WEST LIBERTY, MARCH 31, 2015 — West Liberty University students Carrie George, Jesse Hall, Samantha Knowlton, Leanne Mazzella and Rachel Wurster attended the Alpha Chi National Convention in Chicago, from March 19 to March 22, 2015. All five students participated in major-specific presentation categories and all five students brought home awards.

From left, first row: Samantha Knowlton, Carrie George, Rachel Wurster; second row: Linda Cowan, Melinda Kreisberg, Leanne Mazzella and Jesse Hall.

• Senior Carrie George presented in the Performing Arts category on ornamentation in music using Dido’s Lament as an artistic example. She was elected to serve on the Alpha Chi National Council for the next two years. The National Council is responsible for all decisions and initiatives in the academic honorary, including future conventions.
• Jesse Hall, senior in Pre-Professional Biology, took first place in the Health Sciences presentation category. He presented his summer research project on the potential for stents in the internal pudendal artery as an alternative treatment for erectile dysfunction.
• Samantha Knowlton, senior in Pre-Professional biology, presented her summer research on identifying a potential detection mechanism for the ability of tumor cells to metastasize. Samantha also took first place in her category, Cell and Molecular Biology.
• Leanne Mazzella, senior in Pre-Professional Biology, presented her summer research on stimulating luteinizing hormone in sheep. Leanne took first place in the Organismal/Ecological Biology category.

All three of the biology awards included a check for $100 and represent the prize for the best scholarly presentations in the field.

• Rachel Wurster, majoring in English Secondary Education, also presented her research paper on negative images projected by Seventeen magazine to teenage girls. Rachel earned top honors and an undergraduate scholarship worth $300 at the convention for her paper.

Induction into Alpha Chi requires the students to be in the top 10 percent of students holding 60 or more credit hours of collegiate coursework by GPA. All students eligible based on GPA (usually 3.75 and above) are placed on a ballot and voted on by faculty for character and potential.

With some 300 chapters and an active presence in almost every state, Alpha Chi promotes academic excellence, undergraduate and graduate research, campus academic dialogue, and civic engagement.

The top students at WLU are determined from a faculty vote and are then invited to join the academic honorary. The WLU chapter of Alpha Chi, West Virginia Epsilon, holds inductions during the fall and spring semester. All current members and Alpha Chi alumni are eligible to attend the annual convention, and present and/or submit a paper for scholarship and fellowship awards.

Professors, Dr. Melinda S. Kreisberg and Dr. Linda Cowan, escorted the group of WLU scholars to Chicago and coordinated their participation in the convention. Cowan also is the faculty sponsor of Alphi Chi.

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