Harry Volume 3

har r ya journal of thought and action

VOL. 3 NO. 1

The Migrant Eye

Through a Chinese Lens

Living Lab

Photography professor translates

experiences using a technique all

her own p.22

Truman Changjiang scholar seeks to

illuminate Chinese-Midwestern experience

p.18

University partnerships benefit

both students and local children

p.16

“America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

- Harry S. Truman

02 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

a great opportunity to do highly creative and colorful design work. What’s more, Harry’s existence as a virtual magazine allows students to explore the potential of weblinks as a means to further encourage the reader to explore beyond the story.

Harry aims to highlight the many kinds of innovative activities, creative endeavors, and cutting-edge ideas emerging from the Truman community. Yet the truth is, the document itself is as special as the topics the magazine covers. It is, yet again, a shining example of how Truman empowers students with real life experiences that practically apply skills, theories, and concepts explored in the University’s liberal arts curriculum.

We hope you will enjoy this issue and consider requesting a web subscription. By joining our mailing list, you can learn about new issues of Harry as they come out, plus access back issues as long as you want. If you know of others who might enjoy Harry, send them our way!

Kevin M. Minch

Associate Vice President for Academic AffairsInstitute for Academic Outreach

Dear Reader:Our young publication, Harry: A

Journal of Thought and Action, is now a toddler! With the launch of our third issue (and with a fourth close on its heels), our creative students have moved a really amazing publication from infancy to a point where it can really begin to stand on its own. This is a remarkable accomplishment for a publication that is produced almost entirely outside of the classroom.

To produce Harry, students in select Truman journalism courses have to dig deep to find interesting stories that are more appropriate for a feature magazine than a weekly newspaper. For those who haven’t worked in journalism, this isn’t as easy as it might initially seem. Finding a story that truly has merit and will interest readers over time is quite a challenge. Moreover, the kinds of interviewing skills required for a good feature are skills even the best reporters need to develop over the span of a career. Thus, Harry affords these students a very meaningful opportunity to “cut their teeth” on the kinds of stories they may find themselves writing for future employers.

After stories are written by Truman students, another set of students goes to work doing editing and publication layout. While many of the design features you’ll see in a magazine can be seen in today’s newspapers, the format also affords students

har r y a journal of thought and actionTruman State University

Institute For Academic Outreach100 E. Normal, Baldwin Hall 110

Kirksville, MO 63501

har r y is a copyrighted publication published through the Institute For Academic Outreach. No material can be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the har r y publisher and editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief is responsible for all decisions. Opinions expressed in har r y are not necessarily the views of the staff, Institute or university. har r y is not responsible for the full cost of an advertisement if an error occurs.

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 03

har r yIdeas and Innovation05 The Study of Gangs Truman professor analyzes national gang crime data to help law enforcement in the field.

08 It’s a Bull! Agricultural science professor pioneers cattle sex-prediction method.

Spotlight22 The Migrant Eye Photography professor translates experience using technique all her own.

Trumancentric28 The Cogan Reasearch Fund Fund provides monetary support for Health and Exercise Science students at Truman.

StaffEditor-in-Chief

Managing Editor

Creative Directors

Marilyn Yaquinto Elizabeth McBrideMelissa BradfordBurgundy RamseyCarly Robisona journal of thought and action

Impact and Ideals12 Seeing Sound A Truman researcher uses light to study sonic vibrations.

16 Living Lab University partnerships benefit both students and local children.

18 Through a Chinese Lens Truman Changjiang scholar seeks to illustrate Chinese-Midwestern experience.

04 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Ideas & InnovationResearch and the real world

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 05

If you saw the modest, clean and uncluttered office of Truman State University professor Arlen Egley, you might be surprised to learn he regularly analyzes vast quantities of data that contribute to nationwide law enforcement.

A Truman graduate born in northern Missouri, Egley currently is working as an assistant justice systems professor during the downtime from his regular job as administrator and lead analyst of the National Youth Gang Survey conducted by the National Gang Center.

The National Gang Center is part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which itself is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. OJJDP established the National Gang Center, originally entitled The National Youth Gang Center, during 1995. According to a report from the National Institute of Justice, an upsurge of gang crime during the 1980s prompted government agencies to expand existing, or establish new, research in this area. Before then, Egley says, no organization was collecting national level data about gangs, and the information law enforcement agencies could collect was limited to the information they received from neighboring jurisdictions.

Egley has been working on the National Youth Gang Survey since 2001. He says even today, few other agencies conduct large-scale studies of gangs and fewer than 100 field researchers in the U.S. specialize in gang studies. However, Egley says gang studies is an important branch of criminology.

“A lot of criminology theories are based on the dynamics of gangs … because that’s where the action’s at,” says Egley. “There’s nothing more that we found that contributes to violence than group behavior — and one of the

most extreme forms of group behavior is gangs.”

Egley says gang violence affects society at all levels, “from individuals to neighborhoods, to [the] greater communities” around them. Because gangs are so strongly associated with violence, he says, studying them naturally provides guidance about how to reduce crime.

“We want to know what compels individuals to join gangs, what compels individuals to commit crimes — what factors need to be present, are often present, or are even absent, that link to violence,” says Egley.

National Youth Gang SurveyThe National Youth Gang Survey is

a survey of law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. conducted annually by the NGC. As administrator, Egley works with a panel of experts, the survey advisory group, to design a new set of survey questions based on trends and feedback from the previous year’s survey. Several years ago, the advisory group included a number of questions to verify ubiquitous media reports tying gang violence to drugs. The responses revealed several other important factors influencing gang violence, including gang member migration to new areas and the release of gang members from long-term incarceration.

Egley says the advisory group consists of academicians who have conducted extensive gang research and are experienced in collecting data about gangs from law enforcement sources. The pool of scholars who fit this description is so small, Egley says, that the initial survey advisory group had only five or six people, and that only seven people currently make up the advisory group.

Criminology professor and Truman alumnus Charles Katz, director of the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University, is one such advisory group member. He has conducted over 2,000 hours of field research with gang units to understand the best strategic responses to gang crime. Katz says he uses NYGS data while helping policy makers and law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. assess the resources available to them for responding to gang activity, including a current study aimed at developing a prevention program in Seattle.

