Students explore diverse interests through Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program

For the seventh consecutive summer, 10 students participated in the Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. SUSP provides an eight-week opportunity for students to explore their academic interests by carrying out a project in conjunction with their faculty/staff mentors. Students are provided with a $5,000 stipend and $500 to spend on costs associated with their project. The funding allows students to fully engage in their projects over the eight-week period. In addition to funding, students participate in eight professional development workshops on topics ranging from preparing for graduate and professional school to communicating advanced ideas to diverse audiences. SUSP culminates with student scholars presenting their work to the campus community over two days of oral presentations.

This year's SUSP cohort included students whose projects focused on diverse topics including stage design for Samuel Beckett's "Endgame," synthetic organic chemistry, biological monitoring of a rare amphibian in Southwest Wisconsin, and dendroarchaeology.

Another key component to SUSP is the dedicated support of mentors to their students. Dr. Ryan Haasl, who led the program the last two summers, said, "The student-mentor relationship is critical to the success of students in this program. We have such a great pool of academics at our institution. Their willingness and ability to share their experiences and expertise, to guide students through a project - from its inception through execution to dissemination - while also providing students plenty of confidence-building autonomy … well, it's actually pretty inspiring."

Haasl added, "As the only individual who sees all the student scholars each week of the program, I also find inspiration in engaging with students that are 'all in.' These are students that have practical goals, sure, but, importantly, they also demonstrate pure intellectual curiosity. Plus, a project of any kind throws unexpected obstacles at us. Watching the students deal professionally with project setbacks gives me confidence that the SUSP experience is impactful."

A call for SUSP proposal applications is released early each spring semester.

This summer's student scholars and mentors included:

• Bailey Alcaraz and Dr. Rebecca Doyle-Morin: "Measuring effects of reduced water quality in mussel populations"

• Abby Bauer and Dr. Raja Maunnamalai: "Progress towards biodegradable molecularly imprinted polymers"

• Amber Bornheimer and Jeffrey Strange: "Design for the UW-Platteville theater production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett"

• Emily Brown and Dr. Evan Larson: "A 1,000-year-long whitebark pine chronology"

• Alex Cutty and Dr. Ian MacKenzie: "Intramolecular hydrogen abstraction of oximes by photo-redox catalysis"

• Kiersten Prom and Dr. James Riser: "Following in Dr. Hawley Ellis's footsteps; my summer as a dendroarchaeologist"

• Isaac Reichmann and Dr. John Peterson: "Surveying Wisconsin's state-endangered Blanchard's cricket frog: revisiting populations after a decade"

• Faith Rothkopf and Drs. Mark Levenstein and Mohammad Rabanni: "Synthesis and analysis of copper metal-organic frameworks on modified cotton fabric"

• Jacob Seward and Dr. Ian MacKenzie: "N-Hydroxysuccinimide as a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) agent"

• Cohen Wojnowiak and Dr. Ian MacKenzie: "Remote C-H abstraction via reversibly tethered pyridine N-oxides"