Manassas Student Gets State Department Scholarship to Study in China
New JMU graduate Patrick Rostock isn’t sure what kind of job he will get with his foreign language skills, but those skills are taking him places even before he finds a job. Rostock, who graduated May 7, recently learned he was chosen for a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship.

Study of Lake Shenandoah Presented at Conference
Assessing pH levels, conductivity and chemical ions in Lake Shenandoah, Melinda Ellis researches the effects of sediment and nutrient loading. Ellis was one of 12 JMU students who attended and presented their research at this year’s National Conference on Undergraduate Research from March 31 to April 2 at Ithaca (NY) College. JMU also had 10 students present research at the Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted by Hofstra University April 8-10 in Hempstead, N.Y.

Paper's Authors Include JMU Students Who Did Research As Freshmen
While many students spend their first few semesters as undergraduates building a foundation for writing that big research paper, freshmen enrolled in the Viral Discovery Course at James Madison University are one step ahead. Many of them are now co-authors on a scholarly article published in the January edition of the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS One.

JMU Well-Represented at Undergraduate Research Conferences 
James Madison University was well-represented at a pair of undergraduate research conferences this month. The Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University April 16-17 in Richmond, included presentations from nine JMU students while the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research, hosted by the University of Montana April 15-17 in Missoula, Mont., featured 13 JMU presenters.

Student's Study Reveals Time Management Struggles Produce Stress
Stress in college and time management go hand in hand, according to a recent study by a JMU senior. Jacqueline Britz, an anthropology major who is in the pre-med concentration, surveyed a 2008 class of freshmen to determine their causes, and symptoms, of stress.

JMU Student Participates in UN Climate Change Conference
How much does global warming effect your life? For one James Madison University student this question took her all the way to Copenhagen, Denmark. Mary Shindler, a senior philosophy major at JMU, joined 19 other national and international Student Sierra Coalition members at the annual United Nations Climate Conference Dec. 7-18

JMU Seniors Present Research at National Geology Conference
Elizabeth Weisbrot and Holly Polivka felt a bit out of place surrounded by more than 4,000 working geologists. “Everyone was wearing flannel and hiking boots like they had just gotten out of the field, and there we were trying to dress nice,” Weisbrot, a JMU senior geology major said of her first day at the 2009 Geological Society of America conference. Weisbrot and Polivka represented JMU at the annual geological summit Oct. 18-21 in Portland, Ore.

Radio Observatory Exposes JMU Astronomers to What They Can't See
What do we already know about our galaxy? The 26 JMU students who traveled to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W.Va., Oct. 2-4 blurted out ideas, most of which are widely accepted by the astronomic community: the Milky Way galaxy is a barred spiral 100,000 light years across, all stars and gases in the galaxy are concentrated on a broad, flat disc, there is a huge black hole at its center, and our solar system is two-thirds of the way out from that center.

Chemistry Major Schwantes Shines at International Conference
Christian Schwantes was not expecting to receive an award at the International Society for Chemical Ecology Conference in Neuchatel, Switzerland this summer. He also was not expecting to be one of the only undergraduates to a give an oral presentation in front of an international panel of chemistry and ecological experts.

Eight JMU Students Participate In CAA Research Conference
Eight JMU students participated in the seventh annual Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Conference April 4-5 at Towson University in Towson, Md. The JMU students were among more than 80 undergraduate researchers who took part in the conference, which provides them an opportunity to share their research with their peers in a professional atmosphere.

Hard Work Rewarded At Geological Society Meeting
They spent three weeks of their summer along the shores of Lake Huron in Michigan, but the time was anything but a vacation. Senior geology majors Amanda Hodges and Lisa DeGrazia spent that time hard at work, researching the hydrology of the Albert E. Sleeper State Park near Caseville. "We were 100 percent dedicated to this project," said Hodges. The extra effort paid off.

Destination Imagination Teams Win Silver
A pair of Destination Imagination teams from James Madison University placed second at the annual DI Globals competition in Knoxville, Tenn., and a third JMU team finished fourth. The JMU students were among more than 1,000 elementary-school, middle-school, high-school and university teams from the United States and 15 other countries who participated in the event at the University of Tennessee in May.

The Intersection of Practice and Research
It didn't take long for Heather Davis to find her niche at JMU. She was just a freshman when she learned about the Alvin V. Baird Attention and Learning Disabilities Center during an orientation field trip with a group of new psychology majors. A year later, she is participating in a federally funded research project that yields information about adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and effective treatments.

Undergraduate Mathematics Conference Receives High Marks
Students from as far away as the University of Southern California, the University of Utah, and the University of Nevada traveled to the third annual Shenandoah Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics (SUMS) Conference at JMU. The students from the western schools, along with 86 JMU students, were among 250 presenters and attendees of this years conference, held Saturday, Oct.13 at the Health and Human Services building on JMU’s campus east of Interstate 81.

Also:

Poster winners credit an early start in field research
Lacking any classroom training in hydrology, JMU junior Sean Porse felt a little odd stepping right into the middle of an ongoing hydrology research project on the shores of the Great Lakes in northern Michigan last summer."The first day I was out in the field, Dr. (Steve) Baedke was drawing diagrams in the sand on the beach right at Lake Huron, teaching me stuff," Porse said. "I was pretty much a fish out of water for a couple days, but it's a really good way to learn when you're put into a situation like that."

Also:

Young researchers share their projects at national conference
James Madison University sent 19 undergraduate students to the 20th National Conference on Undergraduate Research, held in April at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. More than 2,000 undergraduates and faculty from 282 U.S. colleges participated in the conference. The annual conference showcases undergraduate research and promotes undergraduate scholarship and creative activities.

CAA: It's (Much) More Than An Athletic League
Usually when they come to campus, they face off as Dragons and Blue Hens, Huskies and Panthers, Patriots and Monarchs, Rams, Tigers, Seahawks, the Pride, the Tribe, the Dukes. But instead of coming to James Madison to compete in a sporting event as Colonial Athletic Association rivals routinely do, students from the 12 CAA schools converged on JMU's East Campus March 31 and April 1 to display their academic prowess with "The Power of 12" in the fourth annual Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Conference.