SUNY’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) was one of countless events canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, prior to the cancellation, 12 Columbia-Greene Community College students were selected to share their original work.
Barbara Shaffer, associate professor of Psychology and Sociology at C-GCC, explained that each year, students enrolled in her Research for the Behavioral Science course are charged with designing and conducting high-quality research projects, which are in turn submitted to SURC for possible presentation to fellow undergraduate students and faculty mentors from across the SUNY/CUNY system.
“The students were meant to attend the conference and share their original research projects with the academic community,” said Shaffer, noting that the students worked very hard on these projects and she is proud of their success.
Ultimately, six projects were accepted from C-GCC, delving into topics from self-esteem and dark humor to LGBTQ and social belongingness within a community-college setting.
Morgan Adriance (Hillsdale), for instance, investigated student attitudes and opinions toward open educational resources on a small, rural, community college campus.
Valerie Hammond (Nassau) examined the relationship between consumerism and social conformity. Adam Beach (Red Hook) and Brianna Kern (East Durham) examined the relationship between financial responsibility to institutions of higher education and student academic performance.
Montgomery Budik (Hudson), Joseph DeSantis (Sylvan Beach), and Jenna Poulsen (Acra) studied the effects of cell phone usage on self-esteem, while the relationship between self-esteem and appreciation of dark humor was examined by Kimberly Cammarata (Cornwallville), Anna O’Keeffe (Rhinebeck) and Megan Smith (Hudson).
Elizabeth Ernst (Valatie) and Alyssa Wright (Livingston) investigated the relationship between identification as an LGBTQ+ student and social belongingness, as it occurs on a small rural community college campus.
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