Summer Research at Chatham - Part One
When you think of summer break, “data analysis” might be the furthest thing from your mind. Not so for Ava Roberts ‘22 and MacKenzie MacFarland ‘22, who spent May and June assisting professors at ChathamU with research projects, snagging hands-on experience in their academic fields.
In the first part of this piece highlighting summer research at Chatham, we asked Ava and MacKenzie about their experience as research assistants and what’s next in store for them this summer. Check out part two here.
Ava Roberts ’22
Study Title: Inspired Citizenship: How Our Political Role Models Shape American Politics
Professor: Jennie Sweet-Cushman, PhD (Associate Professor of Political Science)
● As part of Dr. Sweet-Cushman’s Inspired Citizenship book project, Ava conducted a survey, collected and analyzed data through computer programming, and helped write a research article focused on political participation in the United States.
Q: What made you want to work as a research assistant? What drew you to this project in particular?
Ava Roberts ‘22
I wanted to work as a research assistant, specifically on Dr. Sweet-Cushman’s Inspired Citizenship project, because I personally wanted to understand the significance of political role models to those who participate in politics and help share this knowledge with other people. Research work supplies the gift of knowledge, and that is so valuable because knowledge can greatly impact how we understand and participate in politics and in social systems, generally.
In short – I felt especially passionate about this project because it will benefit the greater political science community; if we understand the intricacies of what makes people participate in politics and run for office, we can better supply tools to and inspire those who may feel shut out of government to take part in democratic processes.
Q: What are the contributions you’ve made that you’re most proud of?
I made some meaningful contributions to this project over the course of my assistantship, but it couldn’t have been possible without all the incredible work that had already been done by my research supervisor, Dr. Sweet-Cushman on her book and the corresponding survey project – she really is paving the way in this part of political science that relates to political role models. I think the part of the research project I am most excited about contributing to is writing part of the academic research article that summarized Dr. Sweet-Cushman’s literature review and the data from the survey on political role models we created together. This is the first time I’ve ever helped write an academic research article, and I will have the honor of being listed as a co-author and help present it at an academic conference this fall!
Q: As your work as a research assistant comes to a close, what’s next for your summer?
For the latter portion of this summer, I am planning on interning with the City of Pittsburgh – something that has been on my bucket list since I first started as a Political Science student at Chatham! It is still being finalized, so fingers crossed, but even being considered for a position a year ahead of when I had planned to apply is such an incredibly exciting and meaningful experience to me. If I am accepted, this experience will supply me with many of the tools I will need to be a better public servant when I run for office when I’m older, and it will also give me valuable experience in local government work (especially looking at things like improving city infrastructure, equitable environmental policy, building back better after the COVID-19 pandemic, etc.). I cannot wait to get started.
Q: What was the most rewarding part of your time as a research assistant?
There were two very rewarding parts to this research experience. The first most rewarding part was finding that our survey experiment yielded at least partial support for Dr. Sweet-Cushman’s Inspired Citizenship Theory that political role models do appear to inspire people, in some ways, to participate in politics. Going through the data and seeing that there were statistically significant relationships between most of the variables we were testing was such a great feeling. It was such a massive, collective sigh of relief seeing that the existing literature on the topic provided a good jumping off point for this project, which initially provided evidence that Dr. Sweet-Cushman could find these relationships between role models and political activity/inspiration. The second-best part of this project was learning how to operate SPSS and conduct data analysis – something I’ve been downright bad at in the past. I felt this assistantship really prepared me for my Capstone project in the fall, where I will be analyzing how climate anxiety impacted political participation in the 2020 election.
MacKenzie MacFarland ‘22
Study Title: Electric Field Control of Catalytic Selectivity
Professor: William Pfalzgraff, PhD (Assistant Professor of Chemistry)
● Mackenzie performed experiments and chemistry simulations to model catalytic reactions, combining computer programming and chemistry.
Q: What drew you to this project in particular?
MacKenzie MacFarland ‘22
I was drawn to this particular project because I like how it combines disciplines that you wouldn't automatically assume go together. Programming and chemistry seem like separate fields, but computer simulations of chemicals can be very useful for predicting chemical behavior as well as interpreting experimental results. This project focuses on the concept of using electric fields to control the product selectivity of a reaction, which could be very useful in chemical synthesis and is also just super interesting. Dr. Pfalzgraff is a great professor and mentor, and I was glad to have the opportunity to work with him.
Q: What are the contributions you’ve made that you’re most proud of?
I'm most proud of my contribution to creating molecular dynamics parameters for molecules that have not already been parameterized. I'm likely the first person to create an AMOEBA polarizable force field for the molecules that we are studying, which is really exciting!
Q: What made you want to work as a research assistant?
I wanted to work as a research assistant because I am always looking for an opportunity to learn something new and I thought this research could teach me a lot.
Q: As your work as a research assistant comes to a close, what’s next for your summer?
For the rest of the summer, I hope to relax a bit and then prepare my applications for graduate school.
Q: What was the most rewarding part of your time as a research assistant?
I think the most rewarding part of this research was getting my first paycheck for doing science. Sometimes you doubt whether your hard work will pay off, but this opportunity has reassured me that my hard work will eventually be worth it.
Regardless of the academic term, innovation thrives at Chatham through its students and faculty. Be sure to keep an eye out for the second part of Summer Research at Chatham as we highlight research assistants Erleen Ellis ‘24 and Gary McMurtrie ‘21!