Reprinted from JUNIATA 2014 Spring-Summer magazine. Photography by Rick Hamilton (unless noted).
Juniata students and alumni will have an instant answer when asked what quality drew them to Juniata—community. At first blush, most people assume the reference is related to the College’s legendary inclusiveness and its students’ capacity for making lifelong connections in friendships. That’s a big part of it, but there is also a community of scholars within the boundaries of Juniata. Juniatians are almost always intensely interested in what friends and acquaintances are working on. At a recent history presentation at the 2013 Liberal Arts Symposium, students from chemistry and biology stopped in to hear the topic. Whether the student is looking at geologic clues through the Scanning Electron Microscope or peering into the dusty pages of an 18th-century treatise, there is a common thread running through their actions.
Research and scholarship is a tenet of almost every department on campus and in many cases where a POE does not require a major research project, the faculty ask students to complete a senior capstone project. In the pages to come, please meet 20 students who form a snapshot of a moment in time for Juniata researchers. What will that snapshot reveal? A community of great minds, none of them thinking alike.
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Never underestimate the power of a walk in the woods. Research projects are usually inspired by something read in a book, suggested by a professor, or conceived in a rare “Eureka” moment of insight. Caleb McMullen ’14, on the other hand, found his capstone project by looking down while hiking near Huntingdon. “I was in a boulder field at about 1,700 feet elevation and I saw this brilliant blue staining on the rocks I was walking on,” says McMullen, of Huntingdon, Pa. Subsequent hikes in nearby areas revealed rocks with green and deep red staining as well. “I wanted to figure out what minerals were present in the rock that might cause these vibrant colors.” When McMullen asked his POE adviser Ryan Mathur ’96 what might cause the staining, Mathur replied, “Oxidation.” Oxidation occurs when oxygen comes into contact with an element or mineral. The most obvious example of oxidized staining is rust. However, these were not rusty rocks. McMullen’s curiosity was piqued. “I collected 15 to 20 samples and brought them back to the lab and ground up samples using a mortar and pestle,” he explains. Using an x-ray diffractor, he was able to identify the different minerals present in the samples. McMullen and Mathur then opted to investigate whether sulfides, which typically can cause staining, were present in the rock. Next, he “thin-sliced” the rock samples, which means cutting a 30-micron (about the height of a stack of two or three business cards) wafer of rock. By using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) on the slides, McMullen wanted to see signs of a common sulfide called pyrite (or fool’s gold). “Pyrite crystals grow in cubic forms, so we wanted to see corresponding spaces in the slices that would give our pyrite theory some validity,” McMullen explains. They found no sulfides. McMullen hit the trail for a second sample collection. These samples revealed rocks that had split along a fault line. Tests revealed red and blue veins of iron oxide present in the rock.
“That means when that rock was formed some kind of ironbearing fluid flowed through,” McMullen says. “Over time that could cause the staining I was seeing.” Although McMullen’s research project ended with the confirmation of the iron oxide vein, he’s not done with geology. His interest in observing the formation of rocks above and below the ground has direct application in the mining industry, and he’s had interviews with several companies who run mining operations in the western United States. Not a bad outcome for a look downward in the woods. “In class, as long as I was able to put theories into practice I could learn all the techniques,” he says. “If I can see something, I can learn about it.” By John Wall
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Surviving Cancer: After the Fight The media places a strong emphasis on the accomplishment of surviving cancer. However, do cancer survivors actually feel like survivors? Allison Blumling ’14, of Hershey, Pa., analyzed and researched the implications of surviving the disease. Blumling, a health communication and media writing POE, realized her interest in the social aspects of science after meeting Grace Fala, a professor of communication. “She allowed me to see how I could use my interest in the social implication of disease within the health communication department,” says Blumling. “Communication theory discusses a variety of content, which allowed me to research such a broad topic as cancer.” “There is such a strong community for the 2
Photo: J.D. Cavrich
Rock Star: Geology Research Mines Mineral Staining
student research issue
Bright Young Researcher: Britain Revisited Like many well-read young women, Colleen Wall ’14 had a favorite author in high school: Virginia Woolf. But unlike many who enjoy Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style for its romantic backgrounds featuring soiree after soiree, Wall realized—upon rereading her favorite Woolf classic Mrs. Dalloway—she was fascinated in the cultural history of the time period in which Mrs. Dalloway lives. Why, Wall wondered, was Mrs. Dalloway so dejected while planning what should’ve been a cheerful party? For those of you who haven’t skimmed the novel in a while—spoiler alert!—Mrs. Dalloway tells the story of postWorld War I England through the struggles of everyday people. In the novel, characters are concerned with establishing a new normal after a war that ushered in massive socio-economic changes and a sense of uncertainty about the future. “There’s a lot of confusion in this time period,” Wall says. “There’s a gigantic shift in how society operates. I’m interested in cultural history—the small stuff that shapes your life while huge events happen around you.” Now, Wall is continuing her study of the history of the post-World War I era based on another literary favorite—J.D. Taylor’s Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London’s Jazz Age. After reading it over winter break, Wall decided to focus her senior honors thesis on the book’s subjects—the Bright Young People, a group of scandalous Londoners who, in Wall’s words, “experienced the war first as children and grew up in its wake.” From 1924-1930 these “wild, vulgar, and ostentatious” 20-somethings also known as “Bright Young Things,” held a mock wedding, initiated high-speed scavenger hunts (sometimes driving drunk), and introduced the concept-themed fancy dress party. At first, the group carried out their events from a desire to create an identity for their generation. Later, as Wall’s research captures, the Bright Young People began to seek media coverage for their stunts, which created lasting ramifications for the media, who grew wealthy on a young customer base eager to read about the exhibitionists. Wall illuminates this and more in her 60-page thesis, by working diligently as a bright young researcher of the 21st century. She first sorted through pages of the London Times in
interviews with cancer survivors, and compared their stories on a variety of standardized topics, such as the kind of support networks that they have each connected with. “I’m finding that people who feel like survivors seem to have more outreach from other survivors,” says Blumling. Her interviews made her readily aware of how a cancer diagnosis can make people quit the activities
Juniata’s stacks until the dust gave her a headache. Later, she headed to Penn State libraries for a fuller view of the Times. She even bought a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive to collect digital relics like articles, ads, and letters to the editor that divulge the history of the Bright Young Things and public perception of them at the time. In the end, Wall’s painstaking digital-age research has taught her more than how to find and document the details surrounding a post war British generation’s search for identity. “This project still draws me in,” Wall says. “I’ve learned to rediscover new things through this project, to keep myself passionate about it over time.” Although she considers herself an introvert and she’s clearly the opposite of her research subjects, this bright young Juniatian’s enthusiasm for analytical dissection of a period of much recent interest—thanks in part to the popularity of PBS’s Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge—shouldn’t wane. And neither will her research on the Bright Young People, as she travels on to graduate school where she intends to continue her study. “This is something I could do for a master’s thesis,” Wall concludes. “I know there are parts of this project I won’t be able to cover this year.” By Genna Welsh Kasun ’06
