Distinction Project Proposal Examples

In our current political climate, access to healthcare has been headline news. From a social science perspective, the underprivileged not only have to face day-to-day problems stemming from poverty, but also experience a disproportionately large number of obstacles to healthcare. While there is a clear correlation between poverty and health & chronic disease (Phelan, Link, and Tehranifar 2010), this project aims to expand on existing healthcare research in order to examine barriers to healthcare access.

In order to get a holistic perspective of healthcare barriers it is important to examine perceptions of barriers from the perspective of healthcare providers, something the existing literature lacks. My research will collect and examine healthcare provider data about barriers to healthcare as well as corresponding data collected from patients of the same clinics in order to generate policy recommendations. My main research question is: What differences in perception of barriers do we see across socioeconomic strata in the Roanoke Valley?

My research will begin with a survey given to three different types of clinics in the Roanoke Valley that serve distinct socioeconomic populations. This survey will be given to staff members that have direct exposure to patients. Pending IRB approval, the clinics will also have a patient survey to hand out to patients upon check-in to the clinic. These patient responses will be collected in a designated box for my collection. The purpose of these surveys will be to assess the extent to which each type of clinic perceives healthcare barriers. The collected data will be analyzed in order to generate recommendations for policy changes.

I will spend the first semester of this project doing scholarly research on five different female poets who have all sparked controversy through their writing. I choose to do research on female writers specifically because women are subjected to more harsh criticism than their male counterparts. Women are also often discouraged from writing at all, with barriers being set up to their literacy and education. There are obstacles for women writers at every turn. I have chosen to make this study transhistorical, because this bias against women writers is not something exclusive to one time period. It has been a consistent pattern throughout history which continues to this day, and it should be acknowledged that women writers still face harsher criticism than men. The five female poets I have selected to study are: Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, Anne Sexton, Forough Farrokhzad, and Sylvia Plath. These women all vary in poetic style, culture, and the period in which they lived. The only things they all have in common is that they are women poets whose work was deemed controversial by mainstream society. Note here that controversial does not mean inflammatory. These women were not deliberately stirring up controversy; they were simply writing about life in ways that angered people. To begin my research, I will read a selection of poetry published by each of these women, mostly focusing on their poems that include the themes or topics that were viewed as controversial.

Next, I will do research into each author’s background and look into the historical context surrounding the environment in which they were publishing. I will research why society deemed their work controversial, and how this influenced reactions to it. To supplement the research on each individual poet, I will also research the experience of female writers as a whole. I will seek to better understand the pattern with which women’s literacy was discouraged and women’s writing was systematically devalued. Having a greater understanding for the ways that society treats women writers will help me understand the criticism of each woman I study individually. For four out of the five writers I will be researching them through critical scholarly articles and books written about the author. Where it makes sense, I will also do biographical research on them. For Sylvia Plath, I would like to travel to the Sylvia Plath Archive located at Emory University in Atlanta. This archive includes all of Plath’s writings, as well as some of her personal correspondence. The archive also contains many critical newspaper articles written during and shortly after Sylvia Plath’s life. These are unlikely to be digitized elsewhere, and it would be invaluable for me to be able to read about how Sylvia Plath was viewed as a poet during her life time.

Using the readings and the research I have done, I will write a scholarly paper of twenty to twenty-five pages. This paper will include information about each author that I learned and an original thesis which will answer the question “What is it that makes these female poets controversial?” In this paper I will explore the commonalities in each poet’s life and work that contributed to the labeling of these women’s work as controversial, as well as how each poet is unique in this regard. Through this paper I hope to contribute something meaningful to the way in which we regard controversial female poets.

For my second semester spent on this project, I will use the research done in the first semester to being crafting my own creative work. I will draft poems on the subjects that I have found to be prevalent in the work that I studied the previous semester. With the help of my project committee, I will edit the poems I’ve written into polished pieces. From here, I will organize them into a structured, book-style, collection of a length of twenty to twenty-five poems. After its completion, a reflection will be written on the connections between my own work and the work of the women I studied the earlier semester. Publishing in literary magazines will be pursued for select poems. These poems will be submitted online during the second semester of the project. At the end of this project, I will present my finding on female poets at one of the on-campus research showcases.

Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling is an effective tool in organic synthesis for its ability to piece together organic molecules through the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Recently, in 2010 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Richard Heck, Akira Suzuki, and Ei-ichi Negishi for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling.¹ Their work revolutionized the synthesis of organic molecules by providing novel ways to form carbon-carbon bonds. Not only did these chemists discover new ways to form carbon-carbon bonds, the use of palladium as a catalyst is a relatively inexpensive and convenient catalyst when compared to the others that were used before.

Figure 1 - Combination of two molecules (R and R’) through palladium catalysis and the formation of a carbon-carbon bond (bolded)

Richard Heck discovered a useful method to form a carbon-carbon single bond to the end of a carbon-carbon double bond through the use of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling (Figure 1).¹ The formation of carbon-carbon bonds is significant for three major reasons: 1) carbon-carbon bonds are difficult to make synthetically, 2) most drug and biologically important molecules are carbon based, and 3) the method of palladium catalysis allows for two different molecules to be put together through a simple reaction. The importance of Heck’s work has been observed of many pharmaceutical compounds. For example, Taxol®, the world’s first breast cancer drug. The anticancer properties of Taxol® were discovered many years prior to the drug being used on patients. Naturally extracting the drug from Pacific Yew trees did not produce an adequate amount for clinical use.² One way to fix the problem was synthesizing Taxol® from a more abundant starting material. Several years after the discovery of the drug’s anticancer potential, a total synthesis from was developed. In this synthetic procedure, palladium-catalyzed cross coupling was used in a key bond forming step to combine two different molecules.¹ The discovery of a synthetic route for Taxol® has provided a way to acquire enough of the drug for successful use in the treatment of breast cancer. Taxol® has been so successful that it is now the best-selling cancer drug ever to be made with annual sales of the drug reaching $1 billion.³

The work of Richard Heck has been the starting point for the discovery of many new and interesting chemical reactions. Recently in 2009, Forrest Michael reported the addition of a carbon-carbon single bond to the end of a carbon-carbon double bond.⁴ Understanding the mechanism, or the step-by-step pathway of a reaction, is important to be able to fully understand how a reaction works and its limitations. Although Michael extensively studied the mechanism of his reaction, there seems to be significant work that needs to be done to confirm his hypothesis.^5,6 Previously, I have studied a similar reaction with Dr. Brenzovich where the proposed mechanism by Michael cannot be occurring. The goal of my project is to continue studying this reaction to correctly identify the mechanism occurring so that others can use the reaction more confidently in their research.

In my previous research, I investigated the scope of the reaction by testing multiple different substrates and observing the substrates ability to yield the predicted product. During the studies, some of the substrates formed an unexpected byproduct (Figure 2). This research is currently being prepared for publication in the near future. After further investigation into the unexpected product I found that the addition of just water to the reaction seemed to form the new product more readily, leading to a potential new pathway to investigate.

Figure 2 - Addition of a carbon-carbon single bond across a carbon-carbon double bond. This reaction produces two potential products (left and right) based on simple adjustments to reaction conditions.

The focus of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of the reaction that I have studied previously. As stated before, altering the reaction conditions forms a different product, so the first step in the project is to optimize the reaction to form the new product as efficiently as possible. This includes investigating aspects of the reaction such as the palladium source used, how much of the reagents are needed, and how long the reaction needs to take place. The next step in the project is to explore the substrate scope of the reaction. The substrates needed for this exploration are not commercially available, so the majority of the project will be spent making these compounds synthetically in the lab. Although it is likely the most time-consuming part of the project, it will give the most important results such as molecular and structural restrictions on the reaction. The final step of the project is to perform mechanistic studies to confirm predictions of the specific reaction path. Gaining a deeper understanding of this reaction enables others to utilize it with confidence to transform and functionalize carbon-carbon double bonds to carbon-carbon single bonds.

