Leah Perri/Winonan

Students showcased their hard work and research through posters, talks and presentations in honor of this year’s seventh annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship Symposium.

The event was held from 2 to 6 p.m. April 17 in Kryzsko Commons, in accordance with National Undergraduate Research Week.

Named in memory of Winona State University’s 14th president, the event is meant to encourage, promote and celebrate student undergraduate research and creativity.

“The work is the culmination of [student] efforts and their faculty mentor,” Michael Delong, Winona State professor and event committee member, said. “It provides an opportunity for all members of the WSU community to see hands-on application of what is learned in the classroom and the quality work of our students.”

Topics ranged from the impact of social media on students, to racial profiling, to biodegradable composites and organic compound emissions.

One student, Daniel Badalamente, a junior and double major in political science and public administration, decided to do his project on Twitter’s impact on student knowledge of events in the Middle East.

“While social media’s connection to the Middle East has been looked at in terms of organizing the movements, it hadn’t been looked at in terms of external effects,” Badalamente said. “I thought this would be a good opportunity to examine those effects.”

Badalamente, who has been researching this topic all semester for a political science research seminar class, found that student Twitter users were significantly more likely to be aware of events happening in the Middle East.

Although an extremely time-consuming project, Badalamente described the research process as both “interesting” and “extremely rewarding.”

“This experience showed me just how much research students do at Winona State University,” Badalamente said. “I was very impressed by the number of projects completed by students.”

Another student, Laura Lake, a senior at Winona State, also presented her research on student civic engagement.

“I have been researching this topic for the past two years—and this project specifically I have been working on for this entire semester,” Lake said. “I wanted to measure our campus and see how civically engaged our WSU students are.”

According to Lake’s research, civic engagement corresponds directly with a student’s class year, seniors being more engaged than freshmen. Lake believes one solution to this problem would be to stress community involvement early on in freshman orientation classes.

Lake said she has gained a lot from participating in this event.

“First and foremost I got to learn,” she said. “I also enjoyed sharing my findings with a variety of students, faculty members and administration members. Being able to share what I had discovered with so many people was rewarding.”

Students interested in participating in the symposium next year should contact an adviser or professor in their particular field of study.

Contact Leah at [email protected]