Westminster College students traveled to Long Beach, Calif., last spring to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Long Beach, Calif., the flagship conference for undergraduate researchers to share, celebrate, and promote their research achievements.

Associate Professor of Environmental Science Dr. Patrick Krantz and Assistant Professor of Interfaith Studies Dr. Timothy Grieve-Carlson attended the conference with Westminster’s 21 undergraduates.

Students attending the conference were:

Biology majors
Aislinn Andrews ’24 of New Castle, Pa.
Madison Conley ’24 of from New Castle
Jordan Fore ’24 of Columbia, Md.
Caroline Fox ’24 of Acton, Calif.
Max Furimsky ’24 of New Wilmington
Taylor King ’24 of Youngstown, Ohio
Nicholas Pasquarello ’24 of New Castle
Victoria Peltonen ’24 of Stoneboro, Pa.
Madelyn Scarmack ’24 of Sharon, Pa.
Amy Tutt ’24 of Erie, Pa.
Lane Voytik ’24 of Sharon, Pa.

History majors
Victoria Harden ’24 of Greensburg, Pa.
Anthony Kamenski ’24 of Chicora, Pa.
Vito Pilosi IV ’25 of Prospect, Pa.

Molecular biology majors
Mackenzie Dunn ’24 of Canton, Ohio
Emma Rudolph ’24 of Santa Clarita, Calif.

Neuroscience majors
Taylor Harman ’24 of Edinburg, Pa.
Alaina Kutsch ’24 of Home, Pa.

Psychology majors
Kendra Granchi ’24 of Geneva, Ohio
Zion Posey ’24 of Douglasville, Ga.

“This experience heightened my interest in research because there was such a diversity of projects. It opened my eyes to how unique research projects can be,” said Peltonen, who presented “An investigation of incubation behavior in the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius).”

“It was also interesting because there were only a few presentations focusing on birds, so it was gratifying to be able to educate others about my research that wasn’t very common,” she added.

Conference funding was provided by the Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research, which promotes and provides students with various research, scholarly and creative opportunities in all academic disciplines through support and resources for undergraduate work.  

The next NCUR conference is scheduled to take place in Pittsburgh in spring 2025.

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