Collaborative Research Leads Students to Success

Trinity’s Honors Society Committee hosted the 5th annual Trinity Scholars’ Dinner in May, celebrating the work of both Vander Velde Scholars and senior students in the Honors Program. The recipients of the 2015-16 Vander Velde awards were also recently announced.

The Maurice Vander Velde Junior Scholarship Award is designed to provide academically excellent junior and senior students the experience of working closely with a mentoring professor in their chosen major. The goal is to provide encouragement and support for select students as they progress in their chosen studies.

Students conduct a wide range of collaborative research with professors and complete a variety of projects.

Last year, Cassie (Nelson) Rogalski ’15 looked at using chants from the Psalms in the modern church and worked with Dr. Mark Peters, professor of music.

“It was a privilege for me to work with her over the past two years on her research project on plainchant in the modern church, a project that grew out of Cassie’s training in both theology and music and her passion for congregational song in Christian worship,” said Peters.

This fall, graphic design major Hannah Dykstra ’16 of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, will be creating a Zine, or small graphic novel, of the composer Dmitri Shostakovitch. Dykstra will be working with Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell, associate professor of education and an expert on graphic novels, and Ryan Thompson, an assistant professor of art and design who works in niche areas and research-based art.

“One of the things I would like to explore is the relatively new terrain of the graphic novel in contemporary culture,” Dykstra said, “something relatively unstudied.”

Vander Velde Awards 2015-2016

Hannah Dykstra with Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell (Education) and Professor Ryan Thompson (Art & Design)
Shostakovich Graphic Novel

Derek Frejd with Dr. Clay Carlson (Biology)
The Genomic and Morphological Effects of Bisphenol A on Arabidopsis thaliana

Valerie Jochems and Anna Spotts with Dr. Bob Boomsma (Biology)
The Effects of Oxygen, Serum, and Chemoattractants on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Migration

Lauren Kuipers with Dr. Abbie Schrotenboer (Biology)
Biodiversity of Plant Species at Trinity Christian College

Ellie Sterenberg with Professor Ellen Browning (Graphic Design)
Cinderella and the Bible in Book Design & Typography