UHP Spring 2016 Newsletter

California University of Pennsylvania Honors Program Spring 2016

Meet the Mascots: Henrietta and Oswald PAGE 2

Graduating Seniors

PAGES 4 & 5 Meet our new SHAB President

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University Honors Program News Honors Advisory Board Awards OUTSTANDING SENIOR HONORS THESIS AWARD Shawn M. Reese Weird Birds: On Writing a Collection of Short Stories May 2015 OUTSTANDING HONORS PROGRAM GRADUATING SENIOR AWARD Stephanie N. Moore May 2015 OUTSTANDING HONORS PROGRAM SERVICE AWARD Lindsey A. Gasper May 2016

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Meet the Mascots Welcome Henrietta and Oswald!

By Bryan Moore

T

he University Honors Program’s logo is present on every letter mailed out, every poster hung up, and every presentation given by a member, and yet very seldom do any of us stop to think about the significance behind it.

Look to the shield that is our symbol and you’ll see a fox on one side, and a hedgehog on the other.

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why these two animals were present on our insignia, and so I was charged with investigating this matter of our enigmatic, newly named mascots for the program’s newsletter. What I found was a question of philosophy that dates back centuries.

The program’s mascots come from an essay written by philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who

was inspired by a fragment from the Greek poet Archilochus: “A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing.”

Berlin expanded upon this idea, describing writers and thinkers as either foxes who draw from all forms of knowledge and see the world as incredibly complex, or as hedgehogs who focus on what they know and see the world through the lens of a single, defining idea they find to be true.

While Berlin didn’t mean for people to take this dichotomy very seriously, his hedgehog and fox metaphor has influenced further debate as to whether it is best to belong to one group of thinkers or the other, and has inspired experts from all fields to apply this sort of examination on great people and events of the past.

Our two mascots, therefore, could be attributed personalities based on Berlin’s assessment.

Our little hedgehog, who we’ve

recently named “Oswald,” is stubbornly persistent, focusing all of his energy on one task at a time, and is firm in his belief that the whole of the world can be focused to a core idea. Our fox Henrietta, by comparison, is much more pliant in her thinking, allowing herself to deliberate on big decisions, though this may sometimes result in indecisiveness. Henrietta believes the world is far too complex to be stripped down to a single base idea, and that knowledge is too multifaceted to be focused through the lens of a sole principle.

Henrietta and Oswald represent, in my opinion, a dichotomy for all of us here in the Honors Program. How do you handle your studies, and how do you see the world? Do you trudge ever onward with the determination of a hedgehog, or do you slyly adapt yourself like a tricky fox?

Where did Henrietta and Oswald visit this semester?

Newsletter Staff Editors

Zoe Scripter Amelia Lipkind

Contributors

Bryan Moore Andee Stynchula Danica Pils Claudia Pehowic Angel Funk Bri Monfredi

Rylee Walters Aiden Brooks Lindsay Kastroll Bradley Britvich Leah Seader

Honors Program News

Honors Program Staff

Director- Dr. M. G. Aune Associate Director- Dr. Craig Fox Secretary- Kim Orslene

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Honors Socials A Freshman’s Take on Socials

By Rylee Walters

E

ach month SHAB’s social committee hosts an event known as a social. Food, drinks, and fun are provided for students willing to provide their service. As a group, the students construct a craft to give to underprivileged people. We’ve

made cards, decorations, tags, and counting. The socials put on by the Honors Program are a great experience to take part in.

Getting involved can often be a difficult thing to accomplish, especially for students busy with school and work. Fortunately,

the socials provide a way for honors students to work together with their peers while benefiting others in the process.

See Page 7 for an interview with SHAB’s new social committee cochair.

Social Posters for Spring 2016, “Mardi-Hog Day” and “Bow Tie Bash”.

Strike A Spark Conference Expectations for the Next Conference

By Andee Stynchula

A

s a junior, I participated in last year’s Strike A Spark conference and I am looking forward to participating in it this year. The conference theme is based on “bridging across majors,” so I am very excited to see some of the other projects and presentations completed by other various majors.

