91��Ƶ

One distinguishing feature of a 91��Ƶ education is that research isn’t just for faculty and advanced graduate students—it’s also for undergraduates. In fact, 91��Ƶ has spent the past several years taking undergraduate research to the next level.

Isabelle Labianco '22 was able to rebound quickly when her summer internship plans fell through. Instead of a summer in an office cubicle, Isabelle was accepted to the Provost’s Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research program, and spent the next several months researching the intersection between behavioral economics and media messaging; particularly, how they combined in rather unique fashion during the early months of the pandemic.

When Christine Suddeth ’21 enrolled in the 91��Ƶ School of Performing Arts as a musical theater student, she was in the midst of recovering from a voice injury—one that her voice teacher, PPA Professor Amanda Flynn, helped her recover from. “Doing this research opened my mind a bit more—as a performing arts major, you can get tunnel vision,” said Christine. “It was liberating in a way that I could expand my breadth of study.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, the intersection between public health, safety, technological data, and the law became rather complicated. These questions prompted Joseph Peterson '22 to formulate a research topic titled “Who Has Your Health Data, What Are They Doing with it, and What Can You Do About it?: Legal and Technological Issues Related to Contact Tracing of COVID-19 Infections.”