Patrick Lackey News Today

For the eighth consecutive year, the Westminster College Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research has awarded Summer Research Fellowships to student-faculty research teams.

Westminster College will showcase student research presentations and performances at its annual Undergraduate Research and Arts Celebration (URAC) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in locations across the College’s campus.

Kathryn Lynn, a senior biology major from Meadville, Pa., earned a Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research Grant for her capstone research project that examined the effects of a forever chemical on the common green bean plant.

Several Westminster College honors students will publicly defend their capstone research projects this spring, marking the end of nearly two years of high-level academic exploration.

Two Westminster College students used grant funding from the Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research to strengthen their individual senior art projects.

Westminster College neuroscience major Taylor Harman earned a Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research grant to analyze amphetamine and nicotine use and examine how those stimulants influence anxiety in male rats. Harman, a senior honors student from Edinburg, Pa., used the grant to fund her research project “Does Stimulus History Affect the Anxiety-Like Response to Nicotine in Male Rats?” Harman examined how the history of amphetamine exposure can influence the anxiety-like response...

Westminster College student Samantha Reed earned an individual Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research grant for her research project, “The Effects of Caffeine on Emotional Memory.” Reed, a senior psychology major and honors student from Zionsville, Pa., used the grant to fund three semesters of research. She studied how caffeinated versus non-caffeinated beverages affect emotional memory. Reed distributed a memory test to 40 participants over two sessions to collect data based on t...

Westminster College senior Riley Lewis presented her research, “The Hidden Arms Race: Women in FBS Football Recruiting and Operations,” at Liberty University’s Sports Leadership Summit (SLS) in Lynchburg, Va., in October.

Westminster College student Bethany Edwards earned an individual Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research grant to produce a short film “Another World.” Edwards,  a senior double majoring in creative media production and strategic communication and social media from Carnegie, Pa., used the grant to fund on-set production, character costumes and set design pieces for the film. “‘Another World’ is about the importance of storytelling and how it affects people&rsq...

A Westminster College junior biochemistry major spent 10 weeks this past summer working on computational simulations of the histone mRNA degradation complex at Duquesne University. Gabriella Hunter from New Baltimore, Mich., was chosen to participate in the Integrated Computational and Experimental Chemistry National Science Foundation-Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Program. Hunter worked in the biochemistry lab on the project “Role of 3'hExo in Histone mRNA Degradati...