Undergraduate student research is something that I find very important as a science

major, and I think that it is great that our university is capable of producing a conference of this size in order to better experience the students in communicating their opinions along with facts learned in the classroom.

I hope to see even more participation this year for the conference to grow. Professors from different graduate level universities often visit the conference, which introduces a great opportunity for students interested in higher levels of education. The Office for Undergraduate Student Research also funds the production of the Honors Program News

larger posters required for poster presentations, which is great on a student budget, and there are prizes for different majors available, so it is definitely a win-win to participate in the conference.

Date: 4/21/2016 Time: 9:00 AM- 4:00 PM Location Information: Main Campus Convocation Center 250 University Ave. California, PA 15419 Contact Information: Name: Gregg Gould Email: gould@calu.edu

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Graduating Seniors Haley Bashada Dr. Susan Rutledge Morris Honors Thesis: Investigating Teaching Strategies in Educating English Language Learners Kelsey F. Baumgardner Dr. Joseph Schickel Honors Thesis: Fairy Tale Dreams: The Animation of Disney Princesses and its Effect on Young Girls Abby Beatty Dr. Chadwick Hanna Honors Thesis: The Effects of Herbicides on the Mortality and Behavior of the Mealworm Beetle Tenebrio molitor Skyler Boehm Dr. Louise Nicholson Honors Thesis: Nerve Cell Responses During Wound Healing in Drosophila Chandler Carey Dr. Maggie Habeeb Honors Thesis: Mathematical Application: Understanding the Formal Logic Conditional David Casey Dr. Laura Miller Honors Thesis: Opportunities and Challenges of Social Media for Athletes Lindsey Gasper Dr. Paula Caffrey Honors Thesis: The Study of Ovarian Cancer Cell Resistance to Doxorubicin and Cisplatin Lauren Griffith Dr. Anthony Carlisle Honors Thesis: How We Die: A Series of Interviews with People Who Are Facing Death Adisa O. Hargett-Robinson Dr. Melanie J. Blumberg Honors Thesis: Grassroots Politics: A First-hand Account Daniel Hart Dr. Laura J. Hummell Honors Thesis: The Formation of STEM Education and its Impacts Courtney M. Kauffman Dr. Alfred Tarquinio Honors Thesis: A "Fresh" Approach to Fresh Produce Ethan Klersy Dr. Christopher Wydra Honors Thesis: Campus Mala in Se: A Systematic Study of Threats and Crimes Committed at Universities Thomas Koenig Dr. William Dieterle Honors Thesis: Synthesis and Characterization of a Potential Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Material: 1,4-Benzendicarboxylic acid, 1,4-bis[4-[1-oxobutoxy-bis[4-(N,3,3-dimethylindolinobenzospiropyran-7’-nitro)] phenyl]] ester {BDCS} Jessica Laguerre-Joseph Dr. Elizabeth Larsen Honors Thesis: Colorism across Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Colorism in India, Jamaica and the African American Community in the United States Katie Liebel: Dr. Louise Nicholson Honors Thesis: The Risks of Control: A Meta-Analysis of Oral Contraceptives and the Dangers They May Pose