1. Chen, Y.; Lai W.; Xie, L.; Huang, W. Chinese Science Bulletin, 2011, 56 (13), 995-1006.
2. Nicolaou, K. C.; Montagnon, T. Molecules that Changed the World. Wiley-VCH, 2008.
3. National Cancer Institute. Success Story Taxol® https://dtp.cancer.gov/timeline/flash/success stories/s2_taxol.htm (accessed Feb 22, 2019)
4. Rosewall, C. F.; Sibbald, P. A.; Liskin D. V.; Michael, F. E. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (27), 9488-
5. Sibbald, P. A; Rosewall, C. F.; Swartz, R. D.; Michael, F. E. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (43), 15945-15951.
6. Matsuura, B. S.; Condie, A. G.; Buff, R. C.; Karahalis, G. J.; Stephenson, C. R. Org. Letter., 2011, 13 (23), 6320-6323.

In addition to simply being a biochemistry major, I am also very interested in research itself. In my first semester here, I was able to obtain a position performing research with Dr. XX in the Chemistry Department. By the end of the semester I knew that I wanted to pursue the lab setting more, so for the next two semesters, I continued work in his lab. This time I was working on my own project, and I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing. By the time Dr. XX retired, I knew that I wanted research in a lab to be my distinction project. In addition to doing research, I’ve also taken organic chemistry and am currently studying biochemistry, both of which have given me background knowledge, as well as some inspiration, to complete this project.

As a more personal goal, this project is very relevant. I am extremely interested in understanding how the world works, specifically at a molecular level. Proteins are especially interesting to me because of their complexity and their vastness. While the general purpose of proteins is known, they vary so widely in their properties and uses that there is so much not known about them. This, to me, is what makes them so interesting to study. I want to better understand how proteins function as well as their various and practical uses on the organisms.

This project will allow me to do that; in fact, it is completely based in these areas.

After graduating from Roanoke, I currently plan to continue on to graduate school and eventually work in a lab that focuses on biochemical research. This shift from my original plan of medical school towards a career in research is largely due to the experiences I have had while working as a research student. Performing research as my project will help me to either confirm these current goals or help me evaluate if that path is right for me. This project will also provide me with more lab experience and practical knowledge of the field that will benefit me in my career.

A big value of my roadmap is helping others. For the longest time, I knew I wanted my distinction project to be something to do with health care. For a while, it was centered around my career goal: pediatric nursing. However, I knew I wanted to incorporate Spanish into it some way or another by investigating another country. Narrowing down a topic for pediatric nursing and Mexico, my country of choice, was becoming increasingly difficult. I wanted the project to mean something and make a difference in others’ lives. While researching, I was stuck by Mexico’s nutrition based non-communicable disease epidemic. It was widespread. At the same time, I was taking public health and learned about the models of approaching public health problems. Quickly, my ideas conjoined, and I knew how to try to implement a difference on lives. Investigating and implementing a public health-based approach to improving nutrition based non-communicable disease in Mexico not only would satisfy my career goal aspect, but it would also make potential differences in many people’s lives.

By the time I will have gone to Mexico, I will have completed my Spanish minor, so my Spanish will be at a level where I am able to communicate. I will also be working on specific medical Spanish terminology with XX. By the time of the project, I also will have completed intro to public health, and global health and culture. These courses will give me a broader understanding of public health, approaches to problems, and the understanding of health care on a broader spectrum. Fall semester XX, after I go to Mexico, I will be talking epidemiology. I will also be working on the PERIE approach at the same time for this project. Combined, these courses will allow me to deeply understand my research and process a complete and worthwhile approach to the epidemic in Mexico.

This project is a nice synthesis of my two academic majors, History and Literary Studies. I think that folklore and oral traditions are an incredible way to look at both the values and routines of a culture, and would like to explore that idea in depth through this project. Based on the courses in both the History and English departments I have taken these past two years, I have noticed a good amount of overlap and connections between my studies. For instance, understanding "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," in British Literature was far easier with an understanding of British medieval society that I got from Medieval England in the History department. Other stories, like The Battle of Maldon, and The Song of Roland are even more connected to the two fields because of the uncertainty of myth/fact.

