Students Earn Recognition at Liberal Arts Network for Development Conference

Five HFCC students were named Student Scholar Award Recipients at the 2014 Liberal Arts Network for Development (LAND) Conference hosted by Delta College in Bay City, Mich., in February. In addition, the Henry Ford II Honors Program won the LAND 2013 Institutional Excellence Award. This year, 22 of Michigan’s 28 community colleges attended the LAND Conference. Each year, LAND seeks to develop and promote a network for strengthening liberal arts education across all of Michigan’s community colleges. LAND sponsors five student competitions to recognize outstanding student work in the liberal arts: student scholars, creative writing, illustration, fine arts and digital literacy. For the LAND Student Scholars Competition, LAND solicits outstanding research papers from Michigan community colleges students. The papers are then judged and the top three students are invited to participate in the Student Scholars Conference. Five HFCC students earned recognition for the Student Scholars Competition. The HFCC students submitted quality research papers in the following five categories: natural and health sciences, arts and humanities, social sciences (includes history), philosophy, and technology. In the natural health and sciences category, Imane Rhaleb placed second for her research paper, “Autoimmunity in Women: An Invisible Illness.” Her faculty mentor was HFCC Biology Instructor Linda Brandt. In the arts and humanities category, Angela Grahl was a finalist for her research paper, “Investigative Journalism.” Her faculty mentor was HFCC English Professor Dr. Peter Kim. In the social sciences category, Steffani Traskos placed second for her research paper, “Gendered Spaces: The Gym and the Restaurant.” Her faculty mentor was also Kim. In the philosophy category, Jason Lucas and Ben Topping placed first and second, respectively. Lucas’ research paper was “Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering.” His faculty mentor was also Brandt. Topping’s research paper was “The Principality of the Self: The Prince as a Spiritual Gudie to the Bhagavad Gita.” His faculty mentor was English Instructor Jennifer Ernst. All five HFCC students will have their research papers published this summer in the LAND Journal. Additionally, Rhaleb, Traskos, and Topping won a $100 cash award for placing second, whereas Lucas won $150 for placing first. “I am always amazed each year with the outstanding presentations and professionalism demonstrated by all of the community college students at LAND. Many of the presentations were comparable to what I’ve seen with graduate-level work. I am very proud of the success demonstrated by HFCC students at this year’s LAND Student Scholars competition. The students are a testament to the academic excellence that Henry Ford Community College fosters,” said Kim. To learn more about HFCC’s Henry Ford II Honors Program, please visit https://www.hfcc.edu/programs/honors-program.