and hobbies that help shape their identity. Has the notion of a cancer survivor become absorbed into their identity? “People who managed to stay involved with their identity-forming activities had an easier transition back into their normal lifestyle,” says Blumling. The fight against cancer continues after the disease is actually defeated, and Blumling intends to further examine survivorship while
eventually pursuing a master’s of public health. “This research was very self-guided and I learned how to discipline myself to endure this type of project, but I also learned how much I like making stories known and working with people. In the future I would like to work in patient survey or patient advocacy.” By Lauren Frantz ’15
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people who survived cancer, and I was surprised to find that there was a high rate of depression among cancer survivors,” says Blumling. She aims to understand how cancer affects the lives and relationships of cancer survivors and their transition back to their normal lives by using a research model developed by Kenneth Burke, a communication and literary theorist. She conducted five
Photo: J.D. Ca vrich
student research issue
How Green Was My Snail Shell
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It all started with a simple question: “What’s that greencolored stuff?” The question was directed toward what Jessica Kaplan-Bie, a December 2013 graduate who finished her research in February, was studying—a small freshwater snail. Mind you, she was looking at the snail for an entirely different reason. Biologists Neil Pelkey and John Matter had thought freshwater snails might be a good “indicator species” that could aid scientists in determining if an area was environmentally degraded. “Snails absorb pollutants and produce some specific chemicals that become part of their shells,” Kaplan-Bie explains. But back to the green stuff. “Actually it was more like teal,” corrects Kathleen LaForce, ’14 of State College, who was a co-investigator on the project. Both students thought the teal stuff was acidic damage, whereas Pelkey thought it looked like bacterial disease more commonly found in coral. Kaplan-Bie was 4
determined to find out what the substance was. And so, the gastropodic game was afoot. Kaplan’s first idea was to analyze the shell using a LIBS spectroscope, which uses a laser to analyze the components of any material. “We went over to (chemist) Richard Hark’s lab and took a crash course, but the LIBS didn’t work for our project.” Back to Pelkey’s idea to look at coral diseases. Kaplan-Bie and LaForce found that coral diseases are often caused by cyanobacteria, a substance that looks like algae and bores into calcium-rich substances—like mollusk shells. The next step took the two student investigators to the literature and a few very long Google sessions later, Kaplan-Bie found a paper in a journal called Algological Studies. The paper, by Aline Tribollet, a marine scientist in France’s Institute of Research for Development, detailed a colony of freshwater mussels being colonized by cyanobacteria. “She sent us the article, and now we had to figure out if this was what we had going on,” Kaplan-Bie says. First on the agenda was to try a DNA analysis, a step that took them to the lab of biologist Gina Lamendella. Lab assistant Ryan Trexler ’13 trained the students how to prepare samples for DNA analysis and sent the samples to a genomic lab in March. Kaplan-Bie then found some photos online of cyanobacteria damage in shells and wanted to see if her snails had the same damage. The environmental detectives needed to get very thin cross sections of the shells to see the damage. Next stop, the geology lab, where geologist
Matt Powell showed them how to use the rock saw to grind down the shell and Larry Mutti trained them to use diamond dust to “shine” the surface of the shell. “We could see the infestation and now we had to take photographs of it.” Kaplan-Bie and LaForce then spent a day or so with biologist and microscopy specialist Jeff Demarest and emerged a week later with detailed photos of their snail shell, which they promptly emailed to French researcher Tribollet. “We didn’t have any of these skills before we started the project and these professors taught us so many technical skills by being extraordinarily generous with their time and expertise,” Kaplan-Bie says. In the meantime. Tribollet was sending feedback on ways to make their slides better and just after Thanksgiving, she sent a message confirming the Juniata students had found a definite colonization of cyanobacteria, only the second confirmed colony in North America. “Professor Tribollet was like our lifeline,” Kaplan-Bie says. “She’s like the superstar of cyanobacteria and she would get back to us within 24 hours on our project.” In the end, KaplanBie had found a unique infestation of cyanobacteria in samples taken from Raystown Lake, the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River and the Juniata River. When the DNA analysis comes back, that might reveal whether the team has discovered a new species of cyanobacteria. If it is a new species, KaplanBie gets naming rights. You can bet the name won’t be “Green stuff.” By John Wall
Battling Bias: Politics and the Media Growing up in a family fond of discussing politics at the dinner table made Derrick Magnotta’s decision to study politics unsurprising. Did we mention he worked for President Obama’s campaign at the age of 16? Two years before he was even able to vote. Magnotta ’14, of Scranton, Pa., was faced with more choices than a presidential candidate choosing a running mate when it came to a research topic selection. Magnotta had big ideas and aspirations in his initial theses, “In an era of hyper-partisanship and shrinking budgets, what is the future in federal investment domestically?” Noting that this required Derrick to do hundreds of interviews with top scholars and regulators, Dennis Plane, associate professor of politics, gently gave him the guidance to decide on a more quantitative topic. “He played a great devil’s advocate and helped me narrow down my list. I couldn’t have done it without him,” says Magnotta. Magnotta focused his research on an individual’s ability to recognize the presence of media bias, and how a reader’s exposure to bias impacts their attitude towards government, media trust, and political engagement. With the rapid expansion of information access, having a clear understanding of bias is crucial. To make sure his own beliefs did not impact the project, Magnotta constructed a “pre-attitude survey.” Participants were asked to read five articles in which official source material is either illegible or contain
Surveying the Religious Landscape different introductory and closing paragraphs and captions. Then participants took the survey again. The students in the experiment were told that they were being asked about environmental policy. The survey didn’t include questions regarding environmental issues, but the questions are also focused on media and political perspective. The students’ change in response from taking the surveys after reading the articles helped determine their reactions and perceptions of bias. “It will be an interesting result,” Magnotta says, “If it works.” Fortunately, it worked. His research revealed that people were able to identify bias and its ideological and partisan slant. Additionally, exposure to bias decreased the people’s level of trust in the media for fair and accurate reporting. “This research pushed me to become much more organized and stay consistent throughout the
By Lauren Frantz ’15
By Genna Welsh Kasun ’06 Photo illustration: Rick Hamilton/Angie Ciccarelli 5
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process, and the skills and knowledge that I gained then helped me in the classroom in my last semester,” says Magnotta. “This research and past internships have also reinforced my intent to do something good for the public through civic engagement or public service.”
