Students learn from summer research opportunities through Chapman scholarships
Monday, Sept. 26, 2016
MANHATTAN — Recipients of Kansas State University's $5,000 Mark Chapman Scholarships spent their summer on a variety of projects, including in Ecuador, Peru and South Africa.
The Chapman Scholars Program allows outstanding first- and second-year students enrolled in the College of Arts & Sciences to develop and pursue summer opportunities in support of their educational and career goals. The program awards five scholarships annually. Scholars use $3,000 of the award for summer projects or activities related to their career aspirations, including research projects, international experiences and community service projects. They use the rest of the funding for the following academic year.
This year's recipients are Joshilyn Binkley, junior in sociology and economics, Holton; Jennica Rogers, junior in psychological sciences, Manhattan; Bridget Lynch, junior in anthropology, and Carlie Stenzel, junior in anthropology, both from Shawnee;andJesseca Ruth Ashlee Pirkle, junior in biology, Arenzville, Illinois.
"Mark Chapman funded this program to help ambitious students get meaningful summer experience early in their college careers, when it is often more difficult to land paid internships or find funding for significant extracurricular activities," said Jim Hohenbary, director of nationally competitive scholarships and coordinator of the Chapman Scholars Program. "I really love reading about the summer experiences when they return. Every year I am surprised by the unexpected knowledge and insights they bring back with them."
Binkley spent her summer in Ecuador carrying out research focused on the intersection of agriculture, social change and the economy. She used her previous experiences in Ecuador to research how policy developments influence various sectors of rural agriculturally-based communities, the challenges those communities are facing, and the contradictions within what development entails. Her research led to an increased awareness of the paradoxes within Ecuador's current economic situation and how notions of gender and identity continue to shape those institutions. Binkley will continue to explore and work with these issues during the fall 2016 semster by taking courses in international economics and social change.
Rogers' research was based on previous findings from the laboratory of Charles Pickens, assistant professor of psychological sciences, on alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood and responses to stimuli. Rogers' project focused on whether adolescent/early adult alcohol consumption in females makes them more sensitive to its effects. She is continuing her study, looking at biological sex differences in the effects of alcohol exposure.
Lynch went with a team of 12 to Oceanview, South Africa, as part of the university's International Service Teams program through the Staley School of Leadership Studies. Lynch volunteered at the Emma Animal Rescue Society and lived with a host family while doing side projects through Volunteer Mzansi. Lynch also started researching the Capetownian Afrikaans and how multilingual societies co-exist, especially past apartheid. The experience allowed Lynch to specify the direction she wants to pursue in linguistic research on power, privilege, culture and language.
Stenzel conducted an independent study in southern Peru. She volunteered at and studied the operations of Pariwana Hostel. At Pariwana, she learned that hostels that have shared spaces and host networking activities based on common interests are more successful than similar establishments without those amenities and events. Stenzel also studied historical Inca culture by visiting museums, ruins and a re-creation of an Incan festival. She also observed the cultures of distinct people groups in the floating islands of Uros, Taquile and Amantani on Lake Titicaca, as well as the cities of Arequipa, Ica, Paracas, Chincha and Lima.
Pirkle worked in a behavioral neuroscience laboratory under Kim Kirkpatrick, professor of psychological sciences. The experiment conducted over the summer was an expansion of a preliminary study that observed the impact of diet on impulsive choice. Pirkle used the Chapman Scholarship to research the affects of an unhealthy diet, specifically diets that were high in processed fat and sugar, on the psychological mechanisms of reward, timing and decision-making. The results of this experiment illustrated that diets high in processed fat and sugar cause timing and reward discrimination detriments.
The Mark Chapman Scholars Program was established by the late Mark Chapman, Clay Center. Chapman graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 with a dual bachelor's degree in history and political science. While at the university, he lettered in football, track and softball, and was a member of Army ROTC and Acacia fraternity. Chapman later earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas. As a generous benefactor to Kansas State University, he funded a wide variety of projects— including the Chapman Scholars Program — that continue to beneficially impact students in the College of Arts & Sciences and across the university.
To learn more about competing for future Chapman Scholarships, visit http://artsci.k-state.edu/student-resources/opportunities/chapmanscholars.html.