Honors Program News

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Graduating Seniors Breanna M. Lincoski Dr. David F. Boehm Honors Thesis: Incidence of Borrelia burgdorferi Infection in Ixodex Ticks and Dogs in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Cara Lorenzo Dr. Louise Nicholson Honors Thesis: The Effects of Monosodium Glutamate on Chick Development Connor Marshman Dr. Joseph Schickel Honors Thesis: The Importance of Educating Graphic Communication Students about the Connection Between Commercial Printing and Art Elizabeth Moon Dr. Rebecca Maddas Honors Thesis: Teacher Awareness and Attitudes Towards Graphic Novels Marissa Neifert Dr. Richard LaRosa Honors Thesis: Don’t Think, Just Swipe: How to Use Marketing to Make the Tough Purchases Easy James Novobilsky Dr. Ali Sezer Honors Thesis: Electropolymerization and Characterization of Polyaniline-Ti02 Nanocomposites for Sensing Applications Lauren Pezzica Dr. Spencer Norman Honors Thesis: #CalUNeedsKay Advertising Campaign Rebecca Robich Dr. Sarah L. Meiss Honors Thesis: A Preliminary Study of the Bacterial and Fungal Communities Present on the Epidermis of Various Salamander Species (Amphibia: Urodela) in Washington County, Pennsylvania Karina Sanchez Dr. Cassandra Kuba Honors Thesis: Tracing Patterns of Interaction: Effect of Romanization on Native Iberian Culture Andee Stynchula Dr. Sarah L Meiss Honors Thesis: Using the Antimicrobial Effects of Zingiber Officinale to Compare the Differences of Allopathic and Homeopathic Medicine Techniques Jonathan Troutman Dr. Chad Kauffman Honors Thesis: An Analysis of Lake Erie Ice Coverage and Lake Effect Snowfall Totals in Erie County, Pennsylvania from 2008-2014 Jonathan Veres Dr. Paul Crawford Honors Thesis: The Islamic Heresy: Religion of Heretical Christianity Alicia Wadsworth Dr. William Dieterle Honors Thesis: Acoustic Analysis: Characteristic Sounds of Flutes of Various Types and Materials Shelby Zikeli Dr. Summer Arrigo-Nelson Honors Thesis: Exploring Relationships Between Native and Invasive Species in Madagascar

Honors Program News

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PASSHE Expectations Honors Students Head to Spain

By Aiden Brooks

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hen I found out that I was selected to travel to Spain as a Cal U representative for the PASSHE Summer Honors Program hosted by Indidana Univeristy of Pennsylvania, my mind immediately began racing through many different thoughts and expectations. I began thinking about what I would be doing, what I needed to pack, what I should learn or research before going, what the course was going to be like, and everything else in between. I was very excited, but there were a lot of uncertainties that I wanted to figure out

As I began to learn more about the program, and the coursework that I would be doing, I began to have a realization.

This entire trip isn’t going to re-

ally be just about that Camino de Santiago, or about St. James, or about anything in particular really.

This was going to be my doorway into a community; a community of people that extends hundreds of years into the past, and likely, into the future. I was going to undertake a powerful human experience; physically, academically, spiritually, mentally, and culturally.

Since speaking with Dr. Caleb Finnegan, the director of the trip, and the other professors and students I will be travelling with, I have come to understand that this experience is all about blurring, breaking, and transcending boundaries; culturally and academically. Our coursework will sometimes be very empirical, cold, and clinical, dealing with numbers, dates, and specifics. At other times, it will focus on the cultures involved in the pilgrimage route, and the intellectual and interpersonal forces behind organized religion

as a whole. It will be common for us to deal in the traditional disciplines of history, anthropology, theology etc. However, we will also be looking at this from a very personal, introspective angle. An experience like this, a long, arduous, but breathtakingly beautiful and human journey, will affect every decision I make for the rest of my life. What happens to the world when millions of people, across hundreds of years, and every corner of the globe, undertake an experience like this? No one is ever the same after undertaking the Camino, and in order to understand the gradual changes that the world goes through, we must understand the powerful experiences that shape us, the humans, the movers and shakers of global change. There is no better way to understand that personal transformation than to do it yourself.

Alex Dawes is also attending the summer PASSHE program.

Dr. Fisanick’s Trip to WV Honors Students Head to Prison

By Danica Pils

O

n February 25, I spent the time I normally would in class behind bars, literally. For Dr. Fisanick’s Honors Composition II class, we took a trip to Moundsville, West Virginia. On our first day we learned about the history of the area from the Marshall County Historical Society. We then toured the West Virginia Penitentiary, which

has been closed since 1995. We spent the night in a cabin at Grand Vue Park to rest up for our work ahead. The next day the class split up into groups to do research at one of five sites in addition to the Penitentiary: the Cockayne Farmstead, the Marx Toy Museum, the Fostoria Glass Museum, the Strand Theater, and the Grave Creek Archaeological Complex and Mound. We gathered interesting stories at each of our locations, then returned back to Cal U Friday evening. As Honors Program News

a result, our digital stories will be shown at the Archaeological Complex on Saturday, April 23 at Noon.

