On the Right Path
Undergraduate research fellowships give students the
competitive edge.
By Roxanne Alvarez
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Each year,
GW’s Gamow fellows are recognized at a symposium
in which they present their research findings.
Participants from the 2004 symposium are pictured
here.
Nirali Bhatt, BS ’05
Don Lehman, executive vice president for academic
affairs, with Thomas Fogarty
 Jessica
Lundin with professor Randall
Packer
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One student is studying the sermons of American rabbis
in the early 20th century; another, links between flu
during pregnancy and risk of schizophrenia in children;
another, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson’s image
and impacts; still another, ways to optimize a computer-based
thesaurus.
The research questions tackled by GW’s undergraduate
researchers are as diverse as the researchers themselves.
Delving into a major research project gives the students
not only knowledge but also a grasp of how knowledge
is acquired—and an edge in the competition for
slots in graduate and professional schools and for fellowships.
GW offers several opportunities for undergraduates to
work closely with faculty on research projects. Two of
the leading University-funded programs that support undergraduate
student research are the George Gamow Undergraduate Research
Fellowship and the Luther Rice Collaborative Fellowship
awards.
The Gamow Undergraduate Research Fellowship program,
started in 2002, is a University-wide program designed
to engage talented undergraduates early in their careers
in faculty research projects. The Gamow program nurtures
the careers of promising freshmen, sophomores, and juniors
by enabling them to participate in meaningful, mentored
research in which they learn how knowledge is generated,
develop research skills, and prepare for advanced study,
all while advancing the research programs of their faculty
mentors. The fellowship provides stipends for students
to help with living expenses, funds for expenses essential
to the project, as well as an honorarium for the faculty
mentor. It was started and has been co-sponsored by the
Office of Research and Graduate Studies, with help from
several schools of the University (in 2004-05, the School
of Business, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences,
the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the
School of Medicine and Health Sciences), and is currently
based in the Center for Undergraduate Fellowships and
Research.
The Columbian College’s Luther Rice Undergraduate
Research Fellowships, now in its second year, supports
projects generated by more advanced students and guided
by a faculty mentor. The Luther Rice Fellowships are
part of the Columbian College’s comprehensive undergraduate
initiative to promote discovery- and inquiry-based education
throughout the undergraduate experience at GW.
Student Experiences
To hear students talk about their experiences during
and after working on Gamow and Luther Rice projects is
to appreciate what these awards really mean for students.
“The Gamow Fellowship was one of the academic
highlights of my college career,” says former Gamow
winner Kate Hill, who is now in Vietnam on a Fulbright
scholarship award. She is continuing to study issues
she began exploring in her Gamow project in 2003 on the
subject of private organizations and economic policy
making in socialist Vietnam. In addition to her Fulbright
award, Hill also received a Shapiro Traveling Award based
on the work she did as a Gamow fellow. “I would
recommend the Gamow because it allows you the flexibility
to study something that truly intrigues you, something
that is not an assignment for class,” she says. “I
think this kind of opportunity is important because it
forces you to really identify your own interests and
to think about how you can incorporate those interests
into your future career.”
Taylor Asen, a GW senior and a recipient of one of the
first Luther Rice awards, echoes this sentiment. His
project, which took place primarily during the summer
of 2004, involved documenting and examining the works
of Charles Dickens. His work culminated in a paper he
is submitting for a best student prize through the Research
Society of Victorian Periodicals.
Asen says the research project was daunting but exciting. “It
forces you to bring something completely new to the research
method,” he says. “For an undergraduate,
this opportunity is, I think, a rare experience.” In
addition to appreciating the chance to study a subject
of personal interest, Asen views his experience with
his mentor as an important part of his overall experience. “I
think a good mentor should urge you to take risks and
to think independently.” Taylor recently found
out that he has also just won a Gamow Fellowship for
the 2005-06 academic year with Maria Frawley in the English
department.
The mentoring aspect of these two undergraduate research
programs is often cited as a vital component of their
success. Mentors, simply by conducting their day-to-day
activities at GW, serve as role models to students as
to how to conduct solid research in one’s field.
Mentors also foster a professional maturity and academic
development that goes beyond classroom lessons.
