With the Senior I.S. symposium quickly approaching next week and the many seniors who have successfully completed their oral I.S. presentation, it almost seems as if the dreaded Independent Study projects are dwindling down and becoming a thing of the past. However, for two Communication majors, Kaitlyn Evans and Fengzhi Chen, the opportunity has arisen to present their I.S. projects at upcoming conferences pertaining to their individual topics.
Evans, a communication sciences and disorders major whose Junior I.S. is titled, “Speech Language Pathologists’ and Audiologists’ Role in a Medical Mystery: Their Knowledge, Awareness, and Attitudes towards Clients with Pediatric HIV/AIDS” will present her findings at the Central States Communication Association Meeting in Cincinnati tomorrow, Saturday, April 17.
The passion she developed for her topic, Evans says, was fueled by her family. Her father, who teaches AP Biology at St. George’s in Middletown, Rhode Island, asked Evans whether or not there was any connection between language development and HIV. After doing some preliminary research and finding an entire book dedicated to communication disorders and HIV, Evans decided to explore this topic further for her Junior I.S.
The Junior I.S. project for the communication department is vastly different from other majors. The department encourages helping students prepare for their Senior I.S. by having students complete a real, hands-on project that involves real research rather than exploring a hypothetical situation. The research methods, surveys and writing of the Junior I.S. are exceedingly similar to the Senior I.S. projects for Communication majors, but on a much smaller scale because Junior I.S. students only have a semester to complete the project.
For her Junior I.S., Evans was able to survey a number of speech-language pathologists and audiologists from New York City, which has the highest population of pediatric HIV in the country. The first major conclusion Evans found was that overall, the doctors do have some basic knowledge of the communicative effects of HIV and AIDS, however, they are not as knowledgeable about the specific communicative effects the clients have. Secondly, Evans found that the knowledge they do have, they learned through experience rather than at school, considering not much is being taught about communicative effects of HIV in schools and particular programs.
Evans first heard about the conference back in October from her Junior I.S. advisor, Professor Michelle Johnson, who suggested Evans consider submitting her project to the conference, despite the fact that if she did, Evans would have to cut her 60 page project down to the maximum page requirement of 30. Evans submitted her project in December and in February found out she would be presenting. “To be honest, I never thought I’d do anything beyond turning in Junior I.S., but then this opportunity came up,” said Evans, “A lot of people think Senior I.S. is the big thing, yet I’m surprised that it’s my Junior I.S. which is getting me to the conference, which is not at all what I was thinking about while I was working on it.”
Chen, whose project was also under the guidance of Professor Michelle Johnson, will be presenting her Senior I.S., titled “Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese Audiences’ Perceptions of Entertainment-Oriented Television News Programs,” at the eigth Biennial Conference of the Pacific Asian Communication Association at Shenzhen University this coming July. Chen’s project explores and compares the audience perception and reactions to entertainment-based news programs from China and Taiwan. There are a number of differences and similarities between the audiences’ reactions in part because of the longstanding historical, political and cultural growth taking place between both countries. Chen, who received Copeland Grant funding to conduct research last winter in Taiwan and Beijing, will be revisiting her hometown when she presents her findings in a few short months.
As graduation quickly approaches, it is evident that with both seniors, their experiences with Junior and Senior I.S. have proved to be quite significant. “The communications department really wants you to get the experience, which has been very valuable,” said Evans.