Academic Acoustics Resonate Around Campus for UF’s 2019 Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity

It was a packed house at one of the University of Findlay’s 2019 Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity presentations.

Original music, research findings, and awards were all part of the University of Findlay’s daylong 2019 Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity held April 5.

Parker Nash and Sara Tomko were awarded the Founders’ Son and Daughter Awards, given each year to outstanding graduating seniors.

The DeBow and Catherine Freed Academic Scholars Award, a new honor this year for the highest-ranking undergraduate student in each of the colleges, was handed out. Recipients were: Sara Bornhorst, College of Education; Farrah Connolly, College of Health Professions; Rachel Claus, College of Sciences; Ashlyn Strahley, College of Business; Karissa Payne, College of Liberal Arts; and Christopher Stang, College of Pharmacy.

Some presentation highlights included:

• A study about the influence of Dante’s “Inferno” on Florentine culture, Michelangelo, and the Medici family. Presenters Emily Dykes, Katherine Kouvaris and Avery Shorlo illustrated how Dante’s religious and political persuasions affected Italian art and commerce, and continue to inform contemporary meaning.
• Sarah Castle’s research on the correlation between mass shooters in America and mental illness. By examining newspaper articles about mass shootings, she found insufficient evidence to connect factors such as mental illness diagnoses and how childhood family structures may have an influence. But, her work illustrates the importance of public information dissemination and potential prevention efforts, and lends credence to additional mass shooter research related socioeconomic status, adverse childhood experiences, and more.
• Danielle Perez’s measurements of triclosan levels in the Blanchard River. Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent that used to be prevalent in products such as toothpaste, hand soap, and toys, was banned in 2016 because of its adverse environmental effects. Perez is continuing to collect water samples in four-mile increments along the river to test her hypothesis that there are still elevated triclosan levels, particularly in urban areas. Her research will mark the first time the river has been tested for triclosan.
• Milena Velez and Emily Walling’s creative writing and musical offerings. These Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing students read short stories and poems that they have written, and Walling played songs she composed on her ukulele.

More photos from the day can be found on UF’s Flickr album.