A total of eight Hope College students who conducted independent original research while participating in study abroad will present their work on Thursday, March 3, on the first floor of the rotunda of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
Four of the students will present their work between 11 a.m. and noon, and four will present their work between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. In addition, research posters highlighting the eight students’ work will be featured in the rotunda from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
All eight of the students pursued the projects while participating in programs coordinated through the School for International Training (SIT), one of multiple consortia through which Hope provides study-abroad opportunities around the world for the college’s students.
The students making presentations during the 11 a.m. session will be:
senior Micah Gargala of Holland, who participated in SIT Valparaiso, Chile: Community Development, Cultural Identity and Social Justice in the spring of 2015 and will present “Copper and Blood: New Family Structures in the Copper Mining Industry of Chile”;
senior Anna Kremer of Zeeland, who participated in SIT Argentina: Regional Integration, Development and Social Change in the fall of 2015 and will present “The Challenges and Achievements of the Trans Community in Paraguay: Panambi and Escalando as Agents of Change for Trans Women”;
senior Cassie VanWynen of Fowlerville, who participated in SIT Australia: Rainforest Reef and Cultural Ecology in the fall of 2015 and will present “Satiation Limits and Prey-Preference of Damselfish Feeding on Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci)”; and
senior Mariana Thomas of Chicago, Illinois, who participated in SIT Durban, South Africa: Social and Political Transformation in the fall of 2015 and will present “A Legacy of Hope: An Exploration of Emmanuel Cathedral’s Engagement with the Anti-Apartheid Struggle from 1984 to 1994.
The students making presentations during the 3 p.m. session will be:
junior Wesley Wright of DeWitt, who participated in SIT Nepal: Development and Social Change in the fall of 2015 and will present “The Challenge of Representing Community: Designing Content in Radio Sagarmatha and Community Madanpokhara”;
senior Beth Bouwkamp of Hudsonville, who participated in SIT India: Public Health, Policy Advocacy and Community in the spring of 2015 and will present “How Standard Models of Accessibility are Inaccessible to the Differently Abled: A Case Study of the Approach of the Kiran Model”;
senior MacKenzie Coyle of Holland, who participated in SIT Samoa: Pacific Communities and Social Change in the fall of 2014 and will present “Japanese International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) Educational Development Efforts in Samoa”; and
senior Tracy Bulthuis of Crestwood, Illinois, who participated in SIT Czech Republic: Arts and Social Change in the fall of 2015 and will present “The Refugee Crisis: A Look into the Czech Volunteer Presence.”
The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10th Street.