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. During a history presentation at Juniata’s 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 student’s Program of Emphasis (POE) does not require a major research project, the faculty ask students to complete a senior capstone project. In these pages, please meet 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.