Student Research
The following student experiences illustrate the breadth of research made possible by the Cater Society of Junior Fellows. Check back regularly for new profiles.
Tonie Domino
As a biology major hoping to attend veterinary school, I always thought I would be too busy to study abroad. Fortunately, I was able to take part in the Environmental Studies summer program in Ecuador. We visited the Galapagos, the rainforests, the high Andes, and everywhere in between. In each place we saw how the local people interacted with their environment, in positive and negative ways. One interaction stood out for me: the exploitation of oil reserves beneath irreplaceable tropical rain forests. Many people depend on the oil industry, both for energy and for employment, so ending exploration is not a viable solution. I researched whether or not the relationship between the rainforests and the oil industry, currently harmful, could ever exist as a healthy one. It turns out that there are many ways to make oil exploration safer for the environment, and that many of these have financial benefits for the companies that employ them.
One solution is to use microbes to refine the crude oil; this eliminates a group of extremely toxic chemicals, and can often increase the speed at which impurities are removed from the oil. Damage is done not just by oil drilling, but by the infrastructure needed to run a drilling site. Roads fracture the forest into many parts, and many animal and bird species are restricted to smaller habitats. Some companies have begun to build roads that leave the canopy of the forest intact: the canopy is the major highway for most species. Despite these positive solutions, the fact remains that use of petroleum products is damaging to the environment and climate. My conclusion was that government and industry should encourage oil companies to use alternative exploration and drilling methods, but that we, as members of a global civilization, should actively seek alternative energy sources.
Reilly Joret
The grant I received from the Cater Society of Junior Fellows provided me with the opportunity to take part in the Kiplin Hall Summer Program, a three-week study abroad in the Lake District of England. This trip allowed me to give careful attention to great works of English Literature by authors such as William Wordsworth.
Through the hikes and reading I did on the trip, the poems and ideas of Wordsworth became part of my own experience. I now have a deeper understanding of William Wordsworth that goes beyond what is possible in the classroom.
Sonya Thomas
The grant I received from the Society of Junior Fellows allowed me to partake in an eight week summer internship program sponsored by Davidson College at Broughton Hospital in Morganton, North Carolina.
The internship provides an opportunity for undergraduate students interested in clinical psychology to get practical experience in dealing with psychiatric populations by working with hospital professionals as observers and assistants in patient treatment programs. I was assigned to the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Unit which provided long-term care for such patients. The internship involved the completion of a case-specific diagnostic study, daily journals and classroom instruction as well as participation in case conferences, treatment team meetings and group therapy sessions.
Lindsay A. Bell
As a major in International Studies, I have always been fascinated with India. With the aid of a Douglass Cater Society of Junior Fellows Grant, I was able to travel to India to observe and study the effects of globalization. My project combined my fascination with Indian culture as well as my more newly developed passion in studying economics, business and globalization. During the course of my travels to Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Agra, I met with technology companies as well as nongovernmental organizations to conduct my research.
I found that parts of India were affected by globalization differently. However, Bangalore was the most globalized city. Bangalore offers attractive tax breaks as well as a more streamlined bureaucracy that appeals to foreign direct investments as well as Indian companies. One particular company in Chennai was started exclusively in India and currently serves many high profile American customers. It leads the way in India's movement towards reverse globalization as well as in revenue and development of software and technology solutions.
Although a number of Indians benefit from the profits brought in by globalization, a significant percent are left behind. The nongovernmental organizations that I had to the opportunity to visit play a role in mitigating the negative effects of globalization. Because of the vast number of people and limited resources, addressing the problems associated with globalization are best tackled on the small scale with community-based initiatives and nongovernmental organizations. USAID also play an important role by facilitating partnerships with private industries in the US.
Katie Juromski
For ten weeks this summer I worked at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC while residing in Foggy Bottom at The George Washington University. At NRL, I worked in the Laboratory for the Structure of Matter (LSM) specializing in x-ray crystallography. X-ray crystallography is the process of solving crystal structures by means data analysis of x-ray diffractions off of the internal components of unknown crystals. During the course of the summer I was able to learn more about the technique of solving crystal structures as well as solve a few of my own. This internship opened up an entirely new way of thinking for me; it has opened doors of opportunity and new ideas, as well as strengthened the type of person I am. I learned more this summer than I had imagined before entering the gates.
Christina Bell
I received a grant from SJF that allowed me to travel to Ecuador with a group of Washington College students. This three-week course consisted of travel, as well as lectures and a variety of learning experiences led by instructors from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As an Environmental Studies major and Anthropology minor, I was especially interested in the unique biodiversity present throughout Ecuador, as well as specific environmental issues and their effect on the people.
