by Aleka Thrash

Twenty Cornerstone students from the history and social science division attended the Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference (MUPRC) for the first time on March 28.

“It is an opportunity for undergraduate students in Michigan to present the research work they have been doing,” said Nicole McDonald, professor of psychology.

Every year the conference is held at a different institution. This year it was held at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich.

“CU students in psychology, social work as well as some sociology students work across the year in a course called integrated statistics and conceive, design and gather data in to an original research project from start to finish,” McDonald said.

“This opportunity gave them the chance to present that data,” she said.

“This experience gave me a unique opportunity to see current research being completed by other undergraduate psychology students, especially those at state schools,” said Ashley Nichols, a psychology major.

The research was presented in two basic forms in terms of what the presentations looked like. The first option was a poster format, which is where students created a visual representation of a poster then people were able to come up to them and talk about their project. The other was verbal presentation.

“The experience was great. We presented a poster of our research project and had the opportunity to explain it to people, almost as if it were an art exhibit,” said Matthew Haller, a social work major.

According to McDonald, the conference created an opportunity for those who are going on to graduate school to have something on their resume and to have extra experience.

“As you get into graduate school in psychology and social work, you are expected to be involved in professional organizations and conferences — this is just a step into the profession,” McDonald said.

All of the projects presented were collaborative.

“Our students have really done well over the years in working together working through any group project, and really did a nice job of confidently presenting what they had prepared for the whole year,” McDonald said.

Jeff Winne and Nichols’ research project was “Practicing Outside the Box: Investigating Creative Strategies for School Psychologists.”

“The study looks at whether or not creative therapies are used by school psychologists in the school setting, what barriers may be present, and what current research on this topic shows,” Nichols said.

The first part of the morning was spent with students presenting their research, then after lunch a famous child development psychology researcher spoke.

“He talked about his research in the area of children’s play and development,” McDonald said. “It’s neat for students to not only get a chance to present their own research but them to also hear for a nationally renowned psychologist researcher about what kind of work he is doing.”

“Our students did such an excellent job of representing Cornerstone well, of representing their professions in a well educated manner and most importantly of just showing Christ,” McDonald said.

“We were the only Christian university there and it was just really neat to see our students step up and be confident in their work and to know that what they were doing was reflecting not only Cornerstone but Jesus Christ,” McDonald added.

Both small, private institutions as well as large universities attended the conference. Professor McDonald would like CU students to keep attending the conference and has hopes of hosting it at CU in the future.

“I would love to attend again and highly encourage others to. It is a great tool for professional development to see