Students Show Off Best Work During Showcase 2018

On Friday, May 4, subjects ranging across the academic divisions of Arts & Humanities, Physical and Life Sciences, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences will be covered by Hartwick College students as they put their best work of the 2017-18 academic year on display during the College’s 11th annual, day-long “Student Showcase: An Exhibition of Liberal Arts in Practice.”

Showcase 2018 will feature 150 presentations, exhibits, performances, and discussions of work that involved 190 students. This celebration of student scholarship and achievement across academic disciplines is open to the public.

Throughout Showcase, students will present their work in several formats: oral presentations, readings and performances, poster presentations, table talks, panels, class demonstrations, and group discussions. Exhibits are well attended throughout the day, and hosted primarily in Golisano Hall, Johnstone Science Center, Yager Hall, and the Anderson Center for the Arts.

Some of this year’s entries include:

Pre Dee Hser ’20 – Pre Dee will give an oral presentation on volunteering as an English teacher at Tanawthari Junior College (TJC), located in the Tham Hin Refugee Camp in Ratchaburi Province, Thailand.
9:20 – 9:35 a.m., Golisano Hall, Room 303

Farheen Fatima ’19 – Farheen will be showing a table presentation on “The Business of Designing an Online Course for Designers.”
Farheen and several co-presenters will discuss their experience as a group of 12 interns affiliated with a year-long Business of Design internship, whose aim was to create an online course based on the contents of the book “The Business of Design and The Business Creativity,” by Keith Granet ’79. They will describe the final product and reflect upon the teamwork dynamic and diverse set of efforts that were required for the project.
11 a.m. to noon, Yager Hall, Stevens-German Library, Makerspace

Loverte Larkai ’18 – Loverte will present, through a reading/performance, his take on Watafara, a graphic novel that draws inspiration from several themes from the African culture, including tradition, folklore, and vibrant textiles.
2 – 4 p.m., Anderson Center for the Arts, Foreman Gallery

Elizabeth Karson ’18 – Elizabeth will present research on the “Water Chemistry of a Hemlock Forest in the Robert V. Riddell State Park of New York.”
She will specifically discuss her efforts studying soil and surface water chemistry of a hemlock grove at Riddell State Park to determine whether the invasive insect the Hemlock woolly adelgid had infiltrated the area.
2 – 4 p.m., Anderson Center for the Arts, Poster Hall

Andre Washington-Flowers ’18 – Andre will present research on “The Legacy of Roy Rowan and the Lasting Effects of His ‘Homeless Bound’ Article.”
While on assignment for People magazine, journalist Roy Rowan spent time on the streets of New York City as a homeless man. Rowan took many photographs of those he met and the homeless shelters in which he spent his nights. His work was included in documentaries filmed after his articles’ completion. Andre’s presentation is an introduction to Rowan’s work and based on his experience during an internship at Hartwick College’s Paul F. Cooper Jr. Archives.
2 – 4 p.m., Anderson Center for the Arts, Poster Hall

Tori Lewis ’18 – Tori will be discussing her research on the topic “Can Salamanders Regenerate Their Lungs?”
Salamanders are known as “super-regenerators” because they are the only vertebrates that can regenerate limbs and other body parts. The purpose of her research was to use microsurgery and histology to determine whether salamanders have the ability to regenerate their lungs. Results of this research could contribute to the development of better treatments for lung injury and disease in humans and other animals.
2 – 4 p.m., Johnstone Science Center Lobby

John McBeth ’18 – John will present his research on “Diving into the Mysterious Blooms of Highland Lake, Maine.”
Every summer since August 2011, there has been a rapid increase and accumulation of an unknown organism in Highland Lake, ME. More commonly known as a bloom, this yearly occurrence is becoming a problem not only for the watershed’s ecosystem and food web, but also for the local community. Further, there is also a threat of this unknown organism spreading to other lakes. Through DNA extraction, quantification, sequencing and analysis of the lake’s water before and during the bloom, John sought to identify the organism responsible for these blooms, and thereby deduce the cause for the bloom, with an ultimate goal of presenting the local community with ideas to mediate the organism’s populations in the future.
2 – 4 p.m., Johnstone Science Center Lobby

“Showcase lives up to its name: this one intense day showcases the best a Hartwick education has to offer, and the best of what our students do,” said Student Showcase Co-Coordinator Rich Barlow, associate professor of art. “It is easy, as a faculty member, to be narrowly focused on what happens in one’s own classroom or department, but at Showcase you can sample the breadth of work that is happening on campus. The presentations on research into a huge range of topics give the students a chance to educate us, while students in art, theatre and music share with us their own original and interpretive works.”

Recipients of the Freedman Prize for Student-Faculty Research will be recognized during a special presentation hosted by Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich in the Foreman Gallery. The Freedman Prize – established in 2002 and named after Dr. Judy Freedman H’13 and her husband, Dr. Allen Freedman H’00 – recognizes superior student-faculty collaborative work that typically prepares for the senior project required of all Hartwick students.

Overall, 22 students collaborated with 12 faculty mentors on 16 Freedman Prize-winning projects being presented this year.

This year’s recipients of the Fred L. Emerson Foundation International Internship Scholarship and Duffy Family Ambassador Fund Scholarship – as well as those to be honored during the upcoming Honors Convocation Ceremony – will also be highlighted during Showcase.

For more detailed information on student presentations from this year’s Student Scholar Showcase, visit the Showcase webpage or contact Barlow at 607-431-4628 or showcase@hartwick.edu.