By Angelina Castro '16
Siena College celebrated its annual Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Summer Symposium in the Maloney Great Room last week. Siena students shared with the community the faculty-led research they completed over the summer.
CURCA enables students to work with faculty on research projects that allow them to develop skills they’ll use in graduate school or as they enter the workforce. About 100 students from Siena’s schools of Liberal Arts, Science and Business participate in undergraduate research and creative activity each year. This student-faculty partnership distinguishes Siena as an institution valuing experiential learning, including challenging research projects that push boundaries and expand worldviews.
“I’ve worked with students since I started at Siena because I believe in the value of the skills that are developed in doing that type of research,” CURCA Director Cheryl Buff ’82, Ph.D. She is now helping students connect with faculty, pursue interesting research projects and share their work publicly both on campus and at academic conferences.
“Whether it’s science-based projects or projects in any of the disciplines in the liberal artsor business, any student, regardless of major, can participate in CURCA,” said Buff.
Psychology major Harley Bradley ’17 worked with Professor of Sociology Paul Murray, Ph.D. on an immersion trip to learn about the Civil Rights Movement. Bradley and Murray gathered 11 high school students from the Albany area and brought them to Mississippi for the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, which was also known as the Mississippi Summer Project. It first started in 1964. This campaign worked to register suppressed African-American voters in the Mississippi.
“The only way to get the true experience is by learning from those who were there themselves,” Bradley said. To provide that learning experience to others, Bradley created a video about the experience.
Similar to Bradley, political science major Jordan Wood ’16 was interested in a cultural-based project. Wood worked with Political Science Professor Vera Eccarius-Kelly, Ph.D. to analyze the sociopolitical and cultural implications of rap lyrics from 1986 - 2013. The team connected with three computer science majors from Skidmore College, the College of Saint Rose and Villanova University on the S.C.A.T.T.E.R. Project (Siena College Analytical Typology to Trace Expository Rap). The computer science students worked on programs that would collect songs referencing six specific categories that Wood analyzed.
“I was able to build on my communications skills because you are working with people from a totally different background than you, so it’s really important to communicate effectively,” Wood said.
CURCA allowed creative arts major Shayne Peris ’15 to participate in the Broadway Theatre Project, a prestigious musical theatre program that included a three-week apprenticeship in Tampa, Florida. Hoping to pursue a career in theatre, Peris thrived in the program.
“I have built so many connections because of this program and that is wonderful in itself. I now have these great connections with these big names,” Peris said. “When you do theatre, you develop this family and it was great to add 70 new people to this family. I’ve got lots of friends all over the country now, some even outside of the country.”
Buff urges students dive into research projects to better prepare for life after Siena. “Students should be working to make themselves stand out from other students that they’re going to be competing with for the same jobs,” Buff said. “Anything that you can do to improve your marketability, to improve the skills set that you bring to a potential employer, to differentiate yourself from others -- that’s really what we’re searching for.”
Click here to learn more about Siena’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.