Katz frequently uses the survey as part of his work “because it is often times the only source of systematically collected data on gangs over time.” Historical data is useful for understanding “what has been taking place in the past and which direction the issue is going,” Katz says, “and it also gives you a better idea of the resources or the capacity of local

Arlen Egley and the

by ADAM ROLLINS

Study of Gangs

06 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

agencies to respond to gangs.”In the future, Katz hopes to expand the

survey even further to collect data about a wider variety of gang-related crime.

“The data does a really nice job of collecting information on gang-related homicides, but we don’t get a lot of information on robbery, burglary or other types of offenses the gang members may or may not be involved in,” Katz says. “Another opportunity for this year’s survey [comes from] discussion in news sources about the relation between gangs and human trafficking. The National Gang Center survey allows us to take a look at these emerging issues and … add or delete questions based upon discussions that are taking place in communities across the country and what emerges as a hot topic.”

According to NationalGangCenter.gov, where the NGC publishes the findings of its survey, the National Youth Gang Survey is collected from a nationally representative sample of more than 2,500 law enforcement agencies from larger cities, suburban counties, smaller cities and rural counties. Egley says although it would fruitlessly strain the NGC’s

resources to collect data from more than a statistically accurate sample of agencies, they do request participation from all cities with populations 50,000 or greater for every survey. They try to include all big cities because those are the places with highest prevalence of gang activity, Egley says.

The survey questions vary, but they are generally geared toward measuring the prevalence of gang problems and assessing trends in each jurisdiction. Survey data is also used to understand how different law enforcement agencies define gangs and designate gang membership, track gang-related crime and violence, and identify gang demographic information — age, gender and race/ethnicity of gang members.

Once the survey is collected, Egley switches roles from administrator to analyst. His task is to gather the disparate survey responses into descriptive analyses that will be useful to the same law enforcement agencies that had submitted responses, encouraging future participation by producing meaningful interpretation for their benefit. The average response rate from

law enforcement agencies is 85 percent, a high rate Egley says wouldn’t be possible if most agencies didn’t expect the survey analysis to give them insights into gang problems and response strategies.

Making a Difference for Law Enforcement in the Field

Law enforcement agencies use the analysis of the National Youth Gang Survey to broaden their knowledge and obtain a reliable measure by which to compare their own gang problems to those of other jurisdictions, says Egley. By knowing what methods other agencies are using to handle gang problems in their jurisdictions and having an accurate measurement of how effective those methods are in reducing the prevalence of gangs, he says, agencies can adjust their policies based on which methods are most effective. Having just the basic descriptive information from the survey, such as gang member demographics and the prevalence of gang problems in similar regions is something Egley says is important because it prevents law enforcement

Based on data the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has been collecting since the late 1980s, the National Gang Center maintains and updates a published document of “Best Practices To Address Community Gang Problems.” The focal point of this document is OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model, a collection of five main strategies to reduce gang involvement.

• Community Mobilization — involvement of local citizens, including former gang-involved youth, along with the coordination programs and staff across multiple organizations.

• Opportunities Provision — development of education, training and employment programs for targeted youth

• Social Intervention — Involving youth-serving agencies, schools, community organizations, police and other criminal justice organizations to reach out to gang-involved youth and their families and providing them with needed services.

• Suppression — Formal and informal social control procedures, including monitoring of gang-involved youth by juvenile/criminal justice agencies or community-based agencies and schools.

• Organizational Change and Development — implementation of organizational policies and procedures that will make most effective use of resources to address gang problems.

The NGC provides technical assistance to agencies and community organizations wishing to implement the comprehensive model in their area. The NGC maintains a list of programs implemented by organizations throughout the U.S. and uses that along with several other sources and surveys to advise organizations about which practices would be most beneficial for a local implementation of the Comprehensive Gang Model.

Prevention, Intervention and Suppression — The Comprehensive Model

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 07

agencies from being misled by their own assumptions.

“When something is unknown, that allows for misinformation to be spread,” Egley says. “If we don’t have good, basic, descriptive, objective information, then we’re just opening the door to misinformation.”

Egley says it has been his experience that in absence of outside data, some law enforcement agencies tend to think gang problems in their own jurisdictions are not as bad as elsewhere. Often, Egley’s analysis reveals these assumptions to be untrue, showing that trends in the jurisdiction in question are similar to many other areas considered to have gang problems.

The NGC offers training and technical assistance for any law enforcement agency that requests help handling a gang problem in the area. Egley says although the national level analysis is what everyone sees, behind the scenes he often is working on aggregating more specific data when agencies request information focusing on a local area. NGC staff will then use that data to help agencies better understand the scope of the problem they face.

David Starbuck, vice chair of the Midwest Gang Investigator’s Association and president of the Missouri chapter, says MGIA often helps coordinate law enforcement agencies throughout Missouri to participate in the survey. Starbuck says law enforcement agencies use survey data for training and awareness of emerging patterns.

“The gang culture is very transient,” says Starbuck. “It’s very helpful to know and understand emerging patterns because gangs and their criminal activity change constantly. So you want to know, ‘What are the source cities for who’s selling drugs?’ ‘Where are they coming from?’ ‘What communities are suddenly seeing an influx of gang members that are relocating from cities in Arizona or California?’ … I’ve worked gangs for 20 plus years, and the trends we were seeing back in the late 80s have changed numerous times in the last two or three decades, so you have to keep updated.”

Starbuck also contracts with the NGC to do training for law enforcement agencies that are experiencing increased gang activity but are unfamiliar with how to deal with the problem. He says having an education and background

makes law enforcement officers more effective in their roles and gives them a clear direction to addressing problems related to gangs. He says data from the NYGS contributes valuable information when agencies are identifying the reasons for rising gang activity and patterns of gang migration, as well as predicting how gang activity will affect local communities and assessing resources and methods for an effective response.

Data like that is useful to more than just law enforcement, says Starbuck.

“That information is valuable for school administration [or] anybody that does prevention or intervention work with gang members,” Starbuck explains. “It’s just good general knowledge.”

Egley says working with community members is part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s comprehensive gang model. The comprehensive model is OJJDP’s broad plan for reducing gang activity in communities throughout the United States. It discusses methods of using social programs to prevent youth from becoming involved in gang activity and intervene in the lives of youth who are seeking to become gang members, as well as effective methods of suppressing gang-related crime. Although the NYGS relies solely on law enforcement agencies for its data, Egley says the focus is more than just suppression, and that data from the survey contributes to a holistic approach making communities safer.

