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Printer-Friendly ModeFall and winter SRCI projects receive $35,000 in funding
June 25, 2007 —
The Student Research and Creativity Institute has awarded several students over $35,000 in funding for various scholarly proposals. Executive Assistant to the President Carlos Ramet, who oversees the SCRI committee, and Administrative Assistant Debbie Marsh shared that many of the students have already gotten a jump-start on their projects.
Three proposals from last semester are already underway.
Kristina Hester was awarded $6,149 for travel, lodging, conference fees, and immunizations to study Ghana's medical system. She will travel to Ghana after immunization shots to study the medical system and gain a better cultural understanding. She will be living with a host family and working in a hospital there.
Kristina Hester left for her trip to Ghana on June 18.
"Even though things are hectic, I am really excited to take the next step," she said before leaving.
Heather Mindykowski and Mark White were awarded $10,000 for computer hardware, supplies and travel to develop software. Their research deals with image compression and has potential for use by government agencies such as Homeland Security and NASA, and for other scientific research.
The Student Literacy Community Service Project, proposed by Carlie Hacha, was awarded $9,900 to support SMEA volunteers in renovating Merrill Park Elementary School and producing a children's picture book. The book will serve as documentation of the community service done at the school through pictures and interviews with the students.
Four more proposals were funded for winter semester.
Carlo Cerroni, Mark Pressaco, and Anthony Lombardi were awarded funds to design and fabricate a device for cleaning wheelchair wheels.
Rebecca Rudey and Elayna Dush's research will focus on fitness assessment and how to improve fitness in school-age children.
Darryn Crocker, Torrey Freese, Ashley Jackson, and Courtney Sierko will study the suicide prevention program in Australia, with hopes of implementing a similar program at home.
Nicole Tomlinson was awarded funds to develop a manual for teaching literary criticism at the elementary and middle school levels.
Marsh was pleased with the progress these students have made.
"It's always great checking in with the students in the program because they are always so eager to develop their projects and are really excited about what they are working on," she said.
Ramet said that many of the students set their own timeline as far as how long it would take to develop their individual projects.
Some of the proposals have a span of a year to work with, so each project has reached a different stage.
The wheelchair project and the image compression project are not yet in the hands-on stage. Other projects, such as The Student Literacy Community Service Project and the Yellow Ribbon proposal have gotten a significant amount of work done.
The students involved in the Yellow Ribbon campaign have already traveled to Australia and are back in the States to make presentations, and the literacy project already has the children's book set to print.
"I would like to see even more submissions coming in from students in all the different fields of study," Ramet said in regards to the upcoming submissions for the new academic year.
The deadlines for upcoming proposal submissions are Oct. 31 for fall submissions, and March 31 for winter submissions.
For more information on The Student Research and Creativity Institute or any of the various projects underway, contact Carlos Ramet at (989) 964-4042 or via e-mail at ramet@svsu.edu.
The SRCI application can be reviewed at svsu.edu/srci.