Hannah Shultz ’14 (earlier in fall semester ’13) has just climbed two flights of stairs in Good Hall. As she settles in for “God, Evolution, and the Holocaust,” which Robert Miller, Rosenberger Chair of Christian and Religious Studies, will begin teaching shortly, she peers around, wondering who will be comfortable being her friend if she shares her true feelings—that she plans to come out. Shultz isn’t about to reveal her sexual preference, though. She’s about to reveal that she’s a Christian. And, previous conversations with her Christian friends about the acceptance of gay and lesbian individuals have shown Hannah that discussing the topic is, well, touchy. “Christianity is about love and grace, but that’s not what many Christians practice,” Shultz says. “I hear so many different reactions to this issue. Responses range from acceptance, to the idea that we as a society need to cure homosexuals.” These heated discussions have been on Shultz’s mind—so much so that it’s the topic of her senior research project, under the guidance of Don Braxton, J. Omar Good Professor of Religion. To find out what factors influence Christians’ tolerance of homosexual behaviors, Shultz decided to devise a survey to Christians at Juniata, analyzing their acceptance of gay and lesbian students. It asked questions about the surveyed student’s denomination, exposure to gay and lesbian peers, and whether they’ve taken human sexuality courses. It also records ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and the location of their home church. In the end, Shultz found that respondents who scored higher in religiosity displayed less tolerant attitudes towards homosexuals and those who had greater amounts of exposure to homosexuals displayed more tolerant attitudes. “My generation has grown up in a secular culture where our experiences play more of a role in our values than our religion,” Shultz says. “As much as it’s upsetting to me that people have these beliefs, I try to respect them. I’m concerned for Christianity as a whole. There can be such a stigma against Christians. We’re all seen as conservative and judgmental.” Shultz is excited to be doing this applied research—to be turning passionate conversations with friends into something quantitative. “Hate crimes are prevalent in middle and high schools, but most people move past that in college and end up talking about faith in their friends’ dorm rooms,” Shultz says. “At a liberal arts college, we’re all about critical thinking and expanding each other’s point of view. We’re a college that changes lives and dialogue like this will change lives.” Shultz will continue her mission to expand her own point of view by serving through the Brethren Volunteer Services next year, where she’ll undoubtedly have more life-altering conversations.
student research issue
Wishing Upon a Star (or Two): Student Research into Binary Star Systems When you look up at the night sky and watch the stars, chances are there’s a lot more going on up there than you think. Mara Zimmerman ’16 has only just begun to scratch the surface of astronomy through her research in binary star systems. Zimmerman, of Los Angeles, Calif., is working on a research project with Matt Beaky, assistant professor of physics, which began in summer 2013. Zimmerman and her research partner Jon Snyder ’13 spent time in the observatory with Beaky over the summer looking at binary star systems. Snyder has since graduated, and now Zimmerman is continuing the research. “A binary system is simply two stars in one system that rotate around each other,” says Zimmerman. “From this distance, it can look like one star, but it’s actually two.” Zimmerman first uses a telescope to take images of the star systems, which she then calibrates so that they are more accurate. She can then measure the light intensity of the stars and from there calculate further information about the star, such as the mass ratio and the distance between the stars. “These stars let us find out a lot about what stars do when they interact with each other,” says Zimmerman. “You can learn a lot about the composition of stars with these systems. If you have just one star out there, it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. But if you have two, you can look at the mass interaction and the life of both stars.” Specifically, Zimmerman is looking at binary star systems that have a delta scuti component, which refers to the type of pulsation that one of the stars has in respect to time. Basically, one of the stars in the system will pulsate brighter and dimmer, while the other star maintains the same level of brightness. “What I find really cool is that the mass between the two stars can transfer over time,” says Zimmerman. “Because they’re so close, the two stars can essentially become one after a long while.” Zimmerman has taken a shine to astronomy. She’s always been interested in stars, so for her it was a no-brainer to do the research when Beaky offered her the opportunity. “I like pretty much everything about it,” says Zimmerman. “I didn’t like all of the spiders in the observatory, but Dr. Beaky helped me get rid of them. Other than that, it’s really cool.”
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By John Dubensky ’14 6
Of Mice and Men: Studying Human Disease in Mice The great thing about research is that if you knew exactly what was going to happen in every experiment, there would be no need for it. Sometimes things pan out differently than expected, which is what Jennifer Arbella ‘14 has learned through her biochemistry research. Arbella of Miami, Fla., is researching genetic factors for Alzheimer’s Disease using mice as test subjects. Arbella is part of a team that deleted in test mice a specific gene known as nicastrin—which has been linked to inducing Alzheimer’s disease. However, deleting nicastrin in the mice seems to have caused schizophrenia instead of Alzheimer’s. “Nicastrin is part of a protein complex that has been linked to inducing Alzheimer’s disease,” says Arbella. “We wanted to see if nicastrin had an effect on Alzheimer’s, but we’re not seeing that.” Instead, the mice exhibited behavior that might indicate schizophrenia, including hyperactivity and compulsive grooming. Arbella also said that there are some abnormalities with the brain cells of the mice, which could interfere with their learning process and communication. The research is the result of a collaborative effort between the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Juniata College’s Daniel Dries, assistant professor of chemistry. Arbella spent 11 weeks during the 2013 summer at UT Southwestern working on the project.
