�鶹��Ƶ

After switching majors from business to elementary education, Ben Smith '09 realized he would be a minority in his field. The questions he would ask led to his senior thesis, “The Difference in the Experiences of Male and Female Beginning Elementary School Teachers,” to be presented April 28 at SURF. His work is the latest in a weeklong series of E-net profiles to spotlight �鶹��Ƶ undergraduate research during CELEBRATE! 2009.

Thirteen rising juniors at �鶹��Ƶ have been named recipients of the 2009 Lumen Prize, the university’s premier award that comes with a $15,000 scholarship to support and celebrate their academic achievements and research proposals.

Senior Brian Beaty won the best poster presentation award at the 34th Annual West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference held at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego on Saturday, April 18.

This year 36 �鶹��Ƶ students will be presenting at the 23rd National Conference on Undergraduate Research set for April 16-18 at the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse. Read this note for a list of the students and their research topics.

Faculty and students from the �鶹��Ƶ Biology Department attended the annual meeting of the North Carolina Academy of Science at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C. on April 3-4. Faculty members Yuko Miyamoto, Michael Kingston, Jeffrey Coker and Linda Niedziela accompanied students Brian Beaty, Daniel Brown and Philip Zakas. The students presented their undergraduate research during the two day meeting.

Julie Anne Kenneally '08 has been named the recipient of a 2008 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, an award that will help fund graduate studies on human rights issues at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. It marks the third time since 2006 that an �鶹��Ƶ student has received the honor.

Education is not the answer to every problem, but “it will help us all to learn more about those with whom we share life on this fragile globe,” a sentiment explored in depth March 31 by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, the keynote speaker at �鶹��Ƶ’s Spring Convocation for Honors.

“One on One Sports,” a sports debate show produced by �鶹��Ƶ Student Television, was named this week as one of three award-winners in the Newscast category of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences College Television Awards.

�鶹��Ƶ students Joey Accordino, Christopher Bunn and Michael Heil were in California March 21 to accept the university's first College Television Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation.

�鶹��Ƶ senior Victoria “Tori” Davis has been named the recipient of a DACOR Bacon House Foundation fellowship for graduate study in international affairs, a $10,000 award that will assist her this fall as she begins work toward a doctorate in political science en route to a career with the U.S. Foreign Service.