The Summer Scholars Program at Roanoke College is a grant program that enables qualified students to conduct intensive, independent research for eight to twelve weeks during the summer. To qualify, a student must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have completed 8 units of credit by the start of the grant period. Each summer scholar works with a faculty mentor who guides the project. Over the course of the summer, students and mentors meet for a series of colloquia to share ideas.
At the conclusion of the program, a day is set aside to showcase the work of the student scholars. In oral presentations, poster sessions, and research exhibits, they present the findings of their summer-long research, on projects that range from polymer synthesis to the culture of bullfighting in Spain. The Summer Scholar award covers activation waiver for one unit of independent study, on-campus housing, and a stipend of $2500.
Examples of Past Summer Scholar Projects:
2012:
Columbia: A Sociopolitical Study of Past and Present Realities Using One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Connor Toomey | Dr. Virginia Stewart and Dr. Dolores Flores-Silva
2010:
Beauty and the Beast: Origins, Evolutions, and Modernizations of an Age-Old Narrative
Lucy Crook | Professor Deb Selby
2009:
An Adapted Screenplay of Dispatches by Michael Herr
Hannah Updike | Dr. Robert Schultz
2008:
The Woman Question: Madness in 19th Century Literature
Sarah Lloyd | Dr. Wendy Larson Harris
2007:
Modern Expressions of Traditional Fairytales
Maura McDonald | Dr. Dana Linn Whiteside
Food and Literature, or Reads Delicious
Crista Brooks | Dr. Mike Heller
2006:
Jane Austen and Emma: The Significance of Socially Marginal Heroines
Ashley Lauren Gilliam | Dr. Paul Hanstedt
2004:
Gender vs. Genre: a Study of Medieval Spirituality In and Out of Its Social Context
Jessica Montfort | Dr. Wendy Larson-Harris
2002:
Clarifying Identity through Landscape within Contemporary American Fiction
Kachina Domenick | Dr. Melanie Almeder