Undergraduate Students Creating
New Knowledge and Works
The Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities (RSCA) program has been established to enable undergraduate students to experience the excitement of creating new knowledge or works. Like us on Facebook.
For more information, contact:
RSCA Director Kate McCoy (845-257-2629 / mccoyk@newpaltz.edu)
RSCA Secretary Amy Witkus (845-257-3445 / witkusa@newpaltz.edu)
March 2019
-Upcoming RSCA Deadlines:
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, (SURE) Proposals are due March 26, 2019.
RSCA Scholarship 2019, Applications accepted through March 29, 2019.
Call for Faculty Mentor Award nominations, due April 2, 2019. The awardee will be announced at the Student Research Symposium.
Student Research Symposium (Friday, May 3rd): abstracts due April 8, 2019. There will be an abstract writing workshop for interested students. (RSVP: rsca@newpaltz.edu with 'workshop' in the subject heading).
Academic Year Undergraduate Research Experience (AYURE), Fall 2019 Round 1 proposals are due April 9, 2019.
June 2016
Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities (RSCA) is proud to announce the 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) award recipients! For more information on SURE and titles to the research projects please visit the SURE webpage. Congratulations, students and mentors!
Back row: William Rosenkranz '17, Chemistry, Kieran Pierce '17, EGS, David Foote '18, Mechanical Engineering, Troy Ellick '17, Biology, Nikki Rigaud '19, Chemistry, Kimberly Roman '17, Elementary Education, Elizabeth Palmer '17, Chemistry
Middle: Heather Wander '19, Biology, Edward DeRamon '17, Chemistry, Miquael Williams '17, Art History, Brandee Williams '16, Mathematics, Alicia Scott '18, Electrical Engineering, Matthew Chason '17, Psychobiology, Jaclyn Greco '18, Secondary Education
Front row: Emily Gutierrez '17, Political Science/WGSS, Kate Cushen '18, Biology/Geology, Lindsay Loforte '17, Sculpture, Leah Mancini '17, Psychology, Devin Tobin '16, Psychology, Tobin Mathew '17, Biology, Julian Chipkin '18, Mechanical Engineering/Physics
not in photo - Cailey Burnett '17, Geology, Anthony Hollander '18, Biology, Lauren Shea '17, Geology
April 2016
RSCA is proud to announce that eleven New Paltz students will be presenting the results of their faculty mentored research projects at the second annual SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) at SUNY Cobleskill. The conference will be held on April 15, 2016.
Kyle Law, Psychology/Economics, ’16 (mentor: Corwin Senko, Psychology)
Does Triggering Students’ Interest Make Them Overconfident?
Ari Pignatelli, Mechanical Engineering,’ 17 (mentor: Anca Radulescu, Mathematics)
Real and Complex Behavior forNetworks of Coupled Logistic Maps
Sam Lacovara, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, ‘16 (mentor: Jessica Pabón, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
Gender as Affect: Feeling the Radical Potential for Queer Survival Beyond Binaries
Julie Planke, Psychology, ‘16 (mentor: Sarah Shuwairi, Psychology)
Differences in Transitional Saccades in 4-month-olds When Viewing Pairs of Possible and Impossible Objects
Jessica Mortensen, Anthropology/Biochemistry, ‘17 (mentor: Ken Nystrom, Anthropology)
Iron Age Croatia: Reconstruction of Diet
Coreyann Spence ‘16 and Madalena Spero ‘16, both Psychology (mentor: Maryalice Citera, Psychology)
Generational Differences in Emotional Word Use
Elizabeth Wittman, Sociology, ’16 (mentor: Roberto Velez-Velez, Sociology)
DREAMed: Undocumented Youth in the Art of the latest Immigration Reform Movement
For more information on SURC, click here.
February 2016
-Upcoming RSCA Deadlines:
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, (SURE) Proposals are due March 31, 2016.
Call for Faculty Mentor Award nominations, due April 7, 2016. The awardee will be announced at the Student Research Symposium.
Student Research Symposium (Friday, April 29): abstracts due April 7, 2016. There will be an abstract writing workshop for interested students. (RSVP: rsca@newpaltz.edu with 'workshop' in the subject heading).
Celebration of Writing submissions are due April 7, 2016. (Participants will read excerpts at the Celebration of Writing event on Friday, April 29, 2016).
Fall 2016 AYURE (first round call), due April 18, 2016.
January 2016
RSCA is proud to announce that seven New Paltz students have been accepted to present the results of their faculty mentored research projects at the 30th anniversary of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). This year NCUR will be held April 7-9, 2016 at the University of North Carolina Asheville. NCUR is very competitive and once again New Paltz students had a 100 percent acceptance rate! Congratulations to all!
Below is a list of students and mentors who have been chosen to participate:
Anthony Albanese '16, Sociology/Religious Studies (Mentor: Judith Halasz, Sociology)
Opiate or Stimulant: Examining the Role of Religiosity in Social Movements
Jared Flagler '16, Geography (Mentor: Huicheng Chien, Geography)
Combining Air Temperature and Streamflow to Estimate Stream Water Temperature
Bethany O’Hara '17, Biology (Mentors: Maureen Morrow, Biology, and Frantz Folmer-Andersen, Chemistry)
Purification and Characterization of an Antifungal Metabolite
Jessica Mortensen ‘17, Anthropology/Biochemistry (Mentor: Kenneth Nystrom, Anthropology)Dietary Reconstruction of the Impact of Romanization at the site of Nadin, Croatia
Rachel Marra ‘16, Physics/Astronomy (Mentor: Anca Radulescu, Mathematics)
A Systems Model of Brain Dynamics in Compulsive Behavior
Kyle F. Law ‘16, Psychology/Economics (Mentor: Corwin Senko, Psychology)
Math Magic Study
Jaclyn Greco ‘18, Secondary Education (Mentor: Kate McCoy, Educational Studies)
Understanding the Impact of Charter Schools: A Preliminary Study
For more information on NCUR, see this document.
December 2015
Congratulations to all five students who received a 2016 spring semester AYURE award! These students are majoring in biology, chemistry, psychology/sociology, secondary education, and contemporary music studies. Details can be found on our AYURE webpage.
September 2015
Congratulations to the 25 students who received a fall semester AYURE award! These students are majoring in anthropology, art, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, economics, education, english, environmental geochemical science, history, mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, psychology, physics and theatre arts.
June 2015
RSCA is proud to announce the 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) award recipients! For more information on SURE and titles to the research projects please visit the SURE webpage. Congratulations, students and mentors!
Back row: Josh Johnikutty '17, Biology, Ryan Baker-Urzua '16, EGS, Jared Flagler '16, Geography, Bryan Krebs '15 Biology, Sawyer McFadden '18, EGS, Christian Zoeger Boggiano '17, Mechanical Engineering, Dante Peluso '16, Electrical Engineering
Mid/bottom row: Megan Doty '16, Graphic Design, Olivia Seirup '16, Mathematics, Paulina Lustgarten '16, Sociology, Sarah Sansone '16 EGS, Ari Pignatelli '17, Mechanical Engineering, Meredith Eldridge '16, Biology, Maddie-Blair Wright '16, Biology
May 2013
Yesterday, while visiting the New Paltz campus, the SUNY Chancellor was asked what she thought made New Paltz special among the 64 SUNY campuses. In response, she noted the faculty's scholarly accomplishments and the inclusion of undergraduates in these intellectual endeavors. I agree wholeheartedly with this perception of our campus and would like to recognize this year's RSCA Faculty Mentor awardee, Professor Michael Vargas (History). The RSCA program recognizes one faculty mentor each year and the decision is always made difficult by the exceptional quality of the nominees. Congratulations to Michael, our previous awardees, and all the mentors who make New Paltz special.
Maureen Morrow, RSCA Director