Found in Translation: Inspired by Public Medicine
“I loved the lab at UT,” says Arbella. “I learned 10 different lab techniques over there, like RNA sequencing, RNA extraction, perfusion, gel electrophoresis, and immunopanning. I love the research we’re doing, and I definitely want to get into neuroscience now.” Arbella also learned a lot about the mice she was working with. Mice are surprisingly comparable to humans anatomically and physiologically, and over 95 percent of the mouse genome is similar to the human genome. “The only problem is you can’t talk to mice when you use them as a test subject,” says Arbella. “With humans, you can see if they’re actually exhibiting the behavior phenotype you think they have by talking to them.” With roughly 45,000 lines of genetic data to sift through on an Excel spreadsheet, Arbella says that although she loves her research, it’s not a walk in the park. “You should have seen me on the first day,” says Arbella. “I had to start doing procedures on mice the next day and I couldn’t even pick one up. Learning how to grab the mice was the best part, because they’re actually really cute.” By John Dubensky ’14
By John Wall Photo: courtesy Becca McFadden ’14 7
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Navigating the nooks and crannies of the American healthcare system is intimidating even for those who are insured, able to understand what “co-pay” means, and have a personal rapport with their physician. Image trying to find your way through a medical appointment when you don’t understand the language. Becca McFadden ’14, of Goshen, Ind., has long thought about how non-English speakers assimilate into the culture of the United States and has devoted her senior research project in Spanish to better understand how Latino populations have access to health care. Becca is getting ready to earn a master’s degree in public health and then on to tackle medical school, but the inspiration for her project dates back earlier, to her high school soccer team to be exact. “I was captain of the team and almost all my teammates were Hispanic,” she explains. “Goshen has a growing Mexican population who have come to the area for manufacturing jobs.” Every summer, Becca would work as a volunteer at Goshen’s Center for Healing and Hope, a clinic aimed at low-income patients, and in summer 2014, she became a medical translator at Goshen’s hospital. “I wanted to find out what were the specific cultural barriers that might block access to healthcare,” explains McFadden, who spent time interviewing Hispanic patients at the local hospital in Goshen. “It was important to use my hometown because I wanted to see it through the lens of my experiences at Juniata.” In her capstone paper (fair warning: it had to be written in Spanish), McFadden found the most daunting barriers faced by Hispanic patients were socio-economic, such as income, transportation and other factors, rather than language. Her paper argues that improvements and programs aimed at improving healthcare for Hispanic populations should be instituted from two fronts: language and socio-economic factors. “I think we need to create some sort of cultural competency where the patient not only understands how to get to the doctor’s office but also when they get there the patient and staff have an interaction that both sides feel good about,” she says. The process of researching cultural barriers for Hispanic patients has McFadden feeling pretty good about her choice to focus on public health in her medical career. “If you want to address access to health care, you can’t just look at the surface, you have to look at the larger issues,” she says. “That’s what’s driving my interest in public health—it’s a chance to affirm for myself that there is an interest in public health and I hope my work is of interest to others.”
student research issue
Come Back to Texas: Student’s Journey Begins, Ends in Lone Star State Jerika Jordan ’14 has had one intention all along: to use her leadership skills to help others. During high school, she was sure she would achieve this goal by becoming a social worker. But, a senior project—similar to the ones done in many high schools that ask students to compare and contrast two careers—changed her mind. As she studied careers, Jordan had begun to daydream about the science centers, zoos, and museums her mother had taken her to as a child. To dive into museum studies at Juniata, Jordan moved from Lakeway, Texas, halfway across the country, after reading online that the Juniata College Museum of Art collection includes a Rembrandt etching. Her dream of seeing that etching would soon come true, but other wishes—ones she didn’t even know she had yet—would also become real as she added experience upon experience until, not unlike an Impressionist painting, a final image emerged. For her senior capstone project, Jordan, Shelby Miller ’15, of Pottstown, N.Y., and Karen Rosell, professor of art history, are writing and publishing a catalogue on Juniata’s Worth B. Stottlemyer Collection, a collection of nearly 500 objects that include miniatures, Asian prints, works from the Hudson River School, Old Masters and modernists like James Whistler. Jordan and Miller were hand-picked by Rosell to help write the catalog, which will allow alumni, prospective students, faculty, current students and the public to view, study and enjoy the collection through the printed catalog. Jordan’s experience—which combines her knowledge of art history, curation, marketing, and leadership skills—has resulted in 19 catalog entries written on specific collection works of art as well as a chapter introduction. Together, these skills paint a beautiful picture on her resume, which caught the eye of a familiar museum, where she’s headed next. In fact, it’s not too far from her Texas home. This summer, Jordan will intern at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She hopes to help in the outreach department of HMFA, saying, “One of the things that has stuck with me from my museum studies course is that it is imperative that kids have museum experiences by age five. This will determine if they visit museums as adults.” In other words, generations of kids who benefit from Jordan’s museum efforts—whether she ends up as a curator or outreach coordinator—will be glad that her mom took her to meander past Monets as a child. “I’m so glad my mom took me there,” Jordan says. “I can’t imagine life without museums.” By Genna Welsh Kasun ’06
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Growth Industry: An Overstuffed Food System? No one can accuse Ally Lush ’14 of thinking small. Inspired by an internship at an organic food market and studyabroad experiences in The Gambia and Ecuador, the international studies POE created an in-depth analysis of how market values affect the global food system. Specifically, the Spring Mills, Pa. student is interested in the morality of creating a global food system dominated by agribusiness giants churning out processed foods, genetically modified crops and seeds, and industrial-scale marketing programs. “When you commodify a product, you take away its original meaning,” she explains. “When you put a price on an ear of corn, it’s 8
By John Wall
no longer just corn, but also corn syrup, corn chips and other products made from corn as a commodity.” In her capstone research paper, Lush argues that the morality of installing a global agricultural food production system and expecting everyone to toe the line of large-scale food production is, at its center, ill-advised. “Is it fair for us to set up a system worldwide that is not sustainable in the long run and puts a lot of power in the hands of a few corporations?’ Lush asks. As she wrote in her report, “To address these issues, we should engage in food and agriculture policy discussions at the international, national and local level.”
