Minds at Work showcases undergraduate research, student-faculty collaboration

ResearchThe 22nd installment of Minds at Work, SUNY New Paltz’s yearly celebration of scholarly collaborations between New Paltz students and their faculty mentors, will take place Friday, April 29, with a number of exciting events scheduled to take place at various times and locations around the SUNY New Paltz campus.

“I’m sometimes asked what makes me most proud as president here at SUNY New Paltz. My ready answer is that it’s the accomplishments of our students,” said President Donald P. Christian. “We’re especially pleased when students venture out of classroom and enter into the unscripted intellectual landscape of collaborative research, scholarship, and creative activity, and even more so when they succeed in those endeavors.”

The marquee event of the annual Minds at Work series is the Student Research Symposium, at which undergraduate and graduate students from academic disciplines across the arts, sciences and humanities present the outcomes of semester- or year-long research partnerships with members of the New Paltz faculty. The Symposium showcases a range of original, independent research endeavors, including critical reviews, laboratory projects and field studies.

“The process of producing scholarship through research and/or creative activities is both challenging and exciting,” said Maureen Morrow, director of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities and professor of biology. “Students everywhere are doing amazing work on campus, and we are so pleased to provide the recognition they deserve.”

This year’s Student Research Symposium will be held at the Sojourner Truth Library from 4 to 6:30 p.m., and will open with a Faculty Mentor Award recognition ceremony.

Other Minds at Work events include:

  • The Celebration of Writing ceremony from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Library lobby;
  • Honors Program thesis presentations from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in the Honors Center;
  • A presentation of student documentaries from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Room M34 of the Library;
  • The BFA II Student Thesis Exhibition in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, featuring an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building Rotunda;
  • “Dutch Prints of Daily Life: A Recent Gift from the Collection of Wendell J. and Karen Van Lare,” a collection of prints donated for the purpose of student research, also on display in the Dorsky Museum.
  • Dan Brogan and Rui Gomes, both double majors in physics and astronomy, will present a planetarium show that they researched and wrote. Arrive promptly at 6 p.m.; if capacity is reached, a second show will be offered at 7 p.m.

All Minds at Work events are free and open to the public. For more information on the Student Research Symposium and Minds at Work, visit www.newpaltz.edu/research or contact the Office of Undergraduate Research at 845-257-3345.