My name is Ben Schroeder and I’m from Belgium,
Wisconsin.
I’m a junior majoring in English with a
minor in creative writing.
My name is Nikita Salovich, and I grew up
just across the river in Saint Paul.
I’m a senior majoring in psychology with
a minor in biology.
My name is Henry Carras.
I am from Northfield, Minnesota, and I graduated
last fall with a bachelor’s in political science and history.
I received the Hedley Donovan Award from the
history department and made a study of environmental law
and government policy leading up to the
disaster at Love Canal.
“From 1947 until 1952, the Hooker Chemical
Company used the Love Canal section of Niagara Falls
as a dumping site for toxic waste.”
“President Carter declared a State of Emergency
today in the Love Canal area of New York’s
Niagara Falls where toxic chemicals were discovered
oozing from the ground.”
By examining school board minutes and correspondence
between local industry representatives and
the town’s government connected to the sale
of land around Love Canal, it became apparent
that members of the school board were aware
of the the chemical dump--and the toxicity
of the material contained within--when they
decided to develop a school over it.
This research brought me to Washington DC,
allowing me to work at the Library of Congress
with members of the Department of Agriculture
and the EPA.
As an undergrad here at The U, I’ve had
the chance to participate in the Undergraduate
Research Opportunities Program, or “UROP”
for short.
Right now I’m completing a project in which
I am writing poems that connect various interpersonal
relationships with the phenomenon of apomixis
in angiosperms.
Essentially, what that means is that I’m
writing poems about flowers and their ability
to reproduce asexually.
In working on this project, I’m continuing
the tradition of creative truth-seeking started
by scientists and natural philosophers like
Carl Linnaeus and Erasmus Darwin.
And I just had the opportunity to present
this research at the Annual English Undergraduate Conference.
One of the things that I love the most about
the College of Liberal Arts is the broad range
of research opportunities that are available
to students.
I’ve completed projects in the Department
of Writing Studies, conducted field research
in the Amazon Rainforest, and most notably,
I have spent two years working as a research
assistant in the Department of Psychology.
Another project I worked heavily on this year
was the roll out of the University’s first
all-subject undergraduate research journal.
It struck me that there are very few outlets
for formal exchange between the majors; which
was a primary reason for my decision to pitch
the idea to student government, MSA, and the
university administration.
The journal will be printed annually starting
the fall of 2017 and will hold up to 30 selected
works of research from all undergraduate majors.
I am currently working in two research labs.
They each focus on different facets of psychology
and challenge me in unique ways.
I spend the majority of my time in the AMC
lab where I am completing my senior thesis.
The project consists of a set of experiments
on the experience-driven form of attention
known as habitual attention, which is the
tendency to prioritize locations that were
frequently focused on before.
This research helps us understand the potential
cognitive and brain mechanisms that support
habitual attention and has implications in
designing therapeutic approaches for people
with brain injury or neurological conditions.
We are currently finalizing a manuscript on
our findings, which will be submitted
this year for publication.
The College of Liberal Arts has prepared me
for the future by encouraging me to study
more than just language and literature and
even seek a more connected understanding
of the world around me.
For instance, even as an English major, I’ve
taken classes in biogeography, documentary
filmmaking, and geology in cinema.
My classes in CLA have allowed me to earn
credit while also gaining valuable lab experience
and contributing to the pioneering research
we do here at the U.
I decided to study psychology and biology
because of my interest in understanding
why people do what they do.
The beauty of my education through CLA is
that I never had to let go of either of these disciplines
in fact, I was encouraged
by my faculty mentors to gain interdisciplinary
perspectives and skills that would shape me
into a more innovative scholar.
The research opportunities and courses available
through CLA helped cement my decision to pursue
a career as a professor of poetry by showing
me that the kind of work involved in writing
and analyzing poetry is exactly the kind of
work that fulfills me most.
The College of Liberal Arts has enabled me
to start asking the important questions of
why things work the way they do.
What is the context to market shifts and political
decisions?
What is the role of technology in shaping
society long term?
These are all things that a liberal arts education
has allowed me to examine--and more.
In the coming year I hope to go onto law school
and study international and constitutional law.
Eventually, I’d like to join the Navy’s
JAG Corp.
Next fall, I will be enrolled in a fully funded
research intensive program to receive my PhD
in cognitive psychology.
I aspire to look at every problem like both
a scientist and an artist, as a student and
as a teacher; and most importantly, as a human being.
Because that is what I’ve learned as a student
at the University of Minnesota
in the College of Liberal Arts.