Lush, an international studies POE, would like to have a seat at the table in any of these discussions if she gets the opportunity. Her passion for food equity was inspired by a summer job at a local company, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, where she saw consumers were willing to pay a few cents more for food grown on small-scale farms. She was further informed by spending the 2012 spring semester in The Gambia seeing how small-scale peanut farmers were affected by global food prices. In addition, another trip abroad in spring 2013 to Ecuador revealed how “food sovereignty,” or the right for a country to produce food sustainably and to define
Being There: Accentuating the Positive
Schuyler Beauvais-Nikl (left) with Mainstream Counseling counselor Christie Steidle.
By John Wall
If students walked around campus with a personal theme song, then surely Schuyler Beauvais-Nikl ’14 would be accompanied to classes and personal interactions by the 1970s Billy Swan country hit “I Can Help.” Indeed, the lyrics describe Schuyler’s personal mantra. If you’ve got a problem, I don’t care what it is. If you need a hand, I can assure you of this. I can help. “It’s sort of a cliché, but I really enjoy helping people,” says Beauvais-Nikl, who has been pointing toward a career in social work since he was in high school in Denver, Colo., where he spend a full year shadowing a school social worker. He’s never wavered from that goal in four years at the College and found his vision was fulfilled by his professional semester in spring semester 2014. In Social Work, POEs are expected to work about 40 hours a week at a local placement and Beauvais-Nikl was placed with Mainstream Counseling, a Huntingdon drug and alcohol counseling agency. He was specifically interested in Mainstream because the agency operates several prevention programs in area school districts. “As part of the placement, I was asked to develop a project and I decided to run a four-week group with students at Southern Huntingdon High School,” says Beauvais-Nikl. “In participating in these groups I realized that many of the programs focus on the negative—don’t drink, don’t do drugs—and that can keep the focus on destructive behaviors,” he explains. “I wanted to focus on the positive aspects of their lives.” Beauvais-Nikl created the Confidence, Acceptance, Responsibility, Empowerment Support Group (CARES, for acronym aficionados). “My first group was centered on selfconfidence and body image and I used the Dove Soap “Real Women” ad campaign to spark interaction among the students,” he says. “That was really cool when you allow them to voice their emotions and you’re able to react to their words and help them move beyond it,” he says. “It set my passions flying when I saw how the program I designed succeeded.” To ensure his groups continue to evolve, Beauvais-Nikl designed, with help from Kathy Jones, professor of education, and Ron McLaughlin, professor of psychology, a pre-test and post-test that will help the budding social worker tweak his group methods. Still, he also realizes that a large part of social work is waiting for an opening to offer help. “One of the things Susan Radis (professor of social work) always tells us is “separate the deed from the doer,’ and realize there is always some good in people,” Beauvais-Nikl explains. “Even if they say they don’t want to be in the group or in school, some part of them wants to be there. They’ll come to you when they’re ready and you just have to be there when they do.”
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their own food and agriculture systems, did not always work out in real life. In her final paper, Lush built the case that if enough concerned communicators work to change consumer attitudes—in other words, convince consumers to pay a bit more for sustainable products—the food system can be more moral and equitable. She will put her livelihood where her mind is after graduating when she goes to work on an organic farm in Maine. “I wrote the paper to find out how the whole process works and it kind of scared me,” she admits. “On one hand it was a lot to take in, but it was also important for me to figure out what I can do to make this understandable to a mass audience.”
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One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish: Studying Mercury Toxicity in Pennsylvania Ecosystems It’s not every day that work and interests overlap. In both the professional and academic world, it isn’t uncommon to have to work on a project that you aren’t exactly enthusiastic about. However, that might just make it all the sweeter when an opportunity comes along that is right up your alley. Nicole Marks ’14, of Gardners, Pa., is very lucky in that respect: her biology research allows her to work outdoors in an effort to learn more about the ecosystems of Pennsylvania. Growing up in central Pennsylvania, she is no stranger to an outdoorsy lifestyle. Marks is part of a team headed by Chris Grant, assistant research professor, investigating the effects of Marcellus shale fracking on Pennsylvania streams. Specifically, Marks is looking at how methyl mercury interacts with ecosystems between areas that are fracked versus non-fracked. “We have streams that we’re looking at that are pristine and unaffected,”
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says Marks. “Then we have streams that we’re looking at that are fracked. The ultimate goal is to see how fracking affects the ecosystem in general.” The research team looks at several different aspects of the streams, including diversity measures, water chemistry parameters, and watershed characteristics. They analyze sediment, moss, periphyton, crayfish and other macroinvertebrates, and perhaps most importantly for Marks, brook trout. “Dr. Grant’s really great about letting everybody have their own mini-project,” says Marks. “My project is looking at
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carbon and nitrogen isotopes that we use to show the biomagnification of mercury throughout the food web.” Biomagnification occurs when the concentration of some substance (like mercury) in an organism (like a brook trout) surpasses the background concentration of the substance in the organism’s diet. Over the past few summers, Marks went out and electrofished in the field and collected samples. “We basically do the vast majority of our field work over the summer, and then do lab analysis, statistics, writing, and all that during the semester,” says Marks. Marks’ research affects a lot more than a couple of backwoods streams. “Whether or not people know it, a lot of people in northwestern Pennsylvania fish brook trout for consumption,” says Marks. “Methyl mercury is a neurotoxin, which has the ability to harm you if you eat brook trout that are getting a higher intake. Brook trout are also a native fish of Pennsylvania, and their populations need to be protected.” Marks, who is interested in toxicology, ecology, and conservation, seems to have reeled in a research project which is perfect for her. “Natural gas exploration looks good on paper because it’s bringing us profit and giving us energy, but any potential negative effects must be explored,” says Marks. “It’s really cool to be able to see the impacts directly.” By John Dubensky ’14
Net Profit: Finding Gold in Hoops Stats First impressions count. Take Paul Ejups ’14. He’s tall, 6'6," lanky, moves with the smooth, assured grace that many athletes have. Basketball player, right? Nope, he’s a volleyball player and performed on Juniata’s dominant men’s team the first three years he attended the College. Gut instinct counts in the National Basketball Association too. It’s easy to draft Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Lebron James. They go first, right? Well actually, Jordan was taken third and Kobe Bryant was taken 13th in the NBA draft. So how do you tell the Jordans and the Bryants from such spectacular flameouts like Adam Morrison, Kwame Brown, or Jimmer Fredette? Don’t go with your gut. Instead start digging through statistics to make a more rational decision. This approach, first applied to baseball has been lionized in books (Moneyball), movies (Moneyball), and textbooks (The Baseball Abstract). Over the past few years, savvy executives in professional football, soccer, and basketball are starting to apply sophisticated numerical analysis in their draft choices. Enter Ejups again. He’s always been a numbers guy. He has devoured sports statistics since he’s been old enough to count beyond 10. He came to Juniata to study accounting. That is, until he realized he could get a job analyzing sports stats.
