Students Present Findings at Research Week

Liberty University’s Research Week that took place April 9-12 consisted of oral, poster and newly added performing arts presentations. The week closed Saturday with keynote speaker Todd Zakrajsek, associate professor and associate director of the Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

 

This year, the performing arts contestants were permitted to perform in addition to presenting their research. There was a range of performances from piano playing to acting.

 

“It was really neat to see a different type of presentation than we have ever had before,” Director for the Center of Research and Scholarship Elisa Rollins said.

 

Rollins said she really enjoyed seeing students be able to perform because it better displayed for disciplines in performance based fields.

 

Most of the students were paired with a faculty advisor and began their research in the fall of 2017. Keilah Soward took first for the textual or investigative category of Research Week last year and graduated from Liberty with a double major in English and history.

 

“My English research was a ‘do whatever you want’ kind of assignment, which is kind of overwhelming for me. Dr. Towles really had to help guide me toward a topic. I sat in his office until we talked around my interests and finally narrowed it down,” Soward said.

 

Rollins said she is proud to see the strides Liberty is making in becoming a more undergraduate research focused school by adding a three-course research track, Inquiry 101, Research 201, and a Research-Intensive course, into its curriculum.

 

Julia Rothenberger placed first in the creative and artistic category of the 2017 Research Week and is a junior at Liberty in the School of Music’s artist development program

 

“This semester, I took the new research 201 course, and I wish I would have been able to take the course before completing my first big research project,” Rothenberger said. “I really appreciate the fact that Liberty is trying to make their curriculum more research focused.”

 

Soward wrote two research papers and did enough research to give three presentations.

 

“I think Liberty did a great job equipping my departments with the best resources for quality research, from inter-library loans to online resources, they have a dedicated team that wants each student to succeed,” Soward said. “Overall, I was very pleased with the process.”

Soward said she was also impressed by the number of students that participated, the variety of research she saw and the unique talent each student displayed.

 

“We just really want to encourage (the LU faculty and students) to come and to participate,” Rollins said. “We have grown this year in our participation and energy, and we just want that to keep growing.”

 

Keynote speaker Todd Zakrajsek closed out Research Week on Saturday to talk to students about the more widespread undergraduate research taking place in the country.

 

Rothenberger said she did not think there is anything Liberty could have done better to equip its students to produce quality research.

 

“For students who may think, ‘Why should I come, or why should I participate?’, it is a great way to support your peers, and there is so much innovation and creativity that they can learn about and even just discover what is happening here at Liberty. There are a lot of exciting and inspiring innovation and inquiry going on that you do not always hear about,” Rollins said. “We encourage everybody to come for Research Week 2019 if you did not make it for 2018.”

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