SOAR

Don’t Just Fly. SOAR.

We don’t put our professors on pedestals, we put them with students. SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Research) provides stipends and support for students in any major who is engaged in scholarly research or creative activity with a faculty member. And since the idea of “scholarship” can take on a seemingly infinite number of forms, this faculty-student research pairing program is designed to be as inclusive as possible. Check out last summer’s SOAR projects, and click here to visit the official SOAR website to find out how researching alongside a faculty can help your education really take off.

2022 SOAR Students

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Alex Cabanela ’23

Project Title: We Thought She Would Be Able to Go: Exploring Parents’ Experiences of Ableism Concerning School Trips

Major and Minor: Psychology with an Education minor

Project Advisor: Lauren Kahn, assistant professor of education, and Kimberly Wynarczuk, assistant professor of physical therapy

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Delanie Crabtree '23

Project Title: Stress Physiology, Neurodevelopment, and Pigmentation in a Vertebrate Model

Major: Cellular Neurobiology

Project Advisor: Dr. Sara J. McClelland, assistant professor of biological sciences

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Gabrielle Demchak ’23

Project Title: The Harary Index as a Measure of Network Reliability

Major: Applied Mathematics

Project Advisor: Nathan Shank, professor of mathematics

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Cielo Disla ’25

Project Title: Systematic Revisions of Harvestmen (Opiliones: Cosmetidae) from the Caribbean Islands

Major: Biology with a secondary education certification

Project Advisor: Daniel N. Proud, assistant professor of biological sciences

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Courtney Gordon ’24

Project Title: How Did Black Intersect the Blue and Grey? Black History at Moravian University

Major: Nursing and Pre–Music Therapy

Project Advisor: Jane Berger, associate professor of history

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Gia LaSalle ’23

Project Title: Changes in Anuran Behavior and Neurodevelopment from Hatching through Metamorphosis

Major and Minor: Biology with minor in Chemistry

Project Advisor: Sara McClelland, assistant professor of biological sciences

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Aidan Malloy ’24

Project Title: A Study of the Effects of Mass and Friction in Avalanches of Granular Piles

Major: Physics and Pure Mathematics

Project Advisor: Kelly Krieble, associate professor of physics

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Abby Rolly ’23

Project Titles: Schooling, Justice, and the Future: Arts-Based Research for Educational Change

Major: English (secondary education certification)

Project Advisor: Tristan Gleason, associate professor of education

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Joselyn Salazar ’22

Project Title: The Securitization of Ecuadorian Indigenous Women

Major: Political Science with self-designed minor in Latin American Studies

Project Advisor: Faith Okpotor, associate professor of political science

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Rachael Shaffer ’23

Project Title: Speech-Language Pathology and Music Therapy: An Exploration of Collaboration

Major: Music and Health Sciences: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Project Advisor: Eric J. Sanders, assistant professor and program director of the master’s program in speech-language pathology

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Sophia Shienvold ’24

Project Title: Levels of Cytotoxic Rhodium and Platinum Compounds in Select Organelles within HeLa Cells

Major: Biology with minors in Chemistry and Spanish

Project Advisors: Shari Dunham, associate professor of chemistry, and Anastasia Thévenin, assistant professor of biological sciences