Selected questions from the 2011 National Youth Gang Survey10. Please indicate the number of member-based homicides involving gang members that occurred in your jurisdiction during 2011.

14. Please indicate the factor(s) that significantly influenced gang-related violence in your jurisdiction in 2011.

16. What single country has contributed the most gang immigrants (persons born outside the United States) in your jurisdiction?

20. Does your agency have substantiated evidence of organizational connections between gangs in your jurisdiction and gangs outside the United States?

26. Did your agency deliver the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education And Training) Program in one or more schools in your jurisdiction in 2011?

h

08 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

It’s a Bull!Agricultural science professor pioneers cattle sex prediction methodby MEREDITH KUSKY & MAXWELL LAW

When cattle specialist and Truman State University agricultural science professor,

Glenn Wehner, approached a group of horse breeders at an Ohio Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio during the early 1980s to discuss the effectiveness of a breeding company named OVATEC, he had an agenda. Although the OVATEC fertility prediction unit appeared to work well with horses, researchers had collected no data regarding its success rate with cows. Interested in the possibility of breeding bulls and heifers for the meat and dairy industries, respectively, Wehner set out to form a hypothesis and begin his own research — research that would revolutionize the cattle industry by illuminating a way for farmers to predict the sex of calves.

Effects on the Cattle Industry

Within the dairy and meat industries, the ability to determine the sex of calves is important to ensuring artificial insemination is cost effective. The dairy industry has a high demand for female cows, while the meat industry thrives on bulls and male cattle that produce the steak and hamburgers millions of Americans consume every year. Instead of waiting out the entire nine-month gestation period of a pregnant cow to find out if a calf is male or female, farmers worldwide are using Truman’s original research that Wehner pioneered, which resulted in a novel method boasting a 90 percent successful sex-prediction rate.

“In dairy, the males are throwaways, basically, because males don’t milk,” explains Wehner. “So, trying to get a high number of females is important so you can perpetuate the herd.”

Knowing the sex of the unborn calf allows farmers and cattle owners to easily decide whether to keep the calf, where to sell the calf and determine if the calf should eventually produce its own offspring. Artificial insemination

allows cattle owners to produce up to three times more calves annually than natural breeding allows. This allows farmers and cattle owners to meet heavy demands for cattle.

“Trying to promote a natural service bull only produces about 25 calves a year,” says Steve Woodruff, seed stocker from Milton, Iowa. “The day and age of being able to do that is over. Because of our technology, the bull buyer now

photo by BURGUNDY RAMSEY

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 09

is a lot more sophisticated. He knows the bulls he’s heard of and sometimes he knows the figures better than you can.”

Trumanoriginal research allows cattle owners to breed esteemed offspring. During the breeding process, researchers track and record the semen they use to inseminate the cow. These records allow people who purchase cattle to know what kind of bull or breed of cattle they’re buying.

TechnologyBefore Truman’s research, breeders were

able to artificially inseminate their cows with a syringe-like applicator they injected into a female cow, but they remained unable to successfully predict the sex of the offspring. Wehner’s research determined when the estrous cycle’s hormones were released, which helped isolate the correct timing for injecting semen with hope of fertilizing an egg. Before the insemination process, Wehner tests cows to see if they are in heat.

On Aug. 2, 1996, Truman’s three years of research on 75 cows had proven successful, and OVATEC accepted

Wehner’s hypothesis that there is a relationship between the conductivity of cervical mucus and the sex of a cow’s offspring.

Current technology — involving a probe-like unit and liquid nitrogen — combined with enhanced understanding of cows’ physiological reproductive systems allows breeders to inseminate a cow at a particular time in a cow’s estrous cycle to influence the sex of a calf.

“What people don’t really realize, it’s more about the cow than it is the bull,” Steve Woodruff says. “You can breed a great bull to just an average cow and chances are you’re just going to get an

The findings Wehner shared with scientists, farmers and breeders all over the world have impacted the entire cattle industry.


BELOW: Truman State University’s breeding barn is located about a mile south of campus.

10 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

average calf once in awhile. But you can take these sort of super cows and you can almost breed them to a broomstick and you’re still going to come up with something above average.”

The probe-like unit is a product OVATEC dedicated to Truman. The unit is a box attached to a metal-like probe. It’s used during an estrous cycle, throughout which female mammals experience changes in reproductive hormones that signify they are ready to reproduce. The probe detects changes in mucus and vaginal secretions and translates them into numbers on the box part of the unit. These numbers eventually help determine the sex of offspring.

The probe tool specializes in checking the “heat” of the cow. When a female cow is in heat, her estrogen levels are high enough for her to accept semen. While the probe is covered in cervical mucus, farmers and scientists hope to see a number between 40 and 90, which indicates the cow is in heat. Thus, the numbers on the unit determine whether or not the cow is ready for insemination and offer a timeline of ideal insemination periods.

The Sex Prediction Process

Before a farmer or scientist knows whether or not a female cow is in heat, he or she selects a random cow and locks her in a sturdy metal-gated holder that confines her forward, backward and horizontal movement. Then, the gloved arm of the individual inserts the OVATEC probe into the cow, which sometimes gives off a loud moo as the metal rod comes into contact with her cervical mucus.

If cattle owners desire heifer calves, cows should be inseminated when the OVATEC probe’s numbers are decreasing between 45 and 35. If cattle owners desire a bull calf, the cows should be inseminated when the OVATEC probe reads between 50 and 70 on the rise. The timing technique of the process is the key to determining the sex of the calf. The findings Wehner shared with scientists, farmers and breeders all over the world have impacted the entire cattle industry. While the OVATEC unit has changed slightly over the years, the company still credits Truman’s research

as the first of its kind.According to newovatec.com,

“Ovatec is the only product of its kind with 10 years of research at Truman State University, now published in the international peer review journal ‘Animal Reproduction Science,’ attesting to the effectiveness of the Ovatec in breeding specifically for female or male with 90 percent plus accuracy.”

Truman’s original research allows cattle owners to breed esteemed offspring.

h


vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 11

Impact & Ideals

Community matters

12 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

The mechanisms of sound are mysteries that fascinate many human beings from birth. From

the staccato beat of a voice speaking through a turning fan to the odd echoes resounding in an empty concrete room, children commonly experiment with noise. Some remain fascinated throughout their lives, working to refine their knowledge of the science of sound.

