LISTENING TO LOCAL NEEDS: Adrienne Halloran ’11g (Communication Disorders), front, and Samantha Link ’11g (Communication Disorders) transcribe a narrative sample using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software program.

Listening to the needs of the local community, Leah Fabiano-Smith (Communication Disorders) and her students have created a speech-development testing program for bilingual children that will also help advance research in their field.

Fabiano-Smith said there is no speech-language testing facility in the area for bilingual children, so she created a program that would fill the gap. Since August, Fabiano-Smith visits the Agri-Business Child Development Center in New Paltz once a week to perform free speech evaluations.

“It’s a win-win program,” said Fabiano-Smith. “They get the free service and we get the data.”

She has also turned the program into a learning experience for her students. Two New Paltz students – an undergraduate and a graduate – accompany Fabiano-Smith to the school, which serves children, from birth to 5 years old, of migrant workers. The team tests two children each week in both English and Spanish using such programs as Microsoft Access, laptops and digital recorders. The college students participating this semester are bilingual, but it is not a requirement.

Fabiano-Smith said having her students experience this type of setting is ideal because it provides them with the real-life research clinic experience. She said students will learn what it is like to work in a setting where there can be distractions or situations they have to address while gathering data.

If a child exhibits signs that there is an audiological or speech development issue, he/she is brought to the college for a full audiological exam or recommended to a speech language pathologist.

“We’re helping families make connections with professionals in the area,” Fabiano-Smith said.

The data and digital recordings collected during the visits are also helping to advance research in the area of speech-language development in bilingual children. The project is one of four projects Fabiano-Smith is working on to study what normal speech development looks like in bilingual children, specifically those whose first language is Spanish.

While the clinical positions are primarily for Communication Disorders students, there are other research experiences open to students of all majors. In total, Fabiano-Smith has 10 students working for her in paid positions or as volunteers on transcribing, translating and data entry.

Fabiano-Smith said that all information about the subjects is confidential. While trust-building is very important, so, too, is the well-being of the child’s language development.

In that vein, Fabiano-Smith tells the parents that their child’s participation in the project will not only benefit them, but also help many bilingual children.

Michael Wengen ’11 (Chemistry) participated in this year's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. His faculty mentor was Megan Ferguson (Chemistry).

A number of students opted to spend their summer in the lab or classroom working with faculty on research projects.

In addition to the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, a group of biology and chemistry students were selected to participate in the first year of the college’s involvement with the Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) program.

“These kinds of experiences will help students achieve so much after college,” said Maureen Morrow (Biology), director of the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities program at the college. “They have learned how to work independently, self-motivate and think critically. These are all traits you want a student to get out of their education.”

This summer marked the first year the college has participated in the Merck/AAAS projects, an interdisciplinary research program.
Earlier this year, the Biology and Chemistry departments received a $60,000, three-year award to provide research opportunities for undergraduate students studying chemistry and biology over the next three years. The award provides stipends for four New Paltz students to work full time during the summer projects under the guidance of two faculty members (one in chemistry and one in biology). The students will present the results of their research projects at a fall symposium on Oct. 19.
Starting in late May, each student put in full days in the lab for eight weeks and received a $2,900 summer stipend. This year’s participants are:

• Kerri Clayton ‘10 (Biology), Tom Nolen (Biology) and Frantz Andersen (Chemistry)

• Juan De Jesus ‘09 (Chemistry), Maureen Morrow (Biology) and Dan Freedman (Chemistry)

• Angela Acevedo ‘09 (Biology), Aaron Haselton (Biology) and Preeti Dhar (Chemistry)

• Kelly Peletz ‘12 (Physics), Jeff Reinking (Biology) and Pamela St. John (Chemistry)

In addition to working one-on-one, students and faculty have met throughout the summer at workshops and group presentations.

Over the course of the program, De Jesus said he gained skills that will be valuable to his future educational endeavors and career. He considers himself lucky because most students do not get to do this kind of research until they are in graduate school or an internship.

“For me this was a lot better as my first step into the laboratory environment,” said De Jesus. “It was a great experience.”

Juan De Jesus '09 (Chemistry) conducted biology and chemistry research as part of the Merck/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) program.

Meanwhile, now in its sixth year, the SURE program provides students from all academic disciplines with the opportunity to work full time for eight weeks on a research, scholarship or creative project under the direction of a faculty member. Morrow said this year’s group has the most diverse group of projects. This is the first year there has been an art project and a humanities project.

Hope Mary Mahon ‘10 (History) said she gained so much from working on her project titled “Material Culture and Servant-Employer Relations in Late-Medieval London.” “A crucial lesson I learned through this process was time management. I realized how much I can get done in a specific amount of time. I also learned how to pace myself with an abundance of work to get done. I also learned how to meet a deadline.”

Alison Stevens ‘10 (Photography), who worked on the program’s first art project – a study of stop-motion animation and video, said, “Going into this project, I really didn’t know what to expect exactly, and I was surprised at how much I got into the project and enjoyed coming into work every day.”

This summer, there were nine student-faculty pairings working on SURE projects:

• Morgan Anderson ‘10 (Sociology, Spanish) and Eve Waltermaurer (Sociology)

• Kenneth Deegan ‘10 (Geography) and John Sharp (Geography)

• David Gorovoy ‘10 (Biology), Aaron Haselton (Biology) and Preeti Dhar (Chemistry)

• Hope Mary Mahon ‘10 (History) and Katherine French (History)

• Victoria Nichols ‘10 (Anthropology) and Kenneth Nystrom (Anthropology)

• Michael Pianka ‘09 (Geography) and Jo Margaret Mano (Geography)

• Darian Pucciarelli ‘10 (Sociology, Political Science) and Sunita Bose (Sociology)

• Alison Stevens ‘10 (Photography) and James Fossett (Art)

• Michael Wengen ‘11 (Chemistry) and Megan Ferguson (Chemistry)

Wengen said the experience provided him with opportunities to do hands-on work and learn a lot of technical information. He said he has applied lessons he learned in the classroom to his work in the laboratory and hopes his upcoming courses will expand upon some new things he learned in the lab.

“The idea of more potential research will encourage me to pay even closer attention in class,” he said.

Each fall, the students who participated in the SURE program present their research results to the campus community. The 2009 SURE presentations will take place on Sept. 9. Student participants are also encouraged to present their work at appropriate regional and national meetings.