While studying various texts in both the History and English departments, I have been keenly aware of the questions of historical accuracy within texts, and very intrigued by such. Most of these questions so far have come up while studying extensive epics in class, which are interesting but relatively confined to single pieces of text. For this reason, I would like to study an entire chunk of oral tradition, which is more amorphous in nature and not confined to one document. I think that the skills I have garnered in analyzing and writing history from Historical Methods and the understanding of different ways to read and understand texts from Literature Methods will help me in this endeavor.

1. SPRING XX- internship (CHIP) & independent study
   1. Develop surveys and get IRB approval
   2. Compile a list of healthcare clinics in Roanoke City and separate them in to groups of (Non-profit, Private, and Emergency Department)
   3. Select one clinic from each of the groups, and get approval for research from each clinic
   4. Disperse surveys- both patient and provider
      1. Continue to do background research and compile comparison data
   5. Collect Surveys

2. SUMMER XX- Independent Study/ summer scholars
   1. Analyze collected data
      1. Compare alongside existing data
   2. Use findings to create suggestions for healthcare policy change
   3. Present findings and suggestions & write up

• Research the suppression of women’s writing and literacy
• Read and analyze the selected work by the women poets
• Conduct research in-depth on the controversy sparked by each author using books and scholarly articles
• Visit the Sylvia Plath archive to do hands on research about her life and work
• Write a scholarly paper analyzing why these pieces were so controversial, what are their commonalities, and how are they different?
• Draft my own poems, focusing on topics that have been deemed “controversial”
• Edit these and assemble them into my own original book
• Pursue publishing of select poems
• Present my research at an on-campus research showcase

• Determine reaction conditions that produce optimal results
• Investigate substrate scope of the reaction to learn its limitations
• Perform mechanistic studies of the reaction for step-by-step information of how the reaction proceeds
• Participate in and perform presentations in weekly research meetings during the summer
• Present findings through a poster presentation at the national ACS conference
• Write a formal research paper on findings

I will spend 10 weeks in Koror, Palau during the summer of XX. During this period abroad, I will be conduction the “on the ground” research. This will include conducting interviews with locals and engaging in participant observation which will allow me to better understand the culture. Since I will not be taking classes during this period, my sole focus will be on the research. This research will be feasible through the help of Ms. XXX, a knowledgeable Palauan who works at the Palau Resource Institute. She has agreed to act as a guide while I’m in Palau and has given great suggestions as to who to interview while there.

In order to truly understand the development of Irish oral traditions I need to be in the location that birthed them. Not only do many of these stories stem from an illustrious Irish landscape, much of the primary source material and scholarship surrounding them is located in Ireland. The most extensive collection of research on Irish folklore and oral tradition is located in Dublin at The History of the National Folklore Collection, which houses primary source documents on the “oral literature, language and artistic expression” of the region. The collection resides at the University College Dublin and is managed by “finding aids” who work in the archives and are invaluable resources in this field. While studying abroad in Ireland, I plan to make the most of being in proximity to this collection and anticipate doing research in the “specialist library” which has a particular emphasis on “Irish Oral Narrative,” and “Irish Folk Custom and Belief.” These archives and archivists are unique resources that can only be found in Ireland and are essential to the development of this research.

Stay tuned!

Through conversation with both Dr. XX and XX, I was able to arrive at the amounts above. Dr. XX provided guidance on the portions regarding data collection and presentation. Participant compensation is ranked as Priority A because it is necessary to ensure participation, which will secure that I collect enough data for analysis. However, through conversation with XX, it was concluded that compensating participants in Nicaragua is not necessary for cultural reasons. However, I will be compensating XX through offering my time as a volunteer for the organization while I am there. Because to his experiences of living in Nicaragua, XX was able to help me to arrive at the costs of living while I would be in Nicaragua (for approximately 8 weeks). Transportation- flight to Nicaragua and within the country is ranked Priority A because the completion of this project is contingent upon traveling to Nicaragua to complete observational studies and semi-structured interviews. Cost of living while in Nicaragua including housing and food are also ranked as Priority A because they are necessary components of being able to stay in Nicaragua for the time period that I need to, to fully understand the daily life of family with children who have disabilities. These are costs that are needed to complete the study that I will not be able to provide for myself. Another crucial aspect of my success of data collection in Nicaragua is having a local translator while there. This is ranked as Priority A because with a translator I will not fully be able to understand nor communicate with the participants of my study, which will inhibit data collection. The remaining expenses are important for the completion of my study, but the success of the project is not contingent upon these factors. Additional funding will also be sought through the Dean’s Travel Fund.