The trip consisted of a week in the Galapagos Islands, a week in the Amazon rainforest at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station for research, and a week traveling through the Andes, with our home base in the capital city of Quito. I was able to use this opportunity to conduct interviews and gain a much greater understanding of the diverse indigenous groups of Ecuador. My research focused on several cultures and their specific relationships with the environment, with the objective of practical application and comparison to current conservation strategies.
Brandon Righi
My name is Brandon Righi, and I am a History major with a Political Science minor.
I had the opportunity, thanks to the Society of Junior Fellows, to participate in the Washington College Archaeology Field School, administered by John Seidel and the Anthropology department. The goal of this annual field school is to give students a chance to do real archaeology and field survey, and to explore and expand the archaeological record of the Kent County and Delmarva region. This year, as in summers past, the Field School was looking for physical evidence of Native American settlement in northern Kent County; specifically, we hoped to find traces of the village of the Tockwogh Indians. We know the rough location of this village thanks to John Smith, who explored the Chesapeake Bay region in his famous expedition of 1608-09.
The Field School was my first exposure to archaeology, and I learned quite a bit about its proper practice and technique. We worked at a dig in Anne Arundel County for two days, and visited locations of past large-scale excavations. The majority of our activity, however, was field survey, literally walking through cultivated fields looking for surface artifacts. Much to my surprise, this technique proved successful, as we found well over twenty discernable sites of past Native American habitation, as well as some colonial European sites. While the contact-era village of Tockwogh was not located, the experience proved to be enlightening, increasing my awareness of the local historical and archaeological record, and how accessible the field of archaeology can be to even a novice.
I could go on about the intellectual rewards of the Field School, but I will finish with once again thanking the Society of Junior Fellows for the generous grant I was awarded.
Astra Haldeman
My project, "Traditional Indian Craft," allowed me to explore aspects of traditional craft in New Delhi, India. While in India I was able to witness a variety of ways in which traditional craft in India is preserved, as well as the manner in which artists both create and perform their various crafts. I had the opportunity to visit the Kathputli Colony, a large artists' community of about 5000 inhabitants that have emigrated from the state of Rajisthan. These artists have been able to maintain and improve their lifestyle, as well as find new markets for their crafts, through the aid of the Kalakar Trust, an NGO that helps the Kathputli Colony with income generation, healthcare, counseling, disease prevention, and education for both children and adults. While at the Kathputli Colony, I saw artists both perform and produce their crafts, which included puppets, music, and dance.
I also brought materials to use for a photography project, which will help to generate awareness about the efforts of the Kalakar Trust. In addition to visiting this community of artists, I also visited the National Crafts Museum, where a large variety of crafts, from both the past and present are on display. The Museum showcases these crafts both in its galleries, as well as in an outdoor area for crafts demonstrations, where visitors can see the making of traditional crafts from all over India. My experience in India allowed me to understand different methods that are being used to preserve traditional Indian craft, as well as learn more about the crafts and the artists themselves.
Ashley Smith
My name is Ashley Smith, and I am a Political Science major and Economics minor. At WC, I am a member of the Society of Junior Fellows, Pi Sigma Alpha, and serve as Vice-President of the College Republicans. When I graduate from WC I hope to pursue a career in politics.
My SJF grant allowed me to participate in an unpaid internship at the U.S. Congress. For eight weeks I interned on Capitol Hill with Congressman Wayne Gilchrest's office. During that time I contributed to the office by giving Capitol Tours, attending legislative hearings and mark-ups, preparing memorandums for the Congressman's use, and responding to constituent correspondence. I was also fortunate enough to attend an intern lecture series that included speakers like former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich.
My Capitol Hill experience allowed me to participate in the daily grind of federal policymaking and, in doing so, I was able to apply my "book knowledge" and gain some practical experience in the legislative process. From this experience I was able to network and make valuable connections that I hope will be of value to my resume and future in the political world.
Sarah Fritz
My name is Sarah Fritz; my majors are Hispanic Studies and Humanities, and I have minors in both English and History.
Last summer the Society of Junior Fellows afforded me the opportunity to act as an intern for the Queen Anne's County Board of Education's Summer Migrant Program. At the beginning of my summer, I worked to promote the Summer Migrant Program in the Hispanic community; I made home visits, and spoke to parents about signing up their children to participate in the program. I was hired as an ESOL teacher (teaching English to speakers of other languages) for Pre-kindergarten through the third grade, and I took on the additional task of becoming a bus monitor in the mornings and afternoons. The idea of the program is to keep the migrant children at an even level of education with their peers, and allow for the parents to be able to go to their jobs without leaving their children at home by themselves.
