Area Undergraduates Share Research

April 7, 2009

More than 50 area undergraduates showcased their research at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted April 2-3 by the School of Nursing & Health Studies.

Frank Torti, MD, MPH, former acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, delivered the keynote address on Thursday evening.

“Science is a very broad discipline,” said Torti. “Your posters support that observation. …There is something special about science. You are limited only by your own curiosity.”

On Friday, students from Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, and Catholic universities gathered in Riggs Library to share their research.

In the morning, participants presented their posters to a panel of judges. And in the afternoon, several undergraduates gave oral presentations.

Winners of the awards—named this year in honor of conference founder and advisor Charles H. Evans, Jr., MD, PhD, chair of the department of human science—include:

• Best Poster: Elizabeth Kucharczyk (NHS’09) and Leah Ruppe (NHS’09), nursing majors, “An Evaluation of a Pilot Educational Program on Nursing Management of Childhood Loss and Grief.”

• Best Oral Presentation: Stephanie Zare (NHS’09), a human science major, “Static Arch Height: A Poor Predictor of Stress Fracture Risk in Male Athletes.”

• First Runner-Up Poster: Elizabeth Seaman (COL’12), who is pre-med, “Teen Driver Knowledge about Emergency Situations—an Epidemiological Study.”

“[The conference] is a wonderful venue for a variety of students with diverse interests to share their excitement with other students in a mutually interactive way,” said Evans.

Undergraduates Laura Boitano (NHS’10), Roland Dimaya (NHS’09), Kevin Durbin (NHS’11), Armond Esmaili (NHS’11), Harrison Holcomb (NHS’11), and Silpa Thaivalappil (NHS’10) spent the past year planning the conference.

“It is a great opportunity to put theory into practice early in your career and to learn logistical elements of scientific discovery,” said Holcomb.

“The conference allowed us to see the different approaches to science that people take in their projects,” added Durbin. “It was fun to see an event come together and bloom.”
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