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The Forum Undergraduate Research Awards showcase the most rigorous and significant undergraduate research that occurs as part of education abroad programs.
Independent research represents one of the highest achievements of undergraduate student learning. Completing serious, high-quality research requires critical thinking, analysis, and creativity. Award projects encompass a wide variety of academic fields, demonstrating that international learning informs many academic and professional fields. Moreover, the quality of the nominated research is a testimony to students’ understanding of other cultures and societies.
The presentation and publication of these competitive undergraduate research projects underscores, for faculty, international education administrators and other professionals, some of the important ways that study abroad impacts student learning. In this way, the very best outcomes of student learning abroad are widely visible to the profession of education abroad as well as to our constituents.
Awards
Each year, two students are selected to receive a Forum Undergraduate Research Awards. The winners are invited to attend the Forum Conference at no cost and present a summary of their research and international experience at a special session.
Research papers by the winners are published in a special issue of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.
The deadline for submissions for the 2008 Award is June 30, 2008.
The winners of the 2007 Undergraduate Research Awards are:
Brittany Murlas
Home Institution: University of California Berkeley;
Study Abroad Program: University of California Education Abroad Programs, Ghana
“Mother Tongue Literacy in Ghana: A Sociolinguistic Approach”
Lauren Gersbach
Home Institution:Butler University;
Study Abroad Program: The School for Field Studies/Centre for Rainforest Studies, Queensland, Australia
“Resistance vs. Resilience: Alternative Mechanisms to Survive Severe Cyclones in Mabi Type 5b Rainforest Tree Species of North Queensland, Australia”
Thanks to Bernhard Streitwieser of Northwestern University for coordinating the selection process. The institutional member that nominated Brittany, the University of California Education Abroad Program, wrote that they “applaud and commend The Forum’s important efforts to encourage undergraduate study abroad research, to pay tribute to our globally minded student-citizens, and to highlight the distinction of their budding scholarly endeavors.”
Murlas and Gersbach presented their research at the Forum Conference in Boston.
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