Ian Lindevald, physics professor and former department chair at Truman State University, specifically studies the propagation of sound in musical instruments and musical acoustics. With the help of student researchers, Lindevald recently rekindled an investigative interest that once captured his attention: making sounds visible to the human eye.

More than a decade ago, Lindevald conducted research using an imaging technique called holographic interferometry to visually inspect the patterns of sound vibration within wooden clarinet reeds. Although Lindevald’s original research on reeds generated a large set of data, it was ultimately left incomplete.

“There was reason to think that it might be interesting to know about the vibrational modes of reeds … but we never got to the point where we could do any subjective analysis and say, ‘if your reed has this quality, it’s a good reed,’” Lindevald reflects. “I guess you could say it just petered out.”

But a study from the August 2009 edition of the “American Journal of Physics” inspired Lindevald and a new

team of student researchers to revisit his former holography research. This study described a process by which holographic interferometry was used, not to image sound vibrations within solid instruments, but within the air itself.

Holographic interferometry is a technique that uses two different laser-generated images to create a three-dimensional picture called a hologram on a special light-sensitive glass plate. One laser is spread directly over the holographic plate, while the other is first reflected off an object before reaching the plate. When these two beams overlap, interact and interfere with each other, they create the final holographic image. The hologram can be an exact visual replication of the original object or visually record minute structural changes caused by pressure or vibration of solid objects.

Creating holograms of how vibrations travel through air columns, however, could be used to study a variety of far more intricate, “interesting” systems, as Lindevald describes them, including how sound travels through oddly shaped or curved instruments. He suggests that as long as researchers find a way to make controlled examinations, this imaging technique also could be used to “see” how the human voice box works or visualize the turbulence beneath a hummingbird’s wings.

Exploring the Laboratory

The holography lab itself is a little more unassuming than one might expect

A Truman research team uses light to study sonic vibrationsby ADAM ROLLINS

SEEING SOUND

photo by ARIC PEARSON

ABOVE: The laser device used in the laboratory.

photo by PAUL FRIZ

from watching science fiction movies. The room is underground, on the first floor of the Magruder science building on Truman’s campus. A chalkboard, cabinets, computers and loaded shelving break up the expanse of the clean, white walls. Three tables arranged in a horseshoe dominate the lab space, and counters covered in research materials protrude from the surrounding walls. Papers, photographs, cardboard boxes and hologram plates, which appear to be simple pieces of glass when not illuminated by a laser, cover much of the surface space in the room.

One particular table is covered with an array of specialized mirrors and lenses for directing lasers. Below the table is a long black box from which the 35 mW red laser emanates and reflects off a mirror up through a two–inch hole bored through the table. The beam then is directed to a beam splitter that divides the laser into two beams, the object beam and the reference beam. Both are required to generate a holographic image on a carefully positioned holographic plate.

The mirrors are arranged around the center of the table, where an object under study is placed on a platform directly in the path of a lens. The object beam passes through the lens and is spread to illuminate the entire object; it then bounces toward the holographic plate, where it interferes with the reference beam spread over the plate and creates an image.

The table itself is a black, foot-thick slab about four feet wide and twice as long. Four thick legs, each almost a foot in diameter, support it. Each leg is affixed with a pressure gauge that measures the pressure of nitrogen gas that can be fed into each leg from a tank at the far end of the table. When the legs are full of compressed gas, the resulting pressure causes the table to “float” on a cushion of air rather than resting on solid support. The floating table is necessary because the holography equipment can be disturbed by even the smallest vibrations.

“It’s so sensitive that if I didn’t have a floating table, and a truck drove by out on the street outside, it could ruin my hologram,” Lindevald explained.

Pressure changes as small as removing one of the mirrors from the table’s magnetized surface will cause the table

to hiss loudly as gas flows in or out of the legs and adjusts to the shifts in pressure.

Developing Their Method

Aric Pearson, one of Lindevald’s student researchers who graduated during May 2013, says a required condition for the experiment is to have strong sound waves moving through a closed body of air, accompanied by regular variations in air pressure. The speed of light traveling through air changes a small amount based on air density, and the pressure generated by sound waves causes air to become denser in some places and less dense in others. The resulting effect on light traveling through that air is imperceptible to the human eye, but with the proper method can be visually recorded on a holographic plate.

When studying a solid object, this visual effect often appears as a series of concentric rings, like ripples in water. The rings alternate between bright and dark, a result of interference between the two laser beams, one of which has a slightly altered frequency when it reflects off the object being studied.

“It’s like five minus five,” says Pearson. “When the peak of a wave lines up with a trough [of another], you get zero, and that’s what makes the dark line. When two peaks line up, it’s like five plus five, and you get a really bright line.”

Lindevald’s team spent two years developing and testing the techniques and lab equipment to capture these sorts of images and hopefully apply those techniques to vibrating air columns. There are two methods of holographic interferometry known as time–average and real–time. Both have been around

SEEING SOUNDphoto by PAUL FRIZ

“It’s so sensitive that if I didn’t have a floating table, and a truck drove by out on the street outside, it could ruin my hologram”– Ian Lindevald

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 13

photo by PAUL FRIZ

photo by PAUL FRIZ

TOP: Student Kevin GravesBOTTOM: Student Aric Pearson

14 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

for several decades, but Lindevald used the time–average method during his original research. To create the distinct patterns they want to study, the time–average method requires a hologram to be created over an extended period of time, similar to old extended–exposure cameras. However, when studying air columns, time–average would take so long that the image would become blurry and unusable. That is why the team turned to using the real–time method, which involves developing a simple hologram of an object and then creating patterns by projecting a live hologram of the same object superimposed atop.

To use real–time holography successfully, the live image must be perfectly aligned with the original hologram. Lindevald and his student researchers found it impossible to achieve this after removing the hologram plate to develop the image, so they spent much of the fall 2012 semester refining a way to develop the hologram in place. Their efforts were a success, Lindevald says, explaining that they built a special clear container that fits around a holographic plate and can be moved without moving the plate. They fill the container with photo development chemicals and drain them when the process is done, leaving the plate in its exact position.

The Men Behind the Lasers

Since Lindevald’s original research on reeds, the physics department changed buildings, and Lindevald moved on to other projects, including testing the acoustics of the recently constructed concert hall in the Ophelia Parrish building on the northeast corner of Truman’s campus.