Recording Costs(A): This is crucial to my project’s success since without the recordings, the music is not readable for a large percentage of the population. Dr. XX informed me that the college has the ability to make these recordings for fairly little cost, but I would still love to provide the department with the $XX as payment for their services and expertise with the equipment.

Musician payment(A): This is crucial to my project because while I can play some of the songs, I believe that the best way to make this project work is to bring in other talented, college musicians to bring more variety to the recordings. I would like to play up to four of the songs myself, and this leaves a possible 11 songs that other musicians would play. After speaking to Dr. XX, I believe that $XX per song would be a reasonable payment for the student musicians. Then I added $XX so that I have the option to create duets or trios within the music which could benefit the mathematics being displayed.

Sheet music(A): This cost is so that I can take four pieces and apply Chaos Theory to them. I want to use famous pieces that people recognize so that they will hear the difference in the sound once Chaos Theory is used. Downloading the sheet music online costs $X per song, so for four songs it would be $X.

Lessons(B): I would greatly appreciate the ability to take lessons from the college for the fall semester so that when I play for the recordings, I have the best sound possible to show the math and not solely my musical mistakes. Should I not be awarded the money for the musician payments, then this money is even more critical to make sure that the project is a quality that the playing ability does not detract from the final project. The lessons cost $XX per semester.

Saxophone(C): I play the saxophone, but I have only ever used a school horn and I believe that it could be beneficial to the project if I had one to work with so that I can add that voice to the music. I reached this number by doing some research on the superior saxophone brands and averaging four of the prices on Amazon. These would be new horns; I could also purchase a used horn for about $XX.

Research-related expenses:

The exact number of books I will need is unclear, but access to primary and secondary literature will be critical throughout this research. I have requested $XX for books because without continued access to the primary literature I will be unable to complete this project. It is important to own books rather than check books out from a library or look at pdfs online because it is crucial to have the ability to annotate my copies and have the freedom to keep them without worrying about time limitations. For this reason, I have classified books as a Priority A expense.

Deleuze and Guattari Studies Camp and Conference:

There are many philosophy conferences much closer to Roanoke College, but the Deleuze and Guattari Studies Camp and Conference is not a philosophy conference; it is a Deleuze conference. Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas have been taken up everywhere from city planning to teaching. The attendees of the camp and conference will not just be philosophers, but people engaged in Deleuze studies across disciplines who are using Deleuze as a tool to cross boundaries. It is of considerable importance to have the opportunity to interact with this diverse group engaged in Deleuze studies from a necessarily transdisciplinary perspective. I have classified airfare (estimate based on current ticket prices), lodging (pricing available through the conference), and the registration fees as Priority B expenses because my project will be vastly improved by this opportunity. The depth that the camp and conference will allow this project to reach both in discussing Deleuze with numerous other Deleuze enthusiasts as well as the immersion in Deleuzian thought justifies the expense. I have included some assistance for meals and public transit as a Priority C expense as this will improve ease of travel. The Dean’s Travel Fund can provide up to $XX for travel to the conference and conference-related expenses, but that alone will be insufficient to allow me to attend the camp and conference.

I am requesting funds to support the research supplies themselves. This entire project relies on the use and study of the reagents and products. Without having the PRPP starting material, the reaction cannot be run or studied. Similarly, supplies such as the RSP product material and PPi are necessary to have as comparisons to what the reaction formed. A portion of the project also relies on NMR analysis of the product, requiring simple supplies such as the tubes and D₂O solvent.

This project involves presenting my data and findings both on campus and to the science community as a larger audience, both of which require poster presentations. Support for the printing of the posters would definitely benefit the project, although the chemistry department is an alternative source of funding.

A requirement of this project involves sharing the results. Presentation at a conference would present me with a better experience and a much larger audience than presenting within the school could give. The funds for travel, including the registration, lodging, and airfare, would greatly ease this presentation. However, the Dean’s Travel Fund, if applied for, could cover $XX of the total cost.