Rose State College Students to Present Undergraduate Research at National Conference Published March 6, 2018 by Tamara Pratt

Community College Honors Program students stand-out

Midwest City, Okla. – After applying to present at the 2018 National Council on Undergraduate Research Conference (NCUR), two Rose State College Honors Program students were accepted and will present at the upcoming national conference slated for April 4-7, 2018 on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma.

Rebecca Yacyszyn and Tiffany Grochowsky were selected to present each of their abstract projects. Yacyszyn, under the mentorship of Rose State’s Dr. Matt DeSpain, will present her research topic titled- Lipan Apache: Sovereignty through Mobility. This research focuses on the Lipan Apaches of the 18^th century and how they sustained sovereignty in a difficult era. Yacyszyn is also representing Rose State College at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Undergraduate Research Day in March 2018.

Tiffany Grochowsky, under the mentorship of the Rose State Associate Dean of Social Sciences Dr. Aaron Bachhofer, will present her research topic titled- The Left's Search for Rights. This research examines the linkages between LGBTQ+ political activism of the Homophile Movement and the post-1969 “modern” LGBTQ+ rights movement. Grochowsky became interested in the research topic after taking an LGBT History course.

“Dr. Bachhofer, who instructed the course, had also created it and had an intense passion for this area of history that showed through in his instruction. It sparked my passion and I found myself enthralled in the literature,” stated Grochowsky. “Studying LGBT Rights throughout history enabled me to have a clearer understanding of the struggles of this community, the methods, and platforms that evoked change and the incredible evolution of our country’s social structure.”

NCUR typically has some community college students presenting at the conference each year, but not in proportion to the 4-year universities’ representation of students chosen to present.

“We are so proud of the hard work and dedication that Tiffany and Rebecca have invested in their research. Their presentations at NCUR serve as a testament to one of the hallmarks of the Rose State College Honors Program – namely, their sustained, rigorous intellectual engagement with faculty who push students to explore academic issues in deeper, meaningful ways,” commented Juanita Ortiz, Ph.D., Dean of the Rose State Social Sciences division. “The fact that the research Tiffany and Rebecca produced will be showcased at NCUR is a source of great pride for Rose State, as community colleges traditionally do not have the investment from faculty to mentor such projects or the institutional mindset to encourage original research projects of this scope.”

The mission of the NCUR is to support and promote high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarships.

Undergraduate Research is defined by the Council on Undergraduate Research as an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.