An App a Day: Informing Instructional Technology
By John Wall 11
2014 Spring-Summer
“In the last few years many sports teams have started hiring analysts and I thought I’d like to try for an entry-level position with a team,” Ejups says. The would-be stathead met with business professor Randy Rosenberger, who is overseeing Ejup’s POE in sport management, to formulate a capstone research project, to propose analyzing the results of the NBA draft from 1978 to 2012 using a recognizably accepted basketball statistic called a win share. A win share is calculated by averaging the offensive and defensive statistics (as well as points produced per 100 possessions and a couple of other metrics) and is listed for every player on a website called basketball-reference.com. “I wanted to see if there were any draft pick positions that were statistically better based on the performance of the players selected from that slot in the draft,” Ejups explains. He found some interesting trends. Interesting enough that he sent his research along with job applications to several NBA teams. Not all his research, though. It seems there’s no way to print it out. “The Excel spreadsheet is 60 cells deep and has more than 300 cells long, I can’t afford to print it out,” he says. Does he have a gut instinct he’ll get a job doing this? Who knows, but the numbers seem to say yes.
Like many Juniatians, Tessa Thomas ’14 has changed her Program of Emphasis several times. Initially interested in teaching, Tessa found that she didn’t want to spend every hour in front of a classroom full of students. But, she wasn’t thrilled to sit behind a desk, either, as she found out some marketing and IT professionals do. “After trying different options, Several road trips, surveys, and I realized I still want to work in the phone calls later, Thomas concluded education field,” Thomas says. that Juniata lags behind Lock Haven So, she decided to interview University and Saint Francis University in Justine Black ’08, assistant director creating online courses but is ahead of of instructional technology at Juniata, the pack on integrating iPads and other who spends her days both researching software applications into the physical and learning about applications that classroom. can help Juniata faculty integrate “I immediately brought my research technology into their teaching and to my job and implemented trainings the classroom. that Juniata was missing,” Thomas says. Tessa learned a lot about “I was able to present to my peers and to instructional technology—a career professors and administrators about how field where professionals with an Juniata can lead in online learning and interest in technology and education instructional technology.” can help facilitate technology use in Thomas also presented at Liberal the classroom by training educators. Arts Symposium. And, she’ll undoubtedly In addition to finding her calling, take her experience with her in her next Thomas also found a student job. phase—when she’ll be working for Aflac, Shortly after their conversation began, providing new employee technology Black hired Thomas to work as her training—after picking up her Juniata student training manager, a role in diploma in May in Instructional which Tessa has taught her professors Technology. how to use software like GarageBand, “I was ecstatic to find out I could iMovie, Prezi, Evernote, and Pinterest. train people with technology,” Thomas When it came time for Thomas says. “I am a very social person and have to complete a senior research project always enjoyed being around people and for an independent study course, helping them discover new things, so this she decided to visit and review was a perfect field for me to get into.” technology solutions centers at By Genna Welsh Kasun ’06 nearby colleges to find out how Juniata’s competitors use technology in the classroom.
student research issue
Contemplating Simplicity: College Reduced to Essentials College has always been the place where you find an interest or a path or a career. Put simply it’s a place where you find your place in the world. As it turns out, Dylan Miller’s place in the world is in a no-frills, low-thrills, high-chills structure deep in the woods near the Peace Chapel. He couldn’t be happier. Miller ’15, of Meadville, Pa., is in the preparatory phase of planning an ambitious capstone research project to earn his degree in English and philosophy that will take him out of the classroom and into a senior year devoted to the minimalist lifestyle. Shorthand version—and Dylan strives for simplicity—he will live in a structure he will build himself using nothing but wood, leaves and branches. He plans to eat most of his meals and sleep in the Spartan structure fall and spring semester next year. He even prepared for his project by living in a cave during spring semester. He’s so serious about this vision that he wrote a 21-page proposal to his advisers—Will Dickey, assistant professor of English and Wade Roberts, assistant professor of philosophy—and created a reading list that includes Thoreau, Emerson, Aldo Leopold, and a Buddhist text called The Dhammapada. “I wanted them to know I wasn’t some kid who saw Into the Wild and decided to give it a try,” Miller says. “I have given this a lot of thought and I have some experience with (the lifestyle).” Miller met with College administrators this spring and received the go-ahead in March. His research will consist of writing a journal documenting his lifestyle through fall semester 2014 and then using his own writings as a window into understanding the writings of H.D. Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other authors and philosophers. Although Miller hopes to use his research paper as a path to graduate school to earn a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy, his academic purpose is different. “I think the project is more directly related to my past,” he says. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do and I also want to leave a positive impact and benefit others. I don’t need to be in college to do this. I could drop out and live in the woods. Instead I want to live as an example, even if it’s an extreme example.” It’s not that extreme anyway. He was partly inspired by a Juniata student who several years ago lived in a geodesic dome and he is amazed he goes to a college that would allow him the leeway to finish his dream. “This is living out the College slogan. I’m doing the ‘Act’ part.” By John Wall
Psychology in Motion: Researching Cultural Clues Tori Rehr ’14 is the first to admit that the image conjured when you hear the phrase “psychology research” assumes she’s watching rats in a maze rather than what she’s actually doing for her senior capstone research.