Top: West Virginia Penitentiary

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SHAB Social Committee SHAB Appoints New Social Committee Co-Chair

By Lindsay Kastroll

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was appointed one of SHAB’s Social Committee Co-Chairs in January of 2016. I was a member of the committee prior to my appointment so I am very happy to have gotten this position to work alongside my fellow cochair Bryan Moore. Being a part of SHAB is not very different than being a member of Social Committee; we meet, talk about ideas, vote on decisions, etc. It is actually a lot of fun, because the rest of the SHAB members are all really cool and supportive

people. The old committee chairs helped us new ones learn the ropes of our positions and just basically have our backs.

Being in SHAB has definitely opened up more opportunities for me. Not only is it great leadership experience that looks good on a résumé, but it is also a chance to make a difference in the University Honors Program. Policies that we debate on implementing could have lasting effects on the program, and we get to be part of that. And the fact that we are working on building a community is really cool –

you get to meet new people and try to establish for them a sense of belonging in the program, whether it be through friendship, mentors, socials, service, etc. I think that’s pretty cool.

Top: Lindsay Kastroll

A Logical Reason to Choose HON 201 A Look Inside Dr. Fox’s Spring Class

By Claudia Pehowic

O

ne of the saddest parts about growing up is the transition of holiday presents. The artificial tree that once covered a bike and exciting new board games shaded a used LSAT prep book last year. Without any grade school experience with logic, taking the LSATs and preparing for graduate school was daunting. Dr. Fox’s Topics in Quantitative Problem Solving course, HON 201, taught me to think abstractly about numbers as well as language in ways that prepared me for the upcoming test. Building on the general education course Logic

and Language, the University Honors Program’s Quantitative Logic course provided a faster-paced, more mathematical perspective on reasoning while maintaining its innate connection to language. Converting phrases to logical symbols was still an important element of the class. The ability to symbolize the English language has made me much more comfortable with the looming LSATs.

My newfound knowledge of logic rests on a sturdy foundation in the same way that any sound conclusion rests on at least one true and valid premise. Understanding the vocabulary associated with quantitative logic allows HON 201 students to better express how Honors Program News

and why arguments are true, false, or matters of chance or opinion in a way that can be communicated to others. Learning beside sociology, economics, technology education, and math majors, various perspectives on mathematic and linguistic concepts contribute to a rich classroom environment. As a communication and political science major, I was able to relate this class to my understanding of political rhetoric, and many students from other majors were able to make more direct interdisciplinary connections. At the very least, Quantitative Logic has offered all of its students a mathematical perspective on the outside world as well as an understanding of sound reasoning and argumentation.

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Cult Films Analysis of Dr. Aune’s HON 340

By Bradley Britvich

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his semester, Dr. Aune is teaching Topics in Arts and Humanities course for the Honors Program that focuses on cult films. In this class, we watch certain movies that are considered cult and then we discuss and analyze why they are described as such. From cult “classics” such as Freaks and Reefer Madness, to more obscure titles like Pink Flamingoes and Faster, Pussycat!

Kill! Kill!, the course offers something for everyone who has an interest in movie history.

“This is a class I’ve wanted to teach for a really, really, really long time,” Mr. Aune said. It comes

through in his lectures. As we discuss a different film each week, I often think to myself “there’s no way we can have an educated discussion about this movie, it’s way too obscure.” But the next day in class, I am pleasantly surprised as we discuss the film and its director and learn why it’s defined as cult. We’ve covered a wide range of topics that are present in these films and I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from the class is that most movies, even though they may be weird, can be appreciated by a group of people for many different reasons.

