RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

If you like challenges, take advantage of research opportunities in the Nisbet Honors Program at Converse College. The program can:

• supply funding and help secure additional funding for your research project
• provide an environment where you can rub shoulders with nationally known visiting scholars
• send you to present your research at regional, national and international conferences
• coordinate honors directed independent study courses to work with a faculty mentor
• advise you as you prepare to develop your honors thesis project

Research experience can open a spot for you in a top graduate program and help you receive merit aid to assist with school tuition.  More than 50% of Converse honors graduates receive admission to graduate school in the two years following graduation. Recent grad school acceptances for Converse's honors graduates include acceptances to the following programs and institutions:

Outcomes

Research and internship experience can make the difference between acceptance to a top graduate school and rejection. Recently honors students have competed for and won summer research funds to study how:

• gender influences the life experience of Tanzanian children orphaned by AIDS
• caffeine affects the way rats perceive time
• people who suffer from social anxiety respond to their environment
• kitsch art portrays the Magi's journey to the Infant Jesus
• musical allusions influence Octavio Paz’s poetry
• the frequency of yoga classes affects participants' blood pressure
• the pesticide Sevin produces genotoxic effects in frogs

Honors students have also won spots at prestigious summer experiences:

• Researching immunology at The Mayo Clinic in 2007 and 2008
• Studying chemistry in a summer as one of 8 students nationwide, sponsored by the National Science Foundation at the University of Montana-Missoula
• Interning at the award-winning Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, which has a nationally recognized conservation and genetic research center
• Participating in a NATO Staff Officer Orientation Course at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
• Interning at the Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems (ICPES) at Georgetown University

In addition to helping secure funding for your research, we encourage and assist with presenting your findings to as many audiences as possible.

• Kimberly Shorter’s ’09 research project won first place at the South Carolina Environmental Conference Student poster presentation in Myrtle Beach. Kimberly attended the conference with her professor, Dr. Neval Erturk (Biology). Kimberly was judged a second time at nationals and her research was chosen to represent the State at the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Association combined national meeting.

• Sarah Finley ’08 was invited to present her work on Octavio Paz at the 11th Annual Ohio State University Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics—a national conference. She was one of only four undergraduates invited to present.

• Kristina Blanchard ’08 carried out research at the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facilities, also known as the "Body Farm," under funding from a competitive grant program sponsored by the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. This rare privilege was arranged and supervised by her professor, Dr. Neval Erturk (Biology).

• Megan Burdette ’08, Belda Thomas ’08, and Dalene Prouty ’09 witnessed their summer research project "Effects of Caffeine on Temporal Perception" win 1st place for the papers presented at the GURP (Georgia Undergraduate Research in Psychology) Conference in Spring 2008 at Kennesaw State University. They co-authored the paper.

• Brittany Jones ’07 and Stacy Thrall ’07 traveled to China to present their paper, "An Efficient Algorithm and Its Parallelization for Computing PageRank," at the International Conference on Computational Science. The two had worked with Dr. Qiao as research assistants through the Honors Program the previous spring.


• As a sophomore, Elise Struck ’09 presented her paper, "Dining on the Word: the Portrayal of Scripture and Preaching as Nourishment in Religious Literature of Early Modern England," at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference. Research for this paper was funded by a Nisbet Honors Program Summer Research Grant.

580 East Main Street, Spartanburg, SC 29302
  email: admissions@converse.edu 

contact webmaster

Melody Boland
Administrative Assistant
Nisbet Honors Program
(864) 596-9678

Nisbet Honors Program
Converse College
580 East Main Street
Spartanburg, SC 29302