Juniata
What she’s doing is painstakingly examining several years of surveys filled out by students and school districts who participate in Juniata’s Language in Motion program in order to find out if students in the program better understand the cultural differences and perceptions they experience and react to when encountering international students or domestic students from different cultural backgrounds. “Originally, Deb (Roney, director of Language in Motion) wanted us to assess 12
a survey she was using with the end goal of improving the survey,” explains Rehr, who presented her research this year at the NCUR conference at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. “I thought we could take a much more deeply analyzed look at the data.” Among the highlights she found: a) About 60 percent of Juniata’s international students participated in the program, much higher than previously estimated. b) Students believe the programs helps them understand international cultures. c)
Students are more able to evaluate their own culture in the context of foreign cultures. “I’m certainly interested in educational psychology research, which really is all about analyzing how people learn and how they develop skills,” Rehr says. “Mark McKellop (professor of psychology) said it this way: ‘If you put two chemicals in a beaker, you pretty much know what’s going to happen. If you put two people in a room, you have no idea what’s going to happen.’ That’s what is fascinating to me—human behavior is incredibly complex, but we can use science to analyze it.” Rehr started her research with Anne Gilman, visiting assistant professor of psychology, working on one of Gilman’s
Hot Commodity: Student Learns Valuable Skill in Biostatistics Nothing makes your skills more in demand than having a knack for mathematics. Even when you’re counting bacteria in the goo on the side of a sewage plant, a little math still comes in handy. Vicky Arthur ‘14 found this out after she began working with biostatistics. Arthur, of Lancaster, Pa., collaborated with Gina Lamendella, assistant professor of biology, during the fall semester to find out what microorganisms were in the wastewater at the Huntingdon water treatment plant. The plant had a lot of biofilm built up, which, explained simply, is a coating of microorganisms grouped together. Arthur worked across disciplines with Kimberly Roth, associate professor of mathematics, to figure out different statistical methods to cluster biology-related data together. Cluster analysis is a technique used to group data together in a way so that similar objects are closer together. “The gist is that every clustering method does something differently,” says Arthur. “There’s no one good clustering method based on what data you have. We’re just trying to figure out which one is better for which data.” The project itself is a combined effort for Arthur, Lamendella, and Roth, which helped Arthur to mix her interest in biology and her interest in math. The research has shown Arthur the value of adding together her experiences in different disciplines. “I might be interested in bioinformatics and biostatistics in the future,” says Arthur. “Hopefully this research will let me see how much I like these fields.” While Arthur admits that learning the statistics behind the different clustering methods is proving more complicated than she initially thought, several professors are counting on getting Arthur to work with their data as well. “We have a lot of data,” says Arthur. “There’s a whole bunch of Dr. Lamendella’s data from last semester because it’s all microbes. Then if we get through that, Dr. James Borgardt has data for us on something nuclear, and Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan has data for us on something about coyotes. I don’t know how much we’ll actually get through.” If this is any indicator of the job market, Arthur’s career prospects seem to be growing exponentially. “We didn’t really ever learn any of the actual statistics behind things in any of the bio classes,” says Arthur. “Bio majors are kind of terrified of statistics. They figure all they have to do is plug data into the computer and it gives you nice graphs.” By John Dubensky ’14
By John Wall 13
2014 Spring-Summer
projects focused on language usage. Rehr found she responded to the rigor of analysis. “My professors let me develop my interests; they weren’t just plugging me in to their own research.” Rehr plans to use the rigor she savors in graduate school, but first she wants to gain some classroom experience (“Educational psychologists should know what it’s like in a classroom.”) as a volunteer with Teach for America. She will spend two years teaching in Memphis, Tenn. “I like academic arguments and I like taking different sides and demystifying things,” she says. “I also like projects that have definitive outcomes, so this has taught me how to appreciate a slow and steady project and not just think in terms of the next test or the next semester.”
student research issue
Front-end Fruition: Networking Web-style Think of Ethan Nichols ’14 as a prison warden, except his interest is keeping people out of a structure instead of in. His senior research project focuses on a software program called Active Directory, a Microsoft product used in any website that requires a user name and password to get into a website. He aims to create a Web-based software application that will allow website administrators—the wardens in our metaphor—to change settings in the Active Directory program. Q: All we hear about is creating iPhone or Android apps, why choose to create a web program? A: If you make an iPhone app that’s about 40 percent of the market and an Android app is about 50 percent of the market. Creating software as a web application makes it cross-platform, or, in other words, it will work on computers, phones, and tablets. Q: Has making a Web “front end” for Active Directory been done before? A: A lot of people have done it, but there’s always room for improvement. For me, the process is more important than the product. There are a lot of system integration challenges, and computer software that manages user networks is big, it’s still growing, and there will be a persistent need for people who know how this software works. Any company—from NASA to your local church— uses this program and they will all need an IT guy. Q: What’s your process?
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A: I tend to document all the issues that you see and make a list of what you’re going to do to address each issue. Then you document each problem and document each solution. I like iterative learning, where you learn to do something and repeat it again and again. Really, any software development project becomes a problemsolving exercise. I’m not (nearly as) organized in my life as I am when I’m working. Q: What do you aim for when creating a program? A: Is it simple? Is it easy to maintain? Does it allow for reuse? Is it scalable? That takes a person who focuses on efficiency and simplicity. You have to think I’m at point A, I need to get to point B. What’s the most efficient way to get there. In the end, when it all works, that’s really exciting—but there’s also a lot of frustration in working up to that point. It’s knowing there will be problems and learning to solve them that makes this great.
