2018 International Research Awards

The Adelphi University’s International Leadership Coordinating Committee was pleased to award the 2018 International Research Awards during the 15th Annual Adelphi Research Conference. The committee, which works toward establishing Adelphi as a leader in international awareness and activity, recognized projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels that examined international or global topics and/or included international collaboration or fieldwork. This year’s International Research Award winners are:

Amanda Opromolla (AU’18)

International Research Award for Undergraduate Oral Presentation

Amanda Opromolla researched the American Consumption of French Wine from 1965 to 2015. She predicted that consumers would favor French wine if they have some knowledge of wine and an above-average income. Her study included personal interviews, contemporary market research and a synthetic study of the history of French wine consumption in order to answer her research question.

Elizabeth Buccheri (AU’18), Stefani Ritter (AU’18), Esther Wolf (AU’20), and Paul Langis (AU’18)

International Research Award for Undergraduate Poster Presentation

Elizabeth Buccheri, Stefani Ritter, Esther Wolf, and Paul Langis’ research project, “Variation in Righting Times of Holothuria Atra, Stichopus Chloronotus and Holothuria Edulis in Response to Ocean Warming on Heron Reef in the Southern Great Barrier Reef,” stemmed from their summer 2017 faculty-led study-abroad experience in Australia. They conducted a behavioral assay of three species of sea cucumbers to evaluate how each species would be affected by the warming waters on Heron Reef. The students placed sea cucumbers in three different temperature conditions and evaluated their reactions. The researchers found that each species of sea cucumber responded differently to the various temperatures, suggesting a possible portfolio effect that could buffer future climate change.

Elizabeth Greaney (MSW Candidate)

International Research Award for Graduate Oral Presentation

Elizabeth Greaney’s research project, “Responses to the Influx of Unaccompanied Minors in the Hudson Valley,” examined the impact that federal immigration policy, service providers, educators, activists and immigration lawyers had on immigrant children living in the Hudson Valley. The large number of child migrants to the Hudson Valley created a humanitarian crisis that challenged the local infrastructure. Greaney conducted qualitative interviews with individuals who supported the immigrant children in some way in order to examine both the problem and local services offered through federal immigration policy. She also presented alternative policy suggestions.

Iman Salam (MS Candidate)

International Research Award for Graduate Poster Presentation

Iman Salam examined the role of spoken dialect and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in the language development of children with autism spectrum disorder. Because of MSA’s relatively reduced role in daily communication and its level of formality, Arabic-speaking children on the autism spectrum could benefit from this language, which would bypass their challenge in social communication and interaction. Salam analyzed five recorded speech samples from an Arabic-speaking child with high functioning autism spectrum disorder as part of her research.

Find the complete abstracts for the research conducted by these students and all participants in the 15th Annual Adelphi Research Conference on the Adelphi University website.