In addition to watching and talking about movies in class, we took a trip to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show performed with a shadow cast at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont

on April 2. This was a night I won’t soon forget, and being able to see how an obscure movie that wasn’t received well when it came out can have an influence on people’s lives to this day was nothing short of incredible. I wasn’t sure what this class would be like when I signed up for it, but after taking it I feel like I have a much better understanding of these types of movies and a deeper appreciation for not just cult films, but films and art in general.

Rocky Horror Picture Show Honors Students Head to Dormont, PA

By Angel Funk

Top: Performers onstage.

T

his particular Honors excursion was a movie theatre showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, this was not an ordinary box office experience

watching the cult classic film, it was a shadow cast powerhouse performance. Put on twice a month by The Junior Chamber of Commerce Players at the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont, PA those in attendance witnessed and engaged in an absolutely unforgettable experience. Before the show even begins those who had never witnessed the performance before were marked with a red “v” in lipstick and once seated were invited to the front of the venue to dance with the cast and crew. The movie’s start marked the beginning of the outrageous outfits, screaming profane language, and an overall talented performance. This specific shadow cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Honors Program News

Show-inspired author Stephen Chbosky to write and go on to direct the best-selling book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The JCCP, Junior Chamber of Commerce Players, put on a physical performance while the movie plays in the background and put a twist on certain aspects of the movie. For instance during our particular showing, Dr. Scott isn’t a person but instead inflated male genital in a wheelchair.

Shadow casting is done all over the United States with The Rocky Horror Picture Show being one of many performances. Overall, the trip was exhilarating and spectacular production of talented performers.

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A New SHAB President A New President Speaks Out About This Semester

By Leah Seader

I

am so excited to serve as your new Student Honors Advisory President!!! SHAB is currently working to implement a new points system to offer UHP students the opportunity to receive awards for being active in the program through committee involvement, serving as an honors coach for incoming freshman, attending social/service events, as well as attending conferences and excursions. Something new this year, there is a blank sheet on the SHAB bulletin board right outside the honors office for you to write any suggestions or changes that you would like to see in the

NCUR 2016 From Cal U to Asheville, NC

By Bri Monfredi

S

ince joining the University Honors Program at Cal U, I wanted to make it a personal goal to apply for any conference or excursion opportunity that I could to build more connections through the Honors Program.

When I read the announcement about abstracts being accepted for the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR), I jumped on the chance

program. We want your voice to be heard!

To recap a wonderful semester, SHAB held an open meeting each month for all University Honors Program students to attend, along with three social/service events. Our first social was held on February 25th as SHAB hosted their first ever Mardi-Hog Day enjoying cupcakes as we made St. Patrick’s Day crafts for Ronald McDonald House Charities.

On March 31st, we held our annual Bowtie Bash packed fun with food, music, bowties, and cake while we made spring decorations for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The last social of the semester was held on April 21st to celebrate

Earth Day, as we showed a special viewing of, The Lorax, while making dog toys to be donated to a local animal shelter. I look forward to many more great memories and wonderful opportunities as your SHAB President! Have a great summer!

to apply. I spoke with my advisor, Dr. Christina Fisanick, a professor of the English Department about applying for NCUR and she was very encouraging on doing so.

My abstract was accepted by the Honors Program and by NCUR as well which I was very proud of myself and excited to be taking part in this. I knew this was something that I could use to add onto my resume and would help be develop a networking system. NCUR was being hosted at the University of Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina. My presentation was on Digital Sto-

rytelling and the educational benefits of using technology in a classroom.

For my first conference, I really enjoyed attending NCUR and had a great time seeing a different campus and interacting with students from all over the country, seeing all of their interesting and distinguished ideas. Overall I think everyone had a good time presenting their topics and did a great job at representing Cal U. I look forward to applying to more upcoming conferences and experiencing new perspectives on undergraduate research.

Contact Us Phone: 724-938-4535 or 724-938-1544 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calu.honors Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caluhonors

Honors Program News

Top: Leah Seader, President

E-mail: honors@calu.edu Twitter: #caluhonors