Juniata
By John Wall
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Women Under the Influence of Film Mix the frenetic camerawork and raw emotional performances familiar to fans of John Cassavetes movies, the stylized symbolism of classic film noir, and the shiny, consumer-driven 1960s look of Mad Men and what do you get? Naked. No, not physically naked. This is still a family-friendly College. Instead, two Juniata theatre students, Jessie Haggerty-Denison ’14 and Libby Casey ’14, have collaborated on making Naked, a film that they hope lays out the naked emotion and desperation facing two couples as they go through a typical day. “Each character is sort of representative of ’60s (archetypes),” Haggerty-Denison says. “There’s a businessman, a classic housewife, a business executive who is also a closeted gay man, and a housewife who is sort of off her rocker.” Casey says the film collaboration arose when she decided to abandon a theatrical performance capstone monologue in order to help HaggertyDenison realize her vision of a film that channels the raw acting power of the 1960s films she loves to watch, such as Faces or A Woman Under the Influence. The two women, both theatrical
Through a Lens Brightly: Focus on Art
By John Wall
By John Wall
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2014 Spring-Summer
performance POEs, also did double duty as they directed and acted in the 40-minute, black-and-white movie. They both believe the project has allowed them to grow artistically and build their skills in other areas. “Creating work is not my strength, in fact it terrifies me,” Casey says. “Working with Jessi was an opportunity to branch out while at the same time taking the pressure off myself to do everything.” “My challenge was to kind of let the project fly on its own and trust that all the different elements would come together in the end,” Haggerty-Denison says with a laugh. “Filming and editing are so specific and scheduling rooms and houses to film in was definitely nerve-wracking. I had to learn to let go of the controls.” Both actor-auteurs came through the experience stronger, wiser and not coincidentally, in possession of a pretty extensive audition piece to launch their post-Juniata careers. They already know they need to be ready for anything—like capturing a much-needed shot during a snowstorm. “We were both acting and directing in the snow—and in heels.”
Thomas Jordan ’14, of Bethesda, Md., was busy in his final Juniata semester. He completed a major research project analyzing wine with chemist Peter Baran and he completed a senior capstone art project that received a museum show in March. Jordan loves the exacting nature of science, but truly he has more chemistry with the camera and the natural world. “One of the things about photography is that it’s a very technical art,” Jordan explains. “There’s math, there’s numbers, there’s chemistry. It’s not just art.” Creating art is finally coming into focus for Jordan, who started working with photography in high school and transferred from the University of Maryland to Juniata specifically to minor in art. His capstone project is an ambitious look at landscapes using infrared photography. By adjusting his digital Canon camera to filter out all available light but infrared, Jordan created hauntingly beautiful landscapes of the area around the Great Falls of the Potomac River. “The images come out black and white,” he explains. “But the sky and water comes out very dark and the vegetation tends to be very bright. It creates a surreal effect.” Almost as surreal is the amount of time Jordan dedicated to both his art and chemistry projects. “What’s most exciting to me is the amount of freedom I was given to find the cutting edge (in both disciplines).” Jordan also has the freedom to explore the world through his camera lens and job opportunities in both chemistry and photography. In the short term, chemistry wins this round, as he hopes to work in a lab for a year after graduation. But in the long run, he believes photography is the landscape he wants to live in. He plans to apply to several graduate-level photography programs in the year after he graduates. “When I look at the work of other photographers, it provokes a strong response in me. I would like to get that response in my own work. I think it’s all about figuring out how to get other people to see the world the way you do.” >j<
Graduate School Gradient By John Wall
For decades, and to some extent still today, the brand for Juniata was “the college to go to if you want to go to med school.” While there still is a long-established pipeline from Juniata’s halls to the myriad health professions schools, over time the College has morphed beyond medicine so that the new brand might be “Where to go when you want to go to GRADUATE school.” Anecdotally, it seems as though every senior Juniata student you meet is either taking the GREs, interviewing with graduate programs, or negotiating funding from a research university. Certainly the majority of students profiled in this issue are going to be furthering their education within a year or two after Commencement. Here are some statistics to mull over: Â Juniata is in the top 25 for Ph.D.s in the life sciences among the 160 colleges in Juniata’s Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification, above such competitors as Bates College, Middlebury College, and Bucknell University. Â Juniata ranks 71st out of 160 in the total number of graduates earning a doctorate over the last 10 years in all academic disciplines, including the social sciences and humanities. This score is above such competitors as Gettysburg College, Dickinson College, and Bennington College. One of the most telling indicators of graduate school excellence is success in graduate school. While there are many ways to define success, one of the most accurate measures is success in applying for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowships. “The NSF awards Graduate Research Fellowships to students with the greatest potential for a productive career in science,” explains Vince Buonaccorsi, professor of biology. “Students who receive one of these awards have a strong stamp of approval that will be universally recognized at any college, university, or laboratory where they want to work.” Another statistic to mull over: Â Since 2007, 11 Juniata students in graduate school have received GRFP fellowships and eight have received honorable mentions. One student, Katerina Korch ’12, received her 2012 fellowship before she entered her graduate program. In 2014, two graduates Mike Nguyen ’12 and Danielle Fulmer ’11, received awards in geochemistry and peace studies, respectively. Nguyen is
Photo: Jason Jones
Nowadays, college and university marketers are always searching for ways to “brand” their institution. Reduced to a slogan, the brand of a business is “the essential truth of an organization repeated over and over.”
Juniata students excel at graduate educational opportunities because they are taught to ask questions, to discuss any topic in class, and to apply for experiential internships and research projects.
at Baylor University and Fullmer is at the University of Notre Dame. In addition, three Juniata graduates received 2014 honorable mentions, the most ever in a single year. Brandon Moyer ’11 is at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Joseph Porter ’11 is at the Oregon State University; and Steven Strutt ’13 is at the University of California-Berkeley. “I think it is important to link the high-impact practice of undergraduate research at Juniata to outcomes such as Fulbright fellowships, Goldwater Scholarships, St. Andrews scholarships, and other honors,” Buonaccorsi says. “I would wager that all the students making it to this level were part of a facultymentored undergraduate research program at Juniata, or some other kind of high-impact practice.”