As a culmination of a year’s worth of research, Siena’s First-Year Seminar (FYS) program holds an annual Student Research Conference for freshmen to present their final research projects. The event, which covers topics from drones and Barbie to baseball and superfoods, provides students the opportunity to hone in on their research and presentation skills in front of their peers and members of the Siena community.
Physics major Sandy Spicer ’19 presented her research titled “Unraveling the Mysteries of the Big Bang: How String Theory, M-Theory and Multiverse Theory Investigate the Origins of the Universe.” Her project looked at how these theories go beyond the big bang to answer profound scientific and philosophical questions such as how the big bang occurred, why it occurred, or what existed before it.
“By studying how the universe has evolved, we can unite general relativity and quantum mechanics to discover new laws of physics that will open doors to new worlds and lead to a theory of everything,” said Spicer.
Biochemistry major Victoria Fioravanti ’19 presented “Childhood Marriages among Girls and its Violation of Human Rights” to a packed room at the Conference. In her research, she focused on the lack of education, low quality health care and how cultural beliefs and traditions affect the practice of child marriage.
“The FYS Student Research Conference allows us to highlight the best scholarly work of our first-year students,” said Meg Woolbright, Ph.D., director of the First-Year Seminar Program and professor of English. “Our hope is that they will continue throughout their next three years to see themselves as knowledge-makers and as contributing members of a vibrant intellectual community.”
Current junior Aubrey Kirsch ’17 took this challenge to heart two years ago. Her final project from the First-Year Seminar “War” has not only become an academic interest, but will be the topic of her Honors Thesis. Her research into US human rights violations during the War on Terror will bring her all the way to Cork, Ireland in the fall. There, she will utilize the University College of Cork's library resources from their Human Rights Law Certificate program.
“This idea came during my FYS research when I found a tweet from a father whose son, and innocent child, was killed in a drone strike intended to kill a terrorist. For research, I am using some of the information I found during FYS, information on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights I received in my Human Rights Class and am partnering with Dr. Laurie Naranch and with one other faculty member in the History Department.”
Siena’s First-Year Seminar program is an introduction to the intellectual life for freshmen at Siena. Students are placed in small classes, which meet with a single Professor for the entire academic year. Although each course has a unique topic, they all emphasize those abilities crucial to success in academic life: careful reading, constructive discussion and writing. The First-Year Seminar Student Conference is just another way for students to develop these skills they will need for their time in college and beyond.
