WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 13, 2023 — The annual Research, Creative Activity and Performance (RECAP) Symposium came to a close with an in-person awards ceremony held at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 in College Hall.

Forty-seven West Liberty University students competed in one of four categories representing all academic disciplines. Several of the students had entries in more than one category and both graduate and undergraduate programs were represented.

Award winners, categories of research and topic of research include:

Best Oral Presenter Awards

• 1st Place Timothy Moore, Adena, Ohio, “Movement Patterns of Semi-aquatic Water Snakes.”
• 2nd Place Megan Stubbs, Birmingham, Ala., Ecology of the Lean Crayfish.”
• 3rd Place Mackenzie Hall, Glendale, W.Va., “Puberty Education Programs for Central Precocious Puberty.”

Creative Works Awards

• 1st Place Frankie Lander, Rayland, Ohio, Original artwork “Radio Record.”
• 2nd Place Lacey Deem, Carrollton, Ohio, Original artwork “Life.”
• 3rd Place Daphney Tanner, Weirton, W.Va., Original composition “Game Time.”

Research Paper Awards

• 1st Place Lexie Mullen, Marietta, Ohio, “New Screening Tool to Identify At-Risk Children for Early Intervention.”
• 2nd Place Autumn Duckworth, Weirton, W.Va., “Bibliotherapy in Secondary English Classrooms.”
• 3rd place Jordan Gibson, Elkview, W.Va., “Targets to Combat Antibiotic Resistance.”

Research Poster Awards

• 1st Place Emily Young, Frederick, Md., “Novel Therapeutic for Francisella tularensis.”
• Second Place Jordan Gibson, Elkview, W.Va., “Novel therapeutic for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.”
• 3rd Place Cassidy Gebhardt, Howard, Ohio, “Spiny Scale Crayfish lineage analyses.”

The RECAP committee for 2023 consists of: Dr. Robert Kreisberg (chair), Dr. Gayle Jesse, Dr. Melinda Kreisberg, Dr. Raymond Holsapple, Dr. Ronald Hulewicz, Dr. Douglas McCall and employee Jared Thompson. 

All judging occurred remotely with judges completing evaluation rubrics provided by RECAP. Presentations were pre-recorded by the students and submitted.

For research posters, the top three submissions in each category (graduate and undergraduate research) were interviewed via Zoom by the judges to briefly present the poster and answer judges’ questions. Judging was completed by April 11.

The first RECAP was held in 2017- 2018 and despite the past several years offering a variety of formats and changes due to the pandemic, it continues to be a valuable and successful format for student research experience.

For more information, please call 1.866.937.8542 (WESTLIB), visit westliberty.edu or follow WLU on social media.