October 31, 2015
Scholar teams at work
It’s easy to get involved in research at Providence College. Students can simply send an email to join a professor’s team. For scholars working on individual projects, the Undergraduate Research Grant program, administered by the Office of Academic Affairs, offers grants to cover the cost of summer and academic-year research. The best part? Mentoring by experienced faculty who are experts in their fields. Here’s a look at some student-faculty research teams.
Cognitive development research is anything but child’s play for Dr. Jennifer L. Van Reet and the students in her KidThink lab. The associate professor of psychology studies how children learn through pretend play by demonstrating concepts and seeing how toddlers respond.
“A lot of parents assume children are learning things from pretending,” Van Reet said. “We’re trying to see whether children learn and what types of information they can learn.”
Van Reet said students gain “a different level of confidence in themselves” through research.
“They learn how to be independent thinkers and how to have confidence in their own ideas — that they can be effective in tackling a problem,” she said. “They leave PC thinking ‘You can do something meaningful, solve problems, and do work that helps someone and makes a difference.’ ”
The research experience put her textbook knowledge in context, said lab manager Emma Duffy ’16 (Holden, Mass.), who worked with Mikaila Christopher ’17 (Stoneham, Mass.) and Jamie Russo ’17 (Stratford, Conn.).
“Being in the lab helped me apply the things I learned in class in a real-world setting,” said Duffy.
Van Reet agreed. “It really shows them what being a scientist would be like, if they chose that path,” she said. In addition, “They’ve learned all sorts of skills that are applicable to a wide range of professions and fields.”
The chance for facetime with an instructor is a plus.
“At a lot of colleges, you don’t get the opportunity to work so closely with a professor,” Christopher said.
Meghan C. Lescault ’16 (Walpole, Mass.) spent the summer researching Virgil’s Aeneid with her faculty mentor, Dr. Robin J. Greene, assistant professor of history.
Lescault first read Virgil’s epic poem about the founding of Rome in AP Latin class as a high school senior. She fell in love with the classics and, under the umbrella of PC’s humanities major, was able to customize a course of study in Latin and Greek, ancient history, and mythology. She hopes to earn a doctorate in the classics.
Lescault examined “Speech and Silence in Virgil’s Aeneid.” Her grant covered materials and a stipend to replace what she would have earned in a summer job.
“Even though it’s centered in ancient times and it’s thousands of years old, it’s a very universal story,” said Lescault. “Virgil illustrates themes of loyalty, duty, and passion that transcend the story of Aeneas and pervade the entire canon of the Western literary tradition.”
Dr. Scott A. Wright, assistant professor of marketing, worked with MBA student Brian Cunningham ’14 & ’15G to test how unique product design impacts the scarcity effect.
Cunningham, a finance major, learned to use Adobe Illustrator as well as the survey tool Qualtrics in order to create images of different consumer products and to test customer perceptions of them.
“These were things that were outside my comfort zone,” Cunningham said. Now working in finance in Boston, Cunningham said he gained valuable lessons from his experience with Wright. The two met weekly, but Cunningham spent most of the time working independently, so he learned to manage his time to meet deadlines and to balance his course work.
“Being able to work one-on-one with a professional on campus really exposed me to how you deal with future managers and future employees,” he said.
With the help of an Undergraduate Research Grant, Kristen Perrelli ’16 (Madison, Conn.) has interviewed leaders from physician and social worker organizations in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts to find similarities and differences in how the groups help members with drug or alcohol problems. She has examined referrals and other processes in these states with different population sizes.
Perrelli was inspired when the topic came up in a course she took two years ago with Dr. Katherine M. Kranz, assistant professor of social work and a clinical social worker who assists the Rhode Island Medical Society’s Physician Health Program.
Kranz said that Perrelli, a social work and a health policy and management double major, has married her two interests through this macro-level investigation.
“By looking at physician and social work organizations, Kristen can see how policies operate or not,” Kranz said.
“Kristen’s interest really underscores the value of research to inform practice, and vice versa.”
A researcher needs to see with her own eyes — that’s why Patricia Krupinski ’16 (Elizabeth, N.J.) went to Italy. Krupinski spent a week in August visiting the Basilica of Santa Sabina, the mother church of the Dominican Order of Preachers. She viewed one of the oldest mosaics in Rome, the nearly life-size mosaic of two female figures that looms above the main entrance and dates to the 5th century.
The figures hold books, understood to be the Old and New Testaments. Titled “Ecclesia ex gentibus” (Church out of the Gentiles) and “Ecclesia ex circumcisione” (Church out of the Circumcision), the figures are said to represent the Catholic and Jewish traditions. Krupinski, a double major in art history and English, researched the mosaic with her faculty mentor, Dr. Joan R. Branham, professor of art history and associate dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. (Home page photo taken at Providence’s Temple Emanu-El synagogue.)
The mosaic “takes your breath away,” said Krupinski. “It’s a reminder that while textbooks and photos are great, when you are able to walk in and see a work of art, you are now in its space, and you react to it in a different way.”
PHOTOS BY JUSTIN JAMES MUIR
