity to work closely with research groups at universities and top scientific institutions across Germany.

Each student in the program is matched with a doctoral student, whom they assist and who serves as their mentor.

The five 乐播传媒 students represent the most the college has ever sent to the RISE program. They are:

Kate Moody ’17, a neuroscience major from Charlottesville, Va., will work with a team using functional magnetic-resonance imaging and behavioral data analyses to investigate the individual level-specificity of face-selective areas in the brain.

鈥淔unctional imaging produces a great deal of data that needs to be sifted and processed, so the internship will give me an opportunity to hone my programming and mathematics skills,鈥� she said. Moody hopes聽 to become a professor one day and conduct her own neuroscience research.

Jia-Ahn Pan ’16 of Kuching, Malaysia.

Tiago Correia ’17, a聽physics and mathematics double major from Oeiras, Portugal, will work with the Ultracold Quantum Gases Group at the University of Heidelberg to study the laws of physics that govern the motion of atoms.

His coursework at 乐播传媒, including professor Nathan Lundblad鈥檚 ultracold atomic physics lab, helped further his understanding of topics directly associated with atom research.

鈥淚t’s always a good feeling to see your hard work pay off, and I will certainly make the most out of the opportunity that has been given to me,鈥� he said. He hopes to attend graduate school after 乐播传媒.

Jia-Ahn Pan ’16, a chemistry and mathematics double major from Kuching, Malaysia, will conduct research at the University of Hamburg in the field of physical chemistry and nanotechnology.

Specifically, he will focus on the fabrication of novel polymeric nanostructures with hard templates.Pan credits 乐播传媒 professor Matt C么t茅鈥檚 hands-on chemistry lab as a key reason he was awarded this internship.

鈥溊植ゴ� provides the necessary foundations and lab skills for science students who wish to go further into research,鈥� Pan said. 鈥淭his internship will be a valuable experience, as I will be exposed to a new project using different methods and instruments.鈥�

Pan plans to study chemistry and material science in graduate school.

Lucia De Rose ’16 of Parada Robles, Argentina (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College).

Lucia De Rose ’16, an engineering, physics, and mathematics triple major from Parada Robles, Argentina, will assist a research team studying photonics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

鈥淲hat appealed to me most was the fact that I could select my top three choices out of 300 projects,鈥� she said.

鈥淚t is not like a standard internship where you adapt to a specific project 鈥� the project is assigned based on your interests.鈥�

This work will build upon her understanding of optics, a topic she had only read about while at 乐播传媒.

Now, De Rose will get to conduct research herself through hands-on work with photonic crystals in a lab.

She hopes to study engineering in graduate school after 乐播传媒.

Filip Michalsky ’16 of Prague.

Filip Michalsky ’16, a chemistry and mathematics double major from Prague, will help develop a new type of 3-D printer for rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices.

鈥淚 am interested in material science applications in technology,鈥� Michalsky said, 鈥渁nd 3-D printing sounds like it has a bright future.

“This summer opportunity gives me extensive exposure to a rapidly developing technology, which I am excited about.鈥�

After 乐播传媒, he hopes to attend graduate school.

Two 乐播传媒 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 乐播传媒. “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 乐播传媒 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.

The Mount David Summit is an opportunity for 乐播传媒 students to share recent research, service-learning and creative work. This year, more than 100 research posters represented work in Asian studies, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, Chinese, economics, education, environmental studies, history, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, politics, psychology and public health. The 2009 summit also featured filmmakers who screened work, made in theater department courses, in a course at the Maine Media Workshops, as senior theses and on location in Bolivia; a 乐播传媒 Modern Dance company performance; and the annual Barlow Off-Campus Study Photography Exhibition.

Festive and informative, the event annually draws a large crowd of students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni. It provides first-years and sophomores a chance to test their presentation skills in a supportive environment, and gives more advanced students the chance to explain their individual research to a wide audience. Broadly multidisciplinary, the summit shows the depth and expanse of scholarship among 乐播传媒 students.

Meet some of the students who participated in this year’s event.

A 乐播传媒 College junior from Maine and a senior from New York state presented biochemistry research to a U.S. representative from Maine this month as part of “Posters on the Hill,” an annual event designed to remind Congress of the importance of undergraduate research.

Both majoring in biological chemistry, Joshua Linscott of Portland and Nicholas Swerdlow of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., were among 78 undergraduates from across the nation to take part in the May 4-5 event sponsored by the , a national organization that supports student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship.