The summer migrant program was a very rewarding experience, and I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to participate in it. It allowed me to reach out to the Hispanic community on the Eastern Shore and experience real poverty firsthand.
Kim Last
I am double majoring in American Studies and Political Science. Currently, I am the Editor-in-Chief of The Elm, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, and a peer tutor at the WC Writing Center. When I graduate from WC, I hope to pursue a career in journalism.
My SJF Grant funded my unpaid internship with Manhattan Media, a newspaper publishing group responsible for publishing 5 weekly newspaper covering different areas of Manhattan. I was able to report for 4 of the weekly newspapers (all of which had circulations above the 50,000 mark) and covered everything from community board meetings and the 2005 New York City elections to vintage shopping tips and the bellydancing gym class craze. On one story that I worked on, I even interviewed the infamous subway vigilante, Bernard Goetz.
Working for Manhattan Media, I was able to get a real taste of reporting as I worked with several editors and interacted with everyday New Yorkers who wanted to share their issues with me. My daily tasks included working on 2-3 assignments for upcoming issues, as well as working on news briefs that ran in a section called "Express." In other words, I gained a lot of writing experience in a variety of different forms and solidified my passion for reporting. Over the course of 10 weeks, I accumulated over 25 clips, which will hopefully help me land a job/future internships.
Julia Lange
My name is Julia Lange and I'm an Environmental Studies major. I received a grant to participate in the Washington College Summer Program in Tanzania led by Dr. Shad, and study conservation and land protection issues during my trip. Tanzania is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, home to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Parks, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the Great Rift Valley.
Forty percent of the country is under some form of land protection, restricting human settlement and access to valuable resources for Tanzania's rapidly growing population. Hundreds of thousands of Maasai and rural farmers have been displaced from their lands and recieve none of the tourist revenue that these national parks generate. During my time in Tanzania, I was able to visit several national parks and Maasai villages, as well as schools and community projects in the city of Arusha.
The most important thing I learned during this trip was the significance of humans as part of their environment, rather than a seperate entity. Conservation efforts that protect land and wildlife at the expense of the people who depend upon it will never be successful.
Alana Wase
In June of 2005, I was able to go abroad to Tanzania through Washington College's summer course and SJF grant money to get a much closer look at the environmental, social, and economic issues that the country is facing.
The trip included visiting local villages and discussing with different Masaai tribes, (transitional and traditional), visiting two health clinics (traditional medicine and a western clinic), and several schools both public and private. We also spent a week on a safari first hand seeing the tourism industry and the environmental concerns that are associated with ecotourism and game hunting. While there I focused my study on the state of the education system in Tanzania.
The country has extremely high rates of student enrollment as their public school system has very few fees, however after looking closer, it was very apparent that this did not represent the quality of the education. Instead, the education system, from its lack of funding is overloaded with students, deprived of resources such as books, desks, chalkboards, and even teachers. This was an amazing experience for me to begin to understand how the majority of the world lives, in particular the students, Tanzania'a future leaders.
Caitlin Dorer
My name is Caitlin (CJ) Dorer and I was able to explore Europe thanks to the Society of Junior Fellows. I traveled all over Austria, Italy and Germany tracing the roots of world-renowned composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Vivaldi. I was also able to do an amazing cancer research internship in Italy. This past summer was absolutely amazing in many ways. The research that I did in Naples was so rewarding.
As a biology major, taking part in and creating procedures for cancer research was something that I never really thought was possible. I was able to work with and learn from a multidimensional group of scientists which will be an invaluable experience for my future as a researcher. As a music minor, being able to explore different composers cities was so wonderful. It really helped me get an idea of what inspired them to write such beautiful music. Hearing the music on the street corners of Venice, in the churches of Rome, in the concert halls of Salzburg, and going to an opera at La Scala still seems like it was part of a dream. It was definitely an exciting and unforgettable experience—a dream come true.
Lexi Paza
My name is Lexi Paza and I spent two months serving as an English tour guide in the Museum of Occupation of Latvia in Riga, Latvia. My father's parents were born in Latvia and lived there until their early twenties, when they immigrated to the United States. Working at the Museum of Occupation provided me with the opportunity to live and work in a country that I had only visited once before, but yearned to visit again to gain a better understanding of the people my grandparents were.
