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Three Students Win SURF Grants

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Jeff Hall
Jeff Hall

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship grants award $4,000 to talented students to allow them to spend a portion of their summer conducting research or carrying out a creative project that makes an original contribution to their chosen discipline, extending learning beyond the academic year. This year, three students from different disciplines have won these competitive awards: Jeff Hall (chemistry), Thomas Fox (music), and Chelsea Freleng (exercise science).

Jeff Hall received the Bruce Levine-Mellion ’69 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship to work on his project, ”Synthesis and Examination of Novel PNHCP Pincer Ligands and Their Associated Metal Complexes.” This is novel research, as he will be the first to synthesize the compounds he’s looking into and experiment upon them to observe their physical properties and what potential uses they may have. “I am very fortunate to have been chosen for this fellowship,” Hall explained. “The SURF opportunity has quite a few benefits, one of which was simply taking the time to prepare a grant write-up and move through the process of review. As a student of chemistry, much of my future career will be dependent on communicating ideas and their importance to those who do not study in my field, but may have funding or interest in furthering my research. For me, the summer fellowship will allow for ongoing interaction with my incredibly knowledgeable and diverse faculty, furthering my instrumental skills, and diving into a novel area of research within organometallic chemistry. I have been involved with research under Dr. Brian Anderson for nearly two years as of this spring, but typically research is accompanied by a heavy course load of chemistry and biology classes or, as with the past summers, a full-time job. Having a SURF grant will mean a true dedication to the research process and being able to work one-on-one with the faculty.”

Thomas Fox
Thomas Fox

Thomas Fox’s project is titled “In-Depth Study and Composition of the Orchestral Tone Poem.” “The SURF grant is going to give me the opportunity to create a project using many aspects of my training here at KSC that I normally wouldn’t have the resources to piece together on my own,” Fox said. “With this grant I will have the ability to spend every waking hour this summer working on music. The project is based on Ray Bradbury’s book The Illustrated Man. I will compose 20 short movements for orchestra in the style of a tone poem based on each chapter of Bradbury’s book. This project will include the study of pivotal works that make use of leitmotif … and address aspects of compositional development, including orchestration, instrumentation, and motivic development. … With the opportunity gained from this grant, I believe I will be able to drastically increase my chances at getting into a good graduate program, which is my next goal after graduating from KSC. I am greatly appreciative of this opportunity and thankful for all the guidance I have received from the faculty in the music department.”

Chelsea Freleng
Chelsea Freleng

Chelsea Freleng’s project, “Effects of Fitbit® on Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity in Office Workers,” will let her complete a study she’s been conducting with Dr. Melanie Adams that determined that the campus’ administrative staff spends a lot of time sitting. She’s now conducting research to see if having these folks wear Fitbit® accelerometers will motivate them to be more physically active at the work place. “I was in awe when I received the email that I received the grant! It was very exciting that I would be able to continue my research over the summer,” Freleng said. “I have worked so hard in making sure everything has gone smoothly in our research and have juggled that and classes very well. … I feel very rewarded doing research and the fact that I might be able to present my research at a ASCM conference in Rhode Island next year, or even to have our study published in a journal is an incredible accomplishment for me. Without this SURF fellowship, none of these possibilities would have come true, so I am extremely thankful and looking forward to the future.”

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