The 乐播传媒 pair presented genetic research involving the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. Working with Paula Schlax, associate professor of chemistry at 乐播传媒, they studied messenger RNA that regulates the expression of a protein connected with the microbe’s transmission from ticks to mammals.

“The genome of this bacteria is quite unusual,” says Schlax, “and understanding basic principles of protein synthesis will be essential in understanding its life cycle and its ability to be an effective pathogen.”

The gatherings give undergraduate students and their professors a forum to explain their research to members of Congress and their staffs, and to discuss the importance of such research and federal financial support for it.

Linscott and Swerdlow met Maine Rep. Michael Michaud, who represents Maine’s 2nd District, which includes Lewiston. “The Congressman has an excellent relationship with 乐播传媒 and was very receptive to our visit,” Swerdlow says. “He asked about our research and looked at our poster, but the meeting was focused on undergraduate research in general.

The pair emphasized that grants from the Maine IDeA [sic] Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have supported their research at 乐播传媒, Linscott says. “I think my voice represented the thoughts and needs of many undergrads. Undergraduate research is hugely important in preparing students to enter grad school or the job market.”

Described by Schlax as a hard-working, fastidious student, Swerdlow wants to pursue a career combining research and medical practice. He has spent the last two summers performing clinical research on obesity.

Linscott has worked at IDEXX, the Westbrook-based veterinary diagnostics manufacturer, and hopes to do pharmaceuticals research after 乐播传媒. Schlax described him as “organized, careful and motivated.”

For all of the students, Posters on the Hill included opportunities to network, see some sights in the nation’s capital and share their research.

“It was amazing to be surrounded by reminders of the history of our country,” Linscott says. “For all of us, I think, it was very freeing to be able to explain our research in depth to other students who could really understand what we were doing.”

A 乐播传媒 College junior and a recent graduate have been honored for their achievements in neuroscience research at the college.

Leah Carr, a junior neuroscience major from Summit, N.J., was awarded $915 in December by , the international scientific research society. The award will support a genetics research initiative involving test subjects in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

In November, at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C., Gregory Sousa of Augusta, Maine,聽received the presented jointly by two organizations, the and the . A biology major, Sousa graduated from 乐播传媒 in December. The award will pay for a weeklong trip to prominent neuroscience research facilities in Germany.

Carr’s project is titled “The Neurogenetics of Executive Dysfunction in Alexithymia: The Role of the DAT1 Gene.” Working with Nancy Koven, assistant professor of psychology at 乐播传媒, Carr is investigating possible genetic involvement in the condition called alexithymia. This refers to a cluster of emotionally related traits, such as deficits in attending to and identifying one’s emotions, that are associated with problems in coping with medical and psychiatric illnesses.

Carr is exploring connections between alexithymia and the functioning of the brain’s frontal lobes; and possible connections between specific brain functions and a gene that regulates dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in a variety of key mental processes such as behavior, motor activity, sleep, mood and learning.

Working with a test group of 125 adults from the Lewiston-Auburn community, Carr will use saliva samples for genetic analysis and will administer neuropsychological tests to assess cognitive skills such as decision making, inhibitory control, planning and organization, abstract reasoning, attention and working memory.

“I’m very excited to receive this grant, as it is wonderful to know that others view your research plans as worthwhile,” says Carr.

Sousa’s research, conducted for his senior thesis under the guidance of Associate Professor of Biology Nancy Kleckner, looked at the role of neuropeptides — chemical “signals” in nerve functioning — in the regulation of feeding in pond snails.

Specifically, Sousa’s work pointed to the involvement of a chemical called neuropeptide phenylalanine as a neurological cue facilitating either the transition to satiation (the sensation of fullness) or a regurgitation movement in the snails.

“A benefit of studying mollusks,” Sousa explains, “is that they contain large neurons that are amenable for electrophysiological recordings — you can penetrate these individual neurons with electrodes and measure how they respond to the application of specific drugs.

“This permits the investigation of biological questions in ways that aren’t feasible in organisms with more complex nervous systems,” he continues. Because of basic similarities between the nervous systems of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms, invertebrate research can often “advance our knowledge of how nervous systems, in general, are able to generate complex behaviors.”

“Winning the award was an incredible surprise,” says Sousa, who plans to visit institutions in Berlin and Munich as he considers grad school. Currently a research assistant at , in Bar Harbor, he plans to undertake graduate study after two years there. He is working with , whose research involves the molecular features of complex diseases, particularly glaucoma, that lead to the death of neural cells.

By, Doug Hubley