The museum in which I worked aimed to educate visitors about the three occupations of Latvia from 1940-1991 and to honor the victims of the occupations. As a tour guide, I led up to four tours a day to visitors from all over the world. I was fortunate enough to meet visitors from countries that I will never have a chance to visit myself, and I'm in awe at how many guests I still remember by name because our interactions had been so meaningful.
Marcie McConville
My name is Marcie McConville and I am a business management and economics majors. I studied European Union Competition Law in the Netherlands over the summer. Compared to my studies in U.S. law, I noticed some major differences between the two. The U.S. has a very different history than the E.U. so our competition law protects consumers while the E.U.'s law protects small businesses.
Also, the definition of 'market' varies between the two; the U.S. sees the market as broaoder, using demographics, geography, and other characteristics to define it. The E.U. on the other hand, tends to view the market as segmented into member states like France or Spain. Thanks to the Cater Society of Junior Fellows, I was able to attend this international course in Leiden.
Megan Walburn
I am an English major at Washington College concentrating on journalism, and I applied for a grant from the Cater Society of Junior Fellows to participate in a Study Abroad program for the summer of 2005. The Kiplin Hall program, led by English department chair Richard Gillin, followed the 19th century Romantic poets through England's Lake District and the Scottish Highlands from June 18-July 8.
The program could be considered any English major's fantasy, but I had a specific objective in mind to gain from Kiplin Hall, which I proposed to the Junior Fellows: "Only through the unique combination of lecture and experiencing the homelands of the poets first-hand can we see both the technical aspects of Romantic poetry and its meaning found in Nature. At the end of my study, I plan to be able to demonstrate the link between the study of poetry and effective contemporary journalism."
By examining the Romantics' poetic devices and story-telling techniques, and by immersing myself in their foreign culture, I gained the skills and confidence to spend the rest of my summer freelance writing for Chesapeake Bay Magazine, my school year editing college publications, and in the future, to contribute to society with better communication of news and information to the public readership.
Andrew Bright
My name is Andrew Bright. I am majoring in Biology. Besides my love of biology, I also love to row and am Co-captain of the Washington College men's rowing team.
The grant I received from the Society of Junior Fellows allowed me to travel to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the national annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in June of 2005. While at this meeting I was able to present my previous summer's research, conducted at Washington College under the guidance of Dr. Kathleen Verville. Also at the meeting I was able to talk to other professionals within the various disciplines of microbiology and learn about current research in areas of interest to me. It was an incredible experience! I sincerely appreciate the Douglas Cater Society of Junior Fellows for giving me the opportunity to participate in such an exciting and thought-provoking meeting. The following is the abstract that was accepted by and presented at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Atlanta:
Occurrence of Salmonella spp. in Small Potable Water Systems in the Tropics Correlated with Microbiological Indicators of Water Quality D. S. Herson1, C. Nichols1, K. Verville2, T. Stromberg2, A. Bright2, G.I. Ramirez3, L. Martinez3, Z. Ramirez3, H. Minnigh4; 1University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 2Washington College, Chestertown, MD, 3Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, San German, PR, 4RCAP Solutions, Inc., Gardner, MA.
Indicators have been used for at least 80 years in the monitoring of potable water. Contrary to indicator theory, many workers in the field have assumed negative indicator results are proof of a distribution system free from microbial pathogens. Seven small, remote portable water systems in Puerto Rico were sampled in the period June - November 2004 to determine if bacterial indicators of water quality and Salmonella were present. Relatively large volumes (8.7-10.9 liters) of both source and distributed water were filtered for Salmonella detection. One half of each filter was analyzed in Puerto Rico. The other half filters were shipped to the University of Delaware and Washington College laboratories for analysis. Indicators (total and fecal coliforms, E. coli, fecal streptococci and HPC) were enumerated in Puerto Rico using Standard Methods. The methodologies for Salmonella detection included a combination of Standard Methods, immunomagnetic separation and molecular techniques. Results from the three participating laboratories were not significantly different from each other by McNemar's test. Salmonella was found to occur in all but one of the raw waters and all but two of the distribution systems and in the presence of free chlorine residuals up to 0.8 mg/L. Although correlations were found between the presence of Salmonella and indicator organisms, each of the standard indicators was negative in at least one sample in which Salmonella was detected. Furthermore, for one sample where Salmonella was present, none of the standard indicators were detected. Our results suggest the assumption that negative indicators translate to safe drinking water should be reevaluated.