Pushing creative boundaries. Expanding skills. Challenging conventionality. This year's Summer Scholars are making their mark at BW and beyond.
BW Summer Scholars enables students to design and create their own research and creative projects under the supervision of a faculty mentor through a 10-week living-learning experience. This year's participants include:
Hometown: Georgetown, Texas
Major: Public Health
Project: Working with Dr. Laura Hopkins on "Examination of Child School Versus Summertime Health Behavior"
"I will be developing a nutritional education program, which includes hands-on activities and taste tests, at community events that will target families with children. I will collect data on program implementation, as well as surveys with children participating to understand their health behaviors such as diet, physical activity and sleep. The goal of my project is to understand health behavior trends for the children, as well as address nutritional health issues, including food insecurity and negative health trends that occur during the summer months.
"My career goal is to become a public health nutritionist. I aspire to specialize in teaching and monitoring community trends through adopting healthy nutritional habits."
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Majors: Music and Neuroscience
Project: Working with Dr. Kent Cleland on "How Better Understanding Absolute Pitch Can Guide Musical Pedagogy in New Techniques that Include Everyone"
"For my project, I am studying the ability of perfect pitch (which is when someone can identify what note a tone or sound is without a reference) and how students with this ability can be better catered to in college-level music classrooms.
"I am currently pursuing a career in academia/research in music cognition with the eventual goal of earning a Ph.D. This opportunity will aid me in achieving these career goals because it gives me hands-on experience that will allow me to be a competitive candidate when applying for graduate school programs. This project will also show my initiative in seeking out my own unique and enriching research opportunities."
Hometown: Canton, Ohio
Majors: Psychology and Criminal Justice
Project: Working with Dr. Brian Monohan on "Social Media and Fear in the Digital Age: Analyzing Media and Public Concerns about TikTok Challenges"
"I am looking at broadcast news content of dangerous TikTok challenges. I will be analyzing the coverage to investigate the way the media portrays these challenges and how the media creates fear around them. This fear that is created does not necessarily mean that there is a pressing issue at hand, and that is what I am trying to show through this project. Since we live in a society consumed by the media, it is important to understand the media and the power it has over us.
"My end goal for my career is to work for the FBI as an analyst. Analysts work within many aspects of the bureau, but research is a large portion of it. With an experience like this to add to my resume, it greatly aids my application and helps me grow as a researcher."
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Major: Biology
Project: Working with Dr. Laura Hopkins on "A Qualitative Examination of the Impact of Community Health and Empowerment Navigators on Food Security and Wellness from a Resident Perspective"
"For my project, I will be conducting in-depth interviews with food-insecure residents in the Clark-Fulton and Old Brooklyn neighborhoods. The goal of these interviews is to see how working with a community health empowerment navigator has had an impact on their ability to obtain food and if it has had an impact on their overall health.
"I believe this opportunity will allow me to understand how guidance can help or hinder people who struggle with food insecurity and prepare me for my future career as a physician's assistant."
Hometown: Medina, Ohio
Major: Psychology
Project: Working with Dr. Stephanie Rothman on "The Use of Fictional Characters and Their Impact on LGBTQ+ Identity Development"
"I am looking at how fictional characters impact LGBTQ+ identity development, especially when an individual lacked a positive LGBTQ+ representation in their life. This topic interests me because my generation is the first one to grow up with access to the internet for our whole lives. There are very few studies examining the impact of fictional media on how people discover who they are as they grow up, and there are currently zero studies examining the impact on LGBTQ+ individuals specifically.
"My goal is to become a professor at a university and do research related to the LGBTQ+ community, intersectionality with other social identities, and the effects of larger society on how an individual perceives themself."
Hometown: Lakewood, Ohio
Majors: Music Composition and Flute Performance
Project: Working with Dr. Clint Needham on "Electroacoustic Storytelling"
"I will be using my existing musical compositions written for acoustic instruments and reimagining them in an electronic soundscape. After creating the synthesized electronic tracks, I will implement places for acoustic instruments to join the soundscape in a performance setting. I also will be implementing film into this project, creating a multimedia experience featuring original music and filmography.
"My career goal is to write music for film and animation. This experience will help me prepare for my goals by giving me experience in combining musical and visual art. Becoming fluent in electronic music software is a very important skill to have in the TV and film industry. On a personal level, I wish to explore and experiment with my own creative freedom and allow my imagination to run wild. I wish to push my own creative boundaries and get out of my musical comfort zone."
