NPRESS Seeks to 'Change the Game'

NPRESS students and their sponsoring faculty members gathered on Friday, July 24, to present findings from their 8-week research projects.

Students complete first summer of new research program

CHICAGO (August 3, 2015) — When the spring semester ends and the last finals are complete, most undergraduate students head out on their own summer adventures. But for a group of ten students, in collaboration with ten faculty partners, a new academic opportunity was just beginning.

“North Park has been around for almost 125 years and I can tell you there has never been a summer quite like this,” North Park University President David Parkyn told a full room on Friday, July 24, in the Johnson Center.

The audience was there to hear final presentations of the first group of NPRESS students. The NPRESS (North Park Research Experience for Summer Students) program provides opportunities for North Park students to conduct research with a North Park faculty mentor for eight weeks over the summer. It was the brainchild of a core group of faculty, and funded by a small group of donors, allowing students to dive into a topic in a way that the constraints of an academic year do not always allow. Students received a $3,500 stipend and were given the opportunity to live on campus, making it possible for them to focus solely on research.

“The donors who support NPRESS are individuals who are deeply committed to your experience here at North Park,” Parkyn told the students. “They want invest in you, and figure out the kinds of things that can change the game for our students.”

The NPRESS program had a number of communal learning experiences, including a historical architecture tour of Chicago.

More than 30 students applied for the program, with 10 chosen. They worked with a faculty member on a topic and submitted a research proposal to the selection committee. The committee looked for diversity of topics, in addition to students who had laid the foundation for further research throughout their time at North Park. A number of students conducted research in the sciences, while others did work in theology, English, and accounting. A complete list of participants and projects is below.

“Some of the students were sitting on the fence as to what their future holds as far as academia,” said Dr. Rajkumar Boaz Johnson, co-director of the NPRESS program alongside Dr. Aaron Kaestner. “This is going to give them the gusto, the strong thirst for more research, and it will probably have a positive effect on the larger student body and faculty.”

Students spent time in private research and in conversation with their sponsoring faculty member, but an important part of the NPRESS experience was communal learning. Together, they listened to panels of North Park faculty experts, hearing stories of their current research projects. They also attended the Justice Conference in Chicago, and participated in a guided architecture tour of the city. It was part of an effort to demonstrate that research is a communal project, and while individual topics may be different, there are many points where they interconnect.

"All learning is a creative process,” Parkyn added in his message to the students. A significant amount of the research presented today took advantage of our location in Chicago, reinforcing the idea that this city is in fact our classroom.

Matthew Davis, a senior double major in history and conflict transformation, studied the ambiguous status of female prostitutes in Roman imperial religion with Dr. Joel Willitts. "I believe the greatest strength of the NPRESS program is the ability to be mentored by faculty," Davis said. "Dr. Willitts helped me become a better thinker and writer, and for that it is an invaluable experience."

Alexandria Slavik, who is heading into her senior year at North Park as a double major in psychology and Spanish, said NPRESS was a valuable experience for her because she “was able to learn every step to the research process.” Her project investigated the relationship between personality, religiosity, and vocation in North Park University undergraduate students. The goal was to understand the relationship in order to develop a model for prediction of vocation based on personality and religiosity measures, aiding advisors, students, and student support offices with career counseling and development. “This opportunity was important because when I graduate from North Park I will be pursuing a master's degree in occupational therapy. That is a growing field and I will benefit from basic research about practices and treatments.”

The NPRESS program will continue next summer and applications for interested students and faculty members will be available in the coming months.

2015 NPRESS student and faculty participants:

Samantha Wagner with Dr. Kezia Shirkey (Psychology)
Gender Differences and Health Change: Physical and Psychological Changes in Students Enrolled in Stress and Health

Alexandria Slavik with Dr. Elizabeth Gray (Psychology)
The Association between Personality, Vocational Interest, and Religiosity in College Undergraduates

Susannah Thorngate, a senior double major in secondary education and English, participated in poetry events around the city as part of her research on poetry and social justice in Chicago. "NPRESS was a great chance for me to see the value of performance poetry in terms of shared human experience," she said. "I was able to expand my understanding of research, social justice, and community all at the same time." The performance above took place at the Green Mill, a historic jazz club in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. View more of her performances on her Tumblr.

Kristin Lundeen with Dr. Stephen Ray (Physics and Engineering)
Modeling Pedestrian Comfort in an Arbitrary Geometry

Oluwakemi Oshimokun with Dr. Suzen Moeller (Nursing and Health Sciences)
Rethinking the Trauma Center Placement on the Southside of Chicago

Yavor Todorov with Drs. Matt Schau and Drew Rholl (Biology)
Detecting and Characterizing Human Pathogens in Ixodes scapuloris

Matthew Davis with Dr. Joel Willitts (Biblical and Theological Studies)
The Status of Prostitutes in the Religious Communities of the First Century City of Rome

Debbe Elfren Espejo with Mr. Mark Gavoor (Business and Nonprofit Management)
The Relationship of Inventory Turns and Cash using Managerial Accounting Performance Measures

Erika Husby with Dr. Ilsup Ahn (Philosophy)
Pedagogy of Centro Autónomo: Popular Education as Postcolonial Resistance and Recovery

David Potter with Dr. Mary Trujillo (Communications)
Sustainable Social Change through Contemplative Activism: An annotated typology of self-care practices

Susannah Thorngate with Dr. Kristy Odelius (English)
Poetry and Social Justice in the Chicago Community

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