The End of the Semester is Coming.. But First Honors Week!

It is hard to believe that the spring semester is almost over! While the seniors are preparing to leave, the underclass are still working to reach the spot were those seniors are today.

Besides the piles of resumes being sent out and the upcoming excitement for senior week and the anticipation of graduation, there are many seniors who are wrapping up the final touches on their senior thesis projects.

That means honors week is coming soon and this when senior thesis of the honors students will be presented. This year, honors week is May 2 through May 4.

I remember this time last year, when my friend, Margot Collins was preparing for her presentation. I recall her working on her thesis tediously with her nose constantly in books about the Titanic.

I just had to attend her oral presentation during honors week of last year and I remember how amazed I was when it all came together. Now, anyone can access her senior thesis turned book "All Aboard the Failboat."

Margot Collins presenting in Klein during honors week 2010

Developing an ACRE project seems like a good stepping stone for beginning a senior thesis according to Kim Justeson who is the Director Center for Experiential Learning and Research at Albright College. “Many students base their senior thesis off of continuations of their ACRE Project” stated Justeson.

Matthew Zuchero plans on doing just that. Zurchero is a junior and he is a Chemistry and French major. He was just approved for a summer ACRE project. His project is going to be about “using molecular modeling and theoretical chemistry to discover the transition state of pyridine rings and to explore their kinetic data” stated Zuchero.

To the non chemistry folk it is probably hard to understand so I asked Zuchero to dumb it down for us; Zuchero furthered explained “We are using computer software and a drawing tool to draw molecules. The computer software will then run calculations and mathematics on that molecule to give us information such as if the molecule is stable or would actually exist in the real world. Using that information we can decide if it would be worthwhile to attempt to make that molecule in a laboratory setting.”

Besides using the ACRE as a basis for his senior thesis project, Zuchero is also looking forward to the hands on experience in order to use later in his career. Justeson agrees that the senior thesis can provide students with numerous other experiences as well.

As for the seniors, they are finishing up their projects and getting ready to present. I track down two seniors whose senior thesis involves Psychology. Kat Biehl, a Psychology and Communications major, and Heather Coughlin a Psychology and Spanish major are in the last steps of their projects.

Kat Biehl about to get work done !

Biehl’s thesis is about college stereotypes. “Basically what I am doing is seeing if participants will judge people based on their collegiate affiliations. So students are presented with peers dressed in Greek letters, athletic garb and asked to rate their intelligence,” further explained Biehl.

Biehl is using the Tobii T60 eye tracker which is a new piece of equipment in the Psychology Department that monitors the movement of the subject’s eyes.. Biehl is using the eye tracker to see if her participants focus more on their peers’ faces or their t-shirts which shows their affiliations.

In addition, Coughlin is also using the eye tracker in her thesis as well as using other survey data in order to determine if a person's conformity level impacted their willingness to participate in drinking activities they were shown in photograph form on the eye tracker.

Differing from Zuchero, Biehl and Coughlin did not participate in an ACRE project. Instead, they just worked closely with their professors in order to create their thesis which is not uncommon mentioned Justeson.

As for Biehl her goal from the senior thesis was to graduate with Honors. "Over the last three years at Albright I have worked hard to keep a good GPA and remain an Honors student, and I feel the best way to show my academic accomplishments is to culminate in a project such as this one. Also, I again just really wanted to combine my passion for Psychology and Student Affairs" stated Biehl.

Coughlin expressed that "conducting independent research is a great project to put on your resume for jobs and graduate school." For her and Biehl this fares to be true. Coughlin is attending the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine to earn her Master's of Science in School Psychology.

As for Biehl, she is attending Graduate School at Villanova University for Communications rather than Psychology. "Although this project was done within the Psychology field, and I am attending graduate school in the Communications field, I feel there is a lot of overlap, and that I can apply this research in my future work" clarified Biehl.

Look out for Biehl and Coughlin's Projects as well as the other the students in the honors program who will be giving oral presentations in Klein Hall and poster presentations in the Mezzanine on Monday through Thursday of honors week between 4 and 6 p.m. with a reception for the senior thesis students on Thursday, May 5 at 5 p.m. Mostly likely Biehl will be presenting in Klein if all goes according to plan and Coughlin with be presenting a poster.

A full schedule of presentation times will be distributed closer to honors week.