More recently, though, Lindevald encouraged former student and physics major, Aric Pearson, to reproduce the holography experiment. They soon recruited two other physics majors, Kevin Graves and Ben Groebe, to join their team. During 2011, the four began researching and experimenting to develop an effective method for capturing images of vibrations within a normally “invisible” column of air.

Lindevald’s team has been able to produce visual patterns in holograms



TOP: The beam spreaders used in the laboratory.MIDDLE: Ben Groebe, Ian Lindevald and Kevin Graves work in the laboratory.BOTTOM: Development chemicals

photo by ADAM ROLLINS

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 15

of solid objects, but only after a long process of establishing the lab and experimenting with methodology and procedure.

After the physics department changed buildings, the equipment from Lindevald’s original holography lab was scattered, and much of the team’s first year of research required recreating experiments from scratch and rebuilding the lab from the ground up. Once the lab was operating, Graves says the team successfully achieved their first two semester–long goals of creating a hologram and performing basic holographic interferometry. When Pearson and Graves both graduated during May 2013, the team had yet to achieve their 2013 goal of creating a hologram of a vibrating air column, but Lindevald says he is optimistic that they are close.

The State of HolographyAlthough special equipment exists

that can more efficiently create real–time holograms, it is not readily available to the team at Truman.

Lindevald speculates that this is because holography research in general has waned over the years.

“Doing holography for the sake of holography isn’t as popular anymore,” Lindevald remarks. “But that happens all the time. Lots of things have hit their peak and are still useful … The security image[s] on the back of credit cards are holograms.”

Despite the recent decline in holography research, Pearson says the techniques used to be so popular that several decades ago holographic interferometry was often used to check the structural integrity of airplane tires. Even though demand for such research has dwindled, Pearson says he hopes for future physics students to move the research forward to analyze the vibrational patterns of more complicated systems.

Looking to the FuturePearson and Graves left behind senior

capstone papers when they graduated, detailing their two years of research so a new group of students can pick up the research during subsequent semesters.

Lindevald admits work has been slow during the fall 2013 semester, partly because no new students have joined the research team. Despite this, Lindevald says he and Ben Groebe spent the past months experimenting with the acoustic system they will use to generate and measure sound waves and set their sights on capturing their elusive air column hologram by the end semester.

Lindevald says issues to be addressed in the future include equipment needs, such as possibly replacing their laser because of a minor flaw and upgrading to a more powerful speaker. Spring also is the time physics upperclassmen are looking for student research, Lindevald says, so he thinks more students will join the team as they find new research avenues to explore. h

photo by PAUL FRIZ The laser team: Kevin Graves, Ben Groebe and Aric Pearson

16 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Many college nursing and communication disorders programs offer hands-on ways

for students to hone their skills, but those at Truman State University incorporate community outreach into their curricula.

The university collaborates with local children’s learning centers to provide lab experiences for its students — opportunities that both enhance students’ learning and benefit the Kirksville, Missouri, community.

Partnership with Childcare Providers

Jennifer Meyer, director of the Early Childhood Learning Center in Kirksville, says the partnership with Truman enables great experiences for the children. Nursing students take turns visiting Meyer’s center to work with children ranging from nine months to three years old.

Meyer says she is happy to provide a

live training lab for the Truman students. Not only are the students able to become more comfortable with young children, but they also sometimes notice areas of concern, which they promptly report to the teachers.

Kerri Shoemaker, a teacher at ECLC, says she enjoys having the Truman students in the classroom. When they visit, they stay for breakfast, playtime and lunch, giving them time to witness the children participating in a wide range of activities.

Among the tasks Truman students perform are motor and social development screenings. Each student chooses one child to play with, observing how many blocks he or she can stack and noting the child’s ability to imitate behavior. They’re also able to conduct vision and dental screenings, as well as cardiac checks. Truman students have caught several heart murmurs that previously were undetected.

Shoemaker explains the children’s interaction with Truman students helps

them feel more comfortable with strangers. She says with just one teacher for every four children, such one-on-one attention is quite beneficial.

“They are very hands-on,” Shoemaker says. “It’s like having another set of teachers in the room.”

Head Start on HearingThe Department of Communication

Disorders also offers speech and hearing exams to local children through its partnership with the Early Head Start Program.

Marsha Robinson, a customer resource specialist at Early Head Start, says she has repeatedly watched Truman students conduct these exams and is thoroughly impressed by their kindness and sincere desire to help the children.

“It’s so important to keep up with their language and speech,” Robinson says, noting several recent cases in which the students detected problems

LIVING LABLIVING LABUniversity partnerships benefit both students and local childrenby SARAH ANDERSON

photos by CARLY ROBISON

in need of medical attention.Whenever students have such

concerns, she says they refer the child to a doctor for further examination. In two recent cases, children needed tubes put in their ears to correct problems the students noticed before the children’s doctors did.

Robinson says she is thankful for the collaboration because it allows students to learn from performing such screenings, and it ensures the children’s speech and hearing development stays on track.

Enhancing Truman Education

Teak Nelson, nursing professor at Truman State University, explains the arrangement offers an opportunity for students to learn how to approach children, incorporating play into their professional interactions with them.

The students also spend time working outside Kirksville, visiting smaller Missouri schools with fewer resources in Novinger, Brashear, Schuyler and as far away as Unionville, almost a 40 mile trip. Nelson says this enables them to better serve the surrounding communities while gaining an understanding of the conditions of healthcare in rural areas.

“They get to see people and meet people that they wouldn’t normally interact with, and I think that’s valuable,” Nelson says.

All Missouri public schools require pupils to receive height, weight and blood pressure examinations throughout the school year. These are services Truman nursing students are able to provide relatively quickly, giving school nurses time to focus on other aspects of their jobs, Nelson says.

She says working with schools in the region is beneficial because textbooks can’t match what such field opportunities teach.

“Until you’ve seen that full range of normal, you’re not going to recognize the abnormal as abnormal,” Nelson says. “Give them the opportunity to see lots and lots of well children. Then they can identify the abnormal when they are out there and practicing.”

LIVING LABLIVING LAB

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 17

“They get to see people and meet people that they wouldn’t normally interact with, and I think that’s valuable.” – Teak Nelson

h

FAR LEFT: Truman graduate student, Shelby Schmit, supervises outdoor playtime.MIDDLE LEFT: Kristina Kohl entertains children during outdoor playtime.MIDDLE RIGHT: (from left) Kristina Kohl, Sammy Strange and Tiffany Shearer help with office work.RIGHT: A volunteer of the Early Childhood Learning Center reads to children while Truman students help supervise.

