Summer Scholars

Would you rather flip hamburgers (or paint houses or mow lawns) or spend a summer on the Roanoke campus using your mind? Would you like to get paid $2,500 (and free housing and independent study credit) for feeding your curiosity?

Roanoke's Summer Scholar Program is designed for serious students who want to use their summers wisely and well. Every year, students compete for selection to receive one of the summer scholarships. "When selecting Summer Scholars, we assess the quality of the proposal and try to balance the academic disciplines," says Dr. Jack Steehler, director of the Summer Scholar Program and Professor of Chemistry .

For Summer Scholars, the experience continues into the fall, as every student presents their project during Family Weekend in late September. A good salary. A mind-expanding summer. A chance to strut your stuff. It all adds up.

Recent Summer Projects (a sample)

• The Political Economy of the Reforms in Slovakia, 2002-2006
• Jane Austen and Emma: The Significance of Socially Marginal Heroines
• Mathematical Ranking Systems
• The Relationship Between Social Value Orientation and Cognition as Measured by an Implicit Association Test
• Portability of Natural Language Database Interfaces
• Honoring the Forgotten: The History and Future of East Hill Cemetery, North

Roanoke students are frequently selected by the National Council of Undergraduate Research to have their projects presented at the Posters on the Hill program in Washington.

Click here to view the schedule for the Summer Scholar Research Symposium on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008.