This year, the Emeritus Society had a plethora of impressive scholarship applications. We are pleased to announce that we have chosen four well-deserving winners.
Below you will find a description of the work of each award recipient.
Social, Political, and Behavioral Sciences
Maddie Kasimanickam is from Pullman, Wash. She is a third-year student in the Honors College at Washington State University, majoring in zoology, on a pre-medicine track. Her aspiration after college is to go to medical school, and she plans to specialize in pediatric medicine. In hopes to find a new way to alleviate opioid withdrawal symptoms, Maddie Kasimanickam conducted a study to test if air pressure, oxygen, and/or a combination of both could do this. This process was testing effectiveness of a drug treatment by behavioral measures. Maddie designed the study as well as wrote the study proposal. She performed the experiment and analyzed the results. She did all of this work with the help of her committee.
Biosciences
Thinh Kieu is a Vietnamese immigrant who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry/biophysics. He is thankful for the opportunity to be in Dr. Bertrand Tanner’s laboratory and to engage in undergraduate research. In the future, he hopes to become a cardiologist, which perfectly unites both of his passions for patient care and research. He is incredibly grateful to the Emeritus Society for this award. Thinh Kieu participated in a study that examined heart failure, a life threatening condition that affects nearly 5.7 million adults in the United States alone. He and his partners’ work set out to measure the effects of a drug called omecamtiv mecarbil (OM) on rats’ papillary muscle strips. Kieu stated that the ability to simply increase cardiac force development with OM shows that this drug could be a promising treatment for heart failure.
Physical Sciences
Kitana Kaiphanliam is graduating this semester (May 2018) with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and will be continuing her education in the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program, here at Washington State University. Her work on the hands-on learning project with the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) group led her to discover the infinite opportunities in engineering education research—a research field that aligns with the core values that define her. Kitana couldn’t be more grateful to the professors and mentors who acted as a guiding force behind her success as an undergraduate student. Their support and kindness has influenced and inspired her to push forward and pursue her doctorate with a purpose to give back to the STEM community as a future professor, mentor, and through her education research. Kitana Kaiphanliam conducted a study to compare the effectiveness of DLMs (Desktop Learning Modules) to traditional lecture on student comprehension of fluid mechanics and heat transfer concepts. DLMs are a more hands on way to learn these concepts. She used pre- and posttests to measure the effectiveness of the DLMs. This study was profound because it recognized the unique learning styles and needs of all people.
Arts and Humanities
Garrett Snedeker is a junior, majoring in piano performance/pedagogy. This past year, Garrett won the 2017 Washington State Music Teachers Association Young Artist Piano Competition, and the 2018 Washington State University Concerto/Aria Competition. He will perform as a soloist with the WSU Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2018. This summer, Garrett will attend and perform at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine, and the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. In travelling to Brazil himself, Garrett Snedeker learned about a woman who changed the way women were viewed in music throughout Brazil. Although Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) is not well known in many other contexts, she inspired current social change through music in Brazil. Garrett Snedeker used this inspiring story to influence his own practice and positionality in the music world. His project was completed in Pullman and Brazil. His project resulted in a successful lecture recital, where many people came to learn about Gonzaga and to hear her music performed by Garrett Snedeker. He hopes to publish an article on his findings this fall.
