The Union University Research Program held their fifteenth annual university-wide scholarship symposium Tuesday afternoon, April 24, in the Carl Grant Events Center and various classrooms throughout campus to allow undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to present their collaborative and innovative scholarly projects completed during the academic year.
Students filled the Carl Grant Events Center from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. to display their projects during the poster presentations, while other students from various departments showcased their research in several classrooms throughout campus during the oral presentations.
Research varied from discovering a more efficient and organic way to produce a pharmaceutical drug to understanding how a book about immigrant families can change cultural perspectives.
Alex Forderhase, a senior chemistry major, was one of the many students in the Carl Grant Events Center exhibiting a poster presentation that she spent much time researching and experimenting.
Her research included testing different methods to more effectively separate enantiomers, molecules that are mirrored images of each other, in pharmaceutical drugs while reducing the harmful chemicals previously used in the separation process.
Along with help from her advisor, Sally Henrie, a Union professor in the chemistry department, Forderhase developed a separation method with fewer chemicals, fewer steps and a higher percentage of attachment than the previous methods used.
“The research helped find an efficient way to separate racemic mixtures on an industrial level,” said Forderhase. “We’re trying to ensure that the consumer only gets the best and purest medication they need, rather than a mixture that could cause more harm.”
While Forderhase presented her findings in the Grant Center, Katie Chappell, a junior literature and French double major, gave an oral presentation to those in the Pennick Academic Complex about the relationships between generations of mothers and daughters.
Chappell presented an academic paper about the communal identity and matrilineage, generations of mothers and daughters, in Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club,” which is a story about the relationship between first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chinese-American daughters.
Despite the constant struggle between the mothers and daughters understanding each other with the language and cultural barriers, Chappell proposed that the women related to one another on a physical level because of their matrilineal connection, a generational connection of women in a family.
Chappell explained how the relationship between mothers and daughters can be described like seeing their reflection in a mirror. A woman can see herself in the reflection, but she will also see her the reflection of her mother.
“They are two separate people, but they still have a shared reflection,” said Chappell. “They are both connected to their mothers and also separate from their mothers.”
Chappell said presenting her academic paper at the symposium was a great experience for her to critically think and discuss about a subject she is passionate about and to also have the opportunity of answering questions from others about these topics.
Clark Hubbard, a junior English and political science double major, presented his original fictional short story that examined the idea of purpose in humans’ lives.
Through a character whose sole purpose in the story is finding a pack of cigarettes, Hubbard challenged the listeners to think what it is that drives individual purpose as well as purpose for human race as a whole. He said the process of writing his short story was as much about him understanding what purpose means as it was for the readers.
“My goal in writing is to make people think,” said Hubbard. “I want them to consider what does this mean in the story as well as what does this mean for me?”
Being a member of Blank Slate Improv and the Union University Debate Team, Hubbard said presenting is not a new concept for him, but at the symposium, he learned how intimidating and vulnerable it can be showcasing an original creative piece of work. Presenting in an environment surrounded by familiar faces, Hubbard said, helped prepare him for reading his works to a room full of strangers in the future.
“It was great having that first experience in front of my peers and mentors, people that already care about me, as opposed to total strangers, and [the symposium] helped to gradually ease me into that world,” said Hubbard.
