2014 Scholars Forum Award Winners

  • Undergraduate

    Eberly College of Business and Information Technology

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - Business Case Competition First Place Award

    • Travis Meyer, Christina Bryner, Nicholas Hooper, Marc Colon and Alexandra Larch
      “Netflix”

    Business Case Competition Second Place Award

    • Derek Schmidt, Ali Tappe, Lara Weisbach, Morgan Hoover and Haley Kramer
      “Blue Nile, Inc.”

    Business Case Competition Third Place Award

    • Naria Willis, Emily Simpson, Lauren Petronic and Brad Taylor
      “Case Study: Netflix”

    College of Education and Educational Technology

    Dean’s Award for Excellence 

    • Emily Romberger
      “Impacts on Health and Hearing from Hydraulic Fracturing (’Fracking’) in Local PA Residents”

    College of Fine Arts

    Dean’s Award for Excellence

    • Steven Moon 
      “Polyphony for the Solo String Instrument: Structural Expression in J.S. Bach’s Works for Solo Violin and Cello”

    Best Poster Award

    • Devon Pettie
      “The Optimist - Dramaturgy”

    Student Exhibition

    Best in Show

    • David Havrilla
      “Rigs”

    3D Award

    • J.M.Wasko
      “Counterweight”

    2D Award

    • Andrea Petrillo
      “Sonorous”

    Honorable Mention #1

    • Hanna Cramer
      “Last Days of Steel Redux”

    Honorable Mention #2

    • Cheyenne Helman
      “U.S. Coin Poison Ring”

    College of Health and Human Services

    Dean’s Award for Excellence 

    • Cherise M. Key
      “To Pump or Not to Pump: An Analysis of Indiana University of Pennsylvania Female Perceptions of Health Risks Associated with Wearing High Heeled Shoes”

    Best Poster Award

    • Jessica Wallace, Amy Fairman, Olivia Pannabecker and Jera Scott
      “Analysis of Academic Success Factors in Student Athletes”

    College of Humanities and Social Sciences

    Dean’s Award for Excellence 

    • Vincent Lopez
      “How Important is Grit to the Success of Minority College Students?”

    Best Poster Award

    • Josie Bash
      “Overcoming Barriers to Academic Success Among First-Generation College Students”
    • Conner McLain
      “Preliminary Analysis of Ground Stone Tools from the Johnston Site”

    Outstanding Presentation Award

    • Zackary Nelson and Riley Smith
      “A Revolution on Tap: Determinants of Microbrewery Prevalence at the State Level”
    • Erik Vogel
      “The Impact of the Sulphur Creek Acid Mine Drainage Site on the Macro Invertebrate Community in Adams Township”

    Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

    Dean’s Award for Excellence 

    • Matthew Papinchak, Laura Murdaugh and Allan Hall
      “The Possible Involvement of Orexin in the Regulation of Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) Aggressive Behavior”

    Best Poster Award

    • Allan Hall
      “Prevalence of ADHD Symptoms in a College Student Population”

    Outstanding Presentation Award

    • Estefania Alba Rodriguez
      “Therapeutics for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Derived from Oplopanax Horridus”
    • Ashleigh Craig and Theresa Scarnati
      “Pricing Behaviors of Large Carriers in the United States Airline Industry”

    ECO Award Winner

    • Carrie Aitkins and John Osborn
      “Digital Ethnography for Sustainable Development in Indiana, PA”

    Sigma Xi and S-COAM Award Winners

    Sigma Xi Best Science Poster - First Place Award

    • Peter Greenawalt
      “The Computational Investigation of Hydrogen Gas Absorption on Graphene Sheets Using the Eley-Rideal Mechanism”

    Sigma Xi Second Place Award

    • Kyle Zelesnick, Ty Sampsell, Stephen Deak and Mary Chey
      “A Novel Approach for Detecting and Monitoring the Health Status of Environmental Waters for Tomato Mosaic Virus (ToMV)”

    Sigma Xi Third Place Award

    • James Wagner
      “Morphometric Analysis for Characterizing Submarine Drainage Networks: East Scotian Slope Canyon System, Offshore Novia Scotia”

    S-COAM Best Computational Science Poster

    • James Volosky and Ryan Brown
      “Spatial Improvement Analysis for the Dirt and Gravel Roads in the Little Mahoning Watershed”

    Best Bibliography Award Winner

    • Melissa King
      “Gendering Tamriel: Character Creation in The Elder Scrolls Video Games Series and Gender Stereotypes”

    Special Awards

    Best Overall Tweet

    • Aijah Baruti-Goodwin
      “The Effects of Parenting Styles and Family Structure on the Personal Adjustment of College Students”

    Best Selfie

    • Vincent Paparella

  • Graduate

    College of Education and Educational Technology

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - First Place Award

    • Huachuan Wen
      “Online Social Networking and Writing in College”

    Second Place Award

    • Jamie Brandon
      “Educating for Security: A Mixed Methods Study of Information Technology Security Programs and Protection of Personally Identifiable Information in Higher Education”

    Third Place Award

    • Timothy Hall
      “Beyond SWPBIS: Effects of Large-Scale Implementation of CICO”

    College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - First Place Awards

    • Adam Mengel
      “Bat Use of Edge and Interior Habitat in Managed Forest”
    • Chiaothong Yong
      “Psychological Screening on International Students”

    Second Place Award

    • Chad Clair
      “Landscape Level Analysis of the Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister) across Pennsylvania”

    Third Place Award

    • Michelle Myers-Claypole and Daniel Peles
      “Seasonal Activity and Abundance of the Blacklegged Tick) (Ixodes scapularis) and Infection Prevalence of the Lyme Disease Bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi) in Mid-Western Pennsylvania”

    College of Health and Human Services

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - First Place Award

    • Shavonne Arthurs
      “Biological Drives and Social Reinforcement: Why College Students Drink”

    Second Place Award

    • Matthew Rutt
      “Effects of Different Modes of Recovery on Rates of Removal of Blood Lactate”

    Third Place Award

    • Dylan Mudlo
      “Effects of Unilateral Versus Bilateral Squat and Plyometric Training Upon Athletic Performance Outcomes”

    College of Humanities and Social Sciences

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - First Place Award

    • Robert Welch
      “Poetry as Teacher, Teacher as Mediator: The Lesson of John Keats”

    Second Place Award

    • Daniel Sandrowicz
      “Spatial Improvement Analysis for the Dirt and Gravel Roads in the Little Mahoning Watershed”

    Third Place Award

    • Kristina Navnyko
      “The Impact of Standardized Testing on EFL in Russia”

    College of Fine Arts

    Dean’s Award for Excellence - First Place Award

    • Tyler Kulp
      “Six-Mallet Techniques, Grips, and Compositions for Marimba”

    Second Place Award

    • Erika Stearly
      “Take a Painting”

    Student Exhibition

    Best in Show

    • Eric Brennan
      “Ramon”

    Departmental Award

    • Jim Battistelli
      “Scale Whale Projection”

    ECO Award

    • Matthew Huff
      "White Township Stormwater Resource Inventory"

    Sigma Xi Award

    • Courtney Nicks
      “The Use of Genetic Data to Examine Patterns of Fisher Recolonization”

    Best Selfie

    • Michelle Cole

    Best Overall Tweet

    • Aijah Baruti-Goodwin
      “The Effects of Parenting Styles and Family Structure on the Personal Adjustment of College Students”


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