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Third annual SROP cohort selected

May 22, 2015

SROPNIU’s Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning has announced the 2015 cohort of Summer Research Opportunities Program participants.

Thirteen undergraduate students have been chosen to engage in a full-time, intensive research program from June 15 until Aug. 7. These students will work to design, propose and complete research or artistry projects, as well as attend various events and activities on campus and within the NIU community. Students’ disciplines vary from chemistry, history and psychology to mechanical engineering, business administration and visual communications.

In addition, these students will work closely with 10  talented NIU faculty members. These mentors include professors, department chairs, directors of campus centers and recipients of National Institutes of Health research grants.

New this year, the NIU Latino Oral History Project will pilot its first cohort in partnership with OSEEL.

Kristin Huffine and Simon Weffer-Elizondo will support a team of four students to document local experience with immigration from the late 1920s up to the present. Faculty and students are especially interested in interviewing the earliest immigrants to the Chicago region who came during the late 1920s, just after the Mexican Revolution. The NIU Latino Oral History Project is also part of a larger partnership between NIU and the University of Guadalajara.

SROP and NIU Latino Oral History Project participants will present the culmination of their projects Friday, Aug. 7, at the Summer Research Symposium in Altgeld Hall. This event is open to all undergraduate students conducting or have completed faculty-mentored research or artistry projects within the last academic year (2014-15).

Students who will work as part of the NIU Latino Oral History Project are:

Latino Oral History ProjectAyde Flores
Major: Community Leadership and Civic Engagement, Emphasis: Advocacy
Mentor: Kristin Huffine

Suzanne Serrano
Major: History
Mentor: Kristin Huffine

Jorge Solorio
Major: History
Mentor: Kristin Huffine

The following nine students make up the remainder of the 2015 cohort of the Summer Research Opportunities Program. Follow these students’ journeys through SROP by visiting their online profiles.

Jazmin Bandera
Major: Business Administration
Mentor: Bill McCoy, Director of BELIEF Initiative

Yan Cao
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Pradip Majumdar, Chair of Mechanical Engineering

Lucia Cherep
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Doug Wallace, Psychology

Photo of beakers full of chemicalsEdgar Fajardo
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Cliff Mirman, Chair of Technology

James Gorman
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Jim Horn, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Joseph Hurley
Major: Chemistry
Mentor: Marc Adler, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Keeayla Jones
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Alecia Santuzzi, Psychology

Christie Miksys
Major: Sociology/Psychology
Mentor: Kristen Myers, Sociology & Director of Women’s Studies

JaQellah Whitaker
Major: Visual Communication/Photography
Mentor: Jessica Labatte, Photography

For more information, call (815) 753-8154 or email engage@niu.edu.