Catarina Kim, BA ’05, a Gamow Fellow in 2002,
was able to continue working with her mentor, Young Key
Kim-Renaud. Their collaboration produced a paper on the
translation of Korean poetry that was presented at the
University of Iowa’s Third Annual Interdisciplinary
Conference on Writing in March 2003. Kim says she and
her mentor plan to continue their research together.
She also won a 2005 National Security Education Program
fellowship to study Korean further. She will be pursuing
a year of study at the University of Hawaii and then
will spend the following year abroad at Korea University.
After that, she will serve in a federal intelligence
role through a government contract.
A Gamow Fellow with a dual major in Chemistry and the
Biological Sciences, Jackie Ryan had the opportunity
to present the work she did with her mentor, Zhengtao
Xu, at the Chemistry Department’s Annual Retreat
earlier this year. When asked what she has been doing
since winning her Gamow award, Jackie replied, “My
post-Gamow activities are more research-oriented than
ever!” She said that the Gamow Fellowship opened
many doors for her—including a new research position
at GW. In addition to continuing to work with her Gamow
mentor, she has joined another research lab in the Chemistry
department.
Each year, the Gamow fellows participate in a symposium
in the spring, in which each presents his or her research
findings. Attended by University administrators, faculty
mentors, former Gamow fellows, students who publish the
undergraduate research journal Inquiry, and others, the
symposium is a time to celebrate the students’ work
and to recognize the upcoming recipients as they begin
their fellowships.
The 2005-06 Gamow Fellowships
This year 10 students, representing the Columbian
College of Arts and Science and the Elliott School
of International Affairs, received the coveted
Gamow Fellowship, bringing the total number of
students engaging in the University’s premier
research fellowship program to 44. The fellowship
is named for George Gamow, a distinguished theoretical
nuclear physicist who served on GW’s faculty
from 1934 to 1956.
The 2005-06 Gamow Fellows:
Taylor Asen (CCAS, English), Mentor: Maria Frawley,
associate professor of English, “Robert
Louis Stevenson and the Children’s Literary
Market in Victorian England”
Liza Blake (CCAS, English), Mentor: Maria Frawley,
associate professor of English, “The Pauses
of Sleep: Sleep as a Narrative Strategy in Victorian
Literature”
Jill Michelle Furst (CCAS,
geology), Mentor:
George Stephens, deputy director of the University
Honors Program and professor of geography and
geosciences, “Medical Geology in the Navajo
Nation: A Project to Assess the Health Effects
of Burning Coal (in an underserved population)”
Malak Hamwi (ESIA, international
affairs) Mentor:
Janet Steele, associate professor of media and
public affairs, “No Laughing Matter: The
Syrian Tabloid Ad-Domari (“The Lamplighter”)
as a Form of Everyday Resistance”
Joseph Krepp (CCAS, biology), Mentor: John Hawdon,
associate professor of microbiology and tropical
medicine, “Hookworm Infection: Role of
Heat Shock Factor in the Transition of Parasitism”
Jonathan Mendelson (CCAS,
biology), Mentor:
L. Courtney Smith, associate professor of biological
sciences, “Do Immune Cells in the Purple
Sea Urchin Proliferate in Response to Immune
Challenge?”
John Patrick Miller (ESIA,
international affairs),
Mentor: Dane Kennedy, Elmer Louis Kayser Professor
of History and International Affairs, “British
Combat Tactics within the Mesopotamian Front:
Engagement to Surrender at Kut-Al Amara(1914–16)”
Elizabeth Perlmutter (CCAS,
music), Mentor:
Leslie Jacobson, chair, Department of Theatre
and Dance, “The South Africa Project”
Emily Robertson (CCAS,
music), Mentor: Laura
Youens, professor of music, “Johannes Starton’s
Missa Jouyassance Vous Donneray from the National
Library of Medicine’s ‘Bathtub Collection:’ A
Modern Edition and Study”
Allison Seitchik (CCAS,
psychology), Mentor:
Tonya Dodge, assistant professor of psychology, “Developing
a Questionnaire to Predict the Use of Performance
Enhancing Substances” |
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