18 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Huping Ling, a professor of history and founder of the Asian Studies program at Truman

State University, is participating in the Changjiang Scholar Program for a three-year tenure. The program, funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education, accepts only 50 overseas scholars each year, most of whom are in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Ling, however, was one of the few scholars from the social sciences to participate, due in part to her numerous publications and awards.

“This is the most prestigious fellowship established by the Chinese government in higher education research,” Ling says. “It is a very rare opportunity.”

The Changjiang Program, established during 1998, attempts to gather the best Chinese educators, residing in both China and other countries, to advance the development of higher education in China.

Changjiang scholars consist of Chinese professors who are residents of other countries. These professors work with scholars in China to teach and conduct research at institutions of higher education. The program gives sufficient funds for research, which Ling has used to study the comprehensive history of Chinese populations in Midwest cities such as Chicago and St. Louis.

“The Midwest has been neglected in studies of Asian Americans,” Ling says, explaining that studies tend to focus on the larger cities on the East and West coast. “So I thought there should be more work done to give this region the recognition that it deserves.”

Ling has published 11 books and more than 100 articles on Asian-American studies. Her latest book, “Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community since 1870,” was a direct result of her research of Midwest cities. The Stanford University Press published

the book, and it is used as a textbook at the University of Chicago and in Ling’s Asian-American history course at Truman. Ling’s prevalent publications and numerous awards made her a prime candidate for the Changjiang Scholar program.

Ling goes back to China each summer not only to obtain funding for her research, but to also teach a graduate class on Asian-American studies at China Central Normal University in Wuhan, China. She also presents her research at other universities and conferences, speaking in such places as St. Louis, the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and numerous locations in China.

Through a Chinese LensTruman Changjiang Scholar seeks to illuminate Chinese-Midwestern experience by SCOTT KRIEGHAUSER, SARAH HOLDCRAFT, CHI HUONG and ERIC HALLAM

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 19

One of the main ideas Ling presents is a phenomenon she uncovered, which is the existence of what she has deemed a “cultural community” that has replaced the traditional geographic boundaries of immigrant groups in large cities, such as the Chinatowns in St. Louis and Chicago. Ling has noticed that these modern communities are formed from common cultural backgrounds, and not necessarily by physical grouping in certain neighborhoods. This is one of the main talking points in her presentations.

Haiming Liu, a senior professor of Asian-American studies at California State Polytechnic University, says the Changjiang Scholar Program is similar to the Fulbright Scholar Program in the United States and is a huge accomplishment within Chinese education.

“The Changjiang Scholarship is very competitive and really important,” Liu says. “You have to have accomplished a lot and be a leading scholar in your field.”

Since Ling is in the social sciences, Liu says her accomplishment is that much more impressive and she has “a very rich publication record.”

The Changjiang Scholar Program is not only a great honor for Ling, but it puts Truman on the map in China.

“Truman is not known by the general population [in China],” Ling says. “However, my research can make Truman more relevant in the Midwest in connection with the larger metropolises and can enhance Truman’s reputation.”

Truman has the distinction of employing a Changjiang scholar, and Ling’s research of Chinese in the Midwest brings awareness of the area to prospective Chinese international students and prominent Chinese scholars. Kathryn Brammall, a professor and History Department Chair at Truman, says Ling’s accomplishment is important in recruiting Chinese students for Truman.

“The work she has done has raised her international reputation,” Brammall says. “And that is very good for Truman because she is a very clear face of the internationally recognized quality of the scholars that we have in our history department.”

Ling’s teaching in China has not reduced her work for Truman, adds Brammall, but actually internationalized it. She adds that Ling takes Truman’s reputation into the Chinese classrooms, which allows the students and faculty to see the kind of quality teaching she offers. This might encourage students that want to study in the United States to attend Truman.

“The Midwest has been neglected in studies of Asian Americans. So I thought there should be more work done to give this region the recognition that it deserves.”– Huping Ling

Ling’s latest book, Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870, details the development of Chinese immigrants in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is also the first book ever to offer a comprehensive history of the Chinese

people in Chicago. Ling considers a wide range of aspects concerning multi-ethnic Chinese immigrant groups in various historical contexts, drawing connections between larger historical and political issues and the experiences of Chinese Americans living and working in Chicago.

Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870

20 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Liu agrees that even having Ling at Truman can be enough to help recruitment, whether Chinese students have heard of her or not.

“You can advertise your university by saying you have a Changjiang Scholar,” Liu says. “Parents may recognize that not only do you have a Chinese professor, but he or she is also a Changjiang Scholar.”

Ling concurs that because some Chinese students have seen her on Baidu — the Chinese equivalent of Google — that too helps Truman recruit internationally.

Ling says her goal for the future is to implement a Confucius Institute at Truman, which would promote understanding of Chinese culture and language. The program also encourages the study of the Chinese language and Chinese cultural awareness by sponsoring educational events for the learning

community. Sponsoring such events helps to build an international relationship between the Truman community and China through academics. The Chinese government would provide three years’ worth of funding, teaching materials and instructors.

Ling says she is not sure if Truman is interested in starting the process to become a part of the Confucius Institute, but she would like to explore it. If pursued, the first step would be to locate a corresponding university in China to form a partnership. Then, a joint proposal would be made through the Chinese Ministry of Education.

With China’s economy rapidly growing, more people are looking for jobs there, Ling explains. Cultural programs sponsored by the Confucius Institute could be greatly beneficial for students seeking possible employment in China.

“She is a very clear face of the internationally recognized quality of the scholars [...] in our history department.” – Kathryn Brammall

h

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 21

SpotlightExploring our distinguished

community

22 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

The Beginning: Art by Multiple Cultures

With both of her parents deceased, Priya Kambli copes, as many people do, by preserving the memories of her loved ones in photographs. These images, however, which the art professor uses as artistic renderings, allow Kambli not only to remember the family she left when she moved from India to America in pursuit of a career in graphic design, but to communicate how she conceptualizes her life lived at a cultural crossroad.

“I think my story is not a new story,” she says. “I think a lot of migrants have that issue — wanting to assimilate yet not wanting to let go of their culture completely. My work deals [with] that, and I look at it through my own personal sort of lens — through my own family and through my own lineage and history.”

Angelica Melissa Garza-Benavides, a Houston-based psychologist who completed graduate work on immigration, says migrants who are immersed in an unfamiliar culture never completely forget their home cultures. She uses her practice to aid immigrants in the Houston area in this ongoing transition process.

Kambli’s initial move from India to

Louisiana might have been what Garza-Benavides calls the “turning point” — a jarring shift in perspective that enabled Kambli to interact with her own art.

“Often times, we ignore or shun our personal history and it isn’t until a pivotal moment that we retrace our personal heritage to find out who we are,” Garza-Benavides explains. “Once you start to write the story of your life and revisit your culture, I don’t think that story ever ends.”

Childhood Experiences & Development of Interest

As a child in Mumbai, Priya found herself dreading serving as a subject for her amateur photographer father’s projects. She explains she got so tired of simply being the essence of pictures that she wasn’t intrigued by the craft.

“He would drag us from one picture to another making sure the picture was perfect,” Kambli says. “I thought the picture was portraying somebody. I thought it was my punishment.”

Thus, when she arrived in the United States at the age of 18 with all her possessions packed in one suitcase and the

The Migrant EyePhotography professor translates experience with a technique all her ownby DANIELLE WALDRON

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 23

intention of receiving her undergraduate degree in graphic design at the University of Louisiana, she thought she had waved photography goodbye. The young Kambli maintained this apathy until a photography class forced her to interact with the camera, stepping behind the lens.

By getting out of the frame for the first time in her experience with photography, she learned how to use the camera, absorbing angle and lighting techniques in order to capture how she saw the reality before her.

Kambli’s Current Working Focus

Kambli’s husband, fellow professor Aaron Fine, notes ironically that today she subjects herself and others to the same painstaking artistic scrutiny she hated as a girl growing up in a household

of practicing artists.Kambli says every one of her projects

also has its own lifetime and this “migrant” project has lasted almost 10 years. But she continues to focus on the process — that is, assimilation and how it works — rather than fixate on the end product.

“For me, I also feel that this is a lifetime commitment, so I’m not in a rush for anything,” she explains. “I’m here for the long run. I’m not here to get something done quickly.”

Fine explains he admires his wife’s “stick-to-itiveness” that manifests in both her art and her life.

“When she’s focused on her artwork, she is really focused on her artwork,” he says. “Whatever is the thing at the moment at the time, like she can’t stop…Who knows how a person gets that mentality?”

PsychologyPamela Hale, a Tuscon-based

therapist, says she embraces the power of photography as a method of healing in her own practice. She explains she prompts patients to focus on family photos in revisiting the time in their lives during which the photos were taken. She also has an exercise during which she encourages clients to take photos of their own, often of landscape, and make a collage solidifying what the photos mean and what stories they tell.

Hale says clients use these opportunities in a therapeautic way, noting the meaning of these photos or photo stories can change over time.

“Photos are subjective,” she says. “The photography shows just one moment or aspect, but the truth is a huge mosaic. The viewer is making meaning out of the photo and even assigning meaning, since the photo is just a piece of paper.

RIGHT: Baba (Muma’s Bangles), Color Falls Down series, 2012

BELOW: Muma (Tumeric), Color Falls Down series, 2009

We project the meaning we want onto the photo.”

Hale explains these deep, personal projections often inspire artists to dig deeper in an effort to intuitively address desires, fears, anxieties and experiences.

Priya Kambli explains she still borrows what she learned in her studies and applies those lessons to her current projects, which she says emphasize what it means to be somebody whose identity is not firmly rooted in one culture. Her husband, Aaron Fine, observes the ways in which his wife’s multicultural makeup influences her day-to-day experiences — and how those experiences shape her approach to herself and her photographic art.

“Nobody gave her a memo ahead of time on what’s going to happen so she had to make up her own rules about what’s going to happen,” Fine says.

Hale explains she conceptualizes photography as a documentary with which the artist literally shapes her own lived reality.

“The way we interpret the truth in a photograph makes a difference in the truth we perceive in our lives and minds,” she says. “We can get past the literal or story level and begin to think more metaphorically or symbolically or, eventually, mythically. The most ordinary person can become a god or goddess in the journey we create.”

24 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Mama, Kitchen Gods series, 2012

h

“For me, I also feel that this is a lifetime commitment, so I’m not in a rush for anything. I’m here for the long run. I’m not here to get something done quickly.”– Priya Kambli

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 25

Muma and Me (Gold Earrings), Color Falls Down series, 2009

Muma (Blue Dibiya), Color Falls Down series, 2009

Muma (Dress), Color Falls Down series, 2012

Muma (Dear Suresh), Color Falls Down series, 2011

26 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

Why Have a Typical Vacation?Have a TruAdventure!TruAdventure is an annual wilderness study tour program that takes alumni, students, and interested community members to national parks under the guidance of highly experienced faculty and staff.

Past sites visited include:• Yellowstone National Park• Canyonlands National Park• Arches National Park• Bryce Canyon National Park• Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim Tour

Programs are designed to appeal to varying skill levels and ages and involve moderate exercise on adventurous trials.

Participants enjoy active learning about wilderness safety, backpacking skills, health and wellness, ecology, geology, and local history and culture.

For more information on the next available trip, visit institute.truman.edu/truadventure or call 660-785-5406.

vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 27

photo by COREY WOODRUFF

Truman Centric

What sets Truman apart

The Cogan Research Fund

28 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

The Cogan Research Fund provides monetary support for health and exercise science students

at Truman State University to present their research at conferences throughout the nation. Faculty and alumni sustain this fund to help students share their research with professionals in health and exercise science fields.

The family of Max Cogan created the fund in honor of the late health and exercise science professor who passed away suddenly during 1988.

Exercise science professor Jerry Mayhew, who worked with Cogan, says the fund exemplifies who Max Cogan was — a helper.

“He helped so many students when he was an instructor here,” Mayhew says. “He was just one of those devoted guys that did the job and never asked for any reward or anything.”

The FundThe Cogan family originally created the

fund to bring noted health and exercise science speakers to campus. However, the family decided to combine the fund with the Health and Exercise Science Student Research Fund to help students defray the costs of attending various state, regional and national conferences.

The fund covers 90 percent of travel costs, not to exceed $200 per student. To be eligible, students must have their research related to their health or exercise science major already accepted by a conference.

Students often apply for other grants as well. After seeking additional school funds to pay for the trip, students pay the remainder from their own pockets.

Roberta Donahue, Health and Exercise Science Department Chair, allocates the money to students who file an application for the endowed Cogan Research Fund. An endowed fund continues to gain money, with expenditures only coming out of interest made on donations. Donahue says the amount of funds available from the endowment differs from year to year depending on the stock market. The endowment enables the fund to consistently provide money for students. Donahue says the interest rolls over, so if the department didn’t spend all of the interest one year, it can use it the next year.

Students who want to attend conferences at the end of the semester could be at a disadvantage since the department uses a first-come, first-served system.

Junior Laura Stark conducted research during fall 2013 on alternate exercises for athletes who are injured. She will apply for a grant from the Cogan Fund during spring 2014 before presenting her work at the International Society of Biomechanics and Sport (ISBS) in Tennessee.

“It’s going to save a lot of money,” explains Stark. “To go to Tennessee, we’re in charge of paying for hotel, lodging, food and everything, so that’s really going to cut down travel expenses.”

Junior Jennifer Hill agrees. She explains the offset cost is something

by KATE LINMAN and RAELYNN VILLARREAL


A portrait of Health and Exercise Science Professor, Max Cogan, who passed away

suddenly during 1988.


vol. 3 no. 1 | ha r r y 29

students greatly appreciate from the university. Hill is also conducting research she hopes to present at a research conference. Her research focuses on calculating body mass.

“Especially in this tough economy, you really put your money where your mouth is,” Hill says. “It shows that even though money is short in a lot of areas, that organizations of people out there see the benefits of doing this.”

Mayhew explains previous students have declined projects due to financial expenses. He remembers students say they really want to conduct research and present at a conference, but won’t

because they can’t afford it. Mayhew says students have conducted what he believes is strong research, which currently sits on the shelves in the department because they can’t afford the trip. Michael Bird, a health and exercise science professor says the fund gives students a relief from the expense of disseminating research.

“There’s no way they’re covering all of that cost, but we’re covering some of it,” Bird says. “I think it really helps. We find other ways to help cover cost, as well. I think it’s one of the things that the University does well — to cover the cost where we can, partially or fully.”

Bird and Mayhew say they believe helping students attend conferences to present can lead to both personal fulfillment and professional experience. Students in the health and exercise science department often go on to graduate school or professional schools such as physical therapy and medical schools.

The Research Senior Cody Campbell received a

grant from the Cogan Fund during 2013 for his presentation on workplace violence prevention. Campbell worked with Truman staff to assess their

photos by KATE LINMAN

Junior Laura Stark demonstrates a hang clean, which she used in her study. 1. Stark stands with her feet shoulder-width apart, holding a barbell. She squats down, keeping her back straight.

2. She then pulls the bar up and catches the bar in the rack position.

3. She completes the exercise by standing up.

30 ha r r y | vol. 3 no. 1

knowledge about workplace violence and educate them on behaviors associated with violence.

“The reason I’m applying to graduate school is because at the last conference, I met a professor from Indiana University, and he encouraged me to apply for an assistantship there,” says Campbell. “I’m looking at getting my Master’s paid for.”

Campbell’s presentation was also published in the National Journal of Workplace Health and Safety. His success has led him to encourage other students to get involved with opportunities in research.

Laura Stark and her research partner, junior Karla Pickett, have centered their project on their concentrations for graduate school. Stark is focusing on strength and conditioning, so her study will examine alternative exercises for injured individuals to increase strength. Pickett, on the other hand, is a pre-physical therapy major, so she will direct her attention on the risk of injury from using the alternative exercise. The duo is ascertaining if athletes with back and hip injuries can achieve similar results of a hang clean weightlift while doing a plantar knee-to-feet jump. This jump, which starts with the athlete kneeling and using explosive power to jump up to his or her feet, simulates the power needed to conduct a hang clean, without the pressure on the athlete’s hip and back.

Juniors Jennifer Hill, Jayme Reynolds and Kirsten Maakestad have used the same technique for their project on lean body mass. Together, they are measuring bone mass, fat mass and muscle mass to better calculate lean body mass. Reynolds has focused on obesity and body mass index, while Hill and Maakestad will look at back strength for the pre-physical therapy side. The practice will benefit them in the future by allowing each research partner to focus on the specific field she wants to enter after graduation. This research will help guide them in understanding how to interpret raw data and form hypotheses.

“As a professional, you have to decide

for yourself, so you have to look at that information and decide how relevant it is, how widely applicable it is, and make those judgment calls,” Hill says. “I think that exposure to research exposes that ability.”

The BenefitsBird explains the conferences provide

opportunities for leadership experience by allowing students to demonstrate their ability to communicate and organize ideas.

Donahue says she also sees the benefits of the Cogan Fund’s ability to offer undergraduates a chance to focus on research outcomes, which might have long-term benefits for many fields of study. These benefits include showcasing research abilities to graduate schools and receiving guidance from professionals who attend the conferences. In addition, because the university doesn’t have a graduate health and exercise science program, undergraduate students have more opportunities to conduct such research in high quality labs. The university’s equipment allows current exercise science students to complete research projects, whereas other schools with graduate programs might only let undergraduates shadow graduate-level research projects.

Mayhew says presenting at conferences gives students a chance to network, which for many students has led to spots in graduate programs across the country. He elaborates that many Truman students presenting at conferences have been asked if their research is for their Master’s.

“What really makes us unique is that students can take a project as independent research co-curricular, meaning outside of class,” Bird says. “They’re doing something that’s independent. They’re organizing it, and they’re doing the work as if they were a graduate student. They have the opportunity of using all this great equipment and at the same time, doing something meaningful.”

“As a professional, you have to decide for yourself, so you have to look at that information and decide how relevant it is, how widely applicable it is, and make those judgment calls.” – Jennifer Hill

h

Junior Laura Stark demonstrates a plantar knee-to-feet jump, which she used in her study. 1. Stark starts in a kneeling position.

2. She then leans her chest forward and moves her arms back.

3. She swings her arms forward with speed to bring her off the ground.

4. She moves her feet in the air. 5. She lands with her feet one the ground in a squat position.

6. Finally, she stands up.

Plantar knee-to-feet jump

Documents

Harry Volume 3