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Summer Scholars

Would you rather flip hamburgers (or paint houses or mow lawns) or spend a summer on the Roanoke campus using your mind? Would you like to get a package worth more than $5,500 for feeding your curiosity?  Summer scholars are paid $3,000, receive summer housing (valued at $1,400), and a summer course credit.

Roanoke's Summer Scholar Program is designed for serious students who want to use their summers wisely and work one-on-one with faculty. Every year, students compete for selection to receive one of the summer scholarships. Faculty from across the college review student research proposals and decide these prestigious awards.

For Summer Scholars, the experience continues into the fall, as every student presents their project during Family Weekend. A good salary. A mind-expanding summer. A chance to strut your stuff. It all adds up.


Recent Summer Scholars Projects (2023)

Humanities

  • Virginia Graves: The Role of Mass Communication in Genocide: Rwanda, Germany, and the USSR. (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nadia Martinez-Carrillo, Communication Studies)
  • Timothy Hoffstaetter: The impact of consumption of sports media talk shows on aggressive tendencies, racial and gender bias, and socio-political beliefs. (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Julie Cannon, Communication Studies)
  • Madison Smith: “Is A Heathen Worth Educating?”: Korean Student’s Perspective on Racism in the Heart of 19th-c. American South. (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stella Xu, History)

Social Sciences

  • Noah Isaacs: Re-thinking Mathematics: Reworking the Modern-Day 6th grade Math Curriculum (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gary Whitt, Education)
  • Raegan Middelthon: The Effect of Tik Tok on Relationships and Ability to Connect With Others from an Evolutionary Perspective (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Chris Buchholz, Psychology)
  • James Suleyman: Perceptions of Supportive Discipline Programs in a Virginia Middle School (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kristin Richardson, Sociology)

Math/Science

  • Talia Cartafalsa: Adaptive Management at Roanoke College’s Environment Center: Assessing Previous Research and Implementing New Strategies for Wetland Restoration (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Chelsea Peters, Environmental Science)
  • Dennis Hepworth: Simulation of low-density lead nanoparticles in carbon nanotubes (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kelly Anderson, Chemistry)
  • Austin Parker: Using CRISPR/cas9 to model Lipoid Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (LCAH) in zebrafish (Danio rerio) (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Chris Lassiter, Biology)
    Emma Valcourt: Histone Modifiers in Coprinopsis cinerea (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marilee Ramesh, Biology)
  • Jordan Young: Effective Drone Delivery Service in a Non-Uniform Metric Space (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anil Shende, Computer Science)

Roanoke students also frequently present their research work at regional and national professional conferences.  Most summer scholars present their work at such conferences in addition to the on-campus Showcase of Experiential Learning.

For more information contact the Director of Undergraduate Research (research@roanoke.edu)