Research often conjures images of hours over dusty reference books, or just as much time scrolling through e-files online.
One local instructor found a way to make research fun for her students, and connect their work to community service.
For students in Dr. Kathleen Fowler’s Writing and Research in the Disciplines (ENG 112) courses at Surry Community College’s Pilot Center, writing became a lesson in using research to make a positive difference in the community.
“The purpose of the project was to teach the students how to follow the research process from selecting a topic and developing a research question, to collecting and analyzing data, to proposing a substantive project based on their findings. The research is done for a purpose. My students were challenged to find a way to use their research to help their community, and they rose to the challenge,” Fowler said.
One class decided to research effective treatments for cancer, since it has affected the families of several of their classmates. Their findings led them to propose a fundraiser for a local cancer clinic. The students organized a “Coins for Cancer” drive in Pilot Mountain and raised more than $900, which they donated in the form of gas cards to Novant Cancer Clinic in Mount Airy.
“Transportation can be a major challenge for cancer patients, especially those who live in rural areas. The students’ generous donation will be used to give those patients that have financial difficulties some peace of mind knowing that they will be able to get to and from their doctors’ appointments and treatments,” said Heather Wilkins of Novant Health.
Looking back on their success, SCC student Kimberly Whitaker said, “I really enjoyed doing our project, ‘Coins for Cancer’ because it has a direct impact on people in my area. My grandma had cancer, so I know how hard it can be on both patients and families. It feels good to know our project made a real difference.”
Her classmate, Claire Hull added, “This project taught me and my classmates that with a little bit of planning and time you can do a lot if you put your mind to it.”
Fowler’s second class chose to research how lack of sleep affects students. They discovered that sleep is an important part of every student’s health and well-being and that it has a direct impact on their learning. Students who do not get enough quality sleep have trouble focusing in class, paying attention, and remembering. These findings led them to keep a sleep journal and to create awareness videos explaining to their fellow students why sleep is important and how to improve the quality of their sleep. These videos will be posted on surry.edu, the college’s website.
“I feel that it is important for students, especially college students to know the importance of sleep,” said SCC student Grace Leftwich.
Lucas East, who wrote the video scripts, added, “While success in school is important, taking care of yourself should always be the number one priority.”
“I am very proud of all these students,” said Fowler. “They chose topics that mattered to them, did quality research, and used their findings to make a positive impact on others.”
The students who participated in these projects at the Pilot Center are Colton Andrews of Pilot Mountain, Rebecca Bautista of Pilot Mountain, Merry Parker Boaz of Pilot Mountain, Taylor Bullington of Mount Airy, Madison Cook of Pinnacle, MaryBeth Cook of Pilot Mountain, Lucas East of Mount Airy, Reese Edmonds of Pilot Mountain, Addison Goins of Pilot Mountain, Jace Goldbach of Pilot Mountain, Claire Hull of Mount Airy, Bella Hutchens of Pinnacle, Kiya Inman of Pilot Mountain, Banks Johnson of Pilot Mountain, Grace Leftwich of Ararat, Kate McCraw of Pilot Mountain, Addy Sechrist of Pilot Mountain, Tristen Sechrist of Pilot Mountain, Kade Talton of Pilot Mountain, Kamryn Talton of Pilot Mountain, McKayla Thibodeau of Pilot Mountain, and Kimberly Whitaker of Ararat.
Surry Community College offers many English courses each semester, and registration is open for summer and fall classes. Classes that are a Universal General Education Transfer Component course will transfer to colleges in the University of North Carolina System. Contact Student Services at 336-386-3264 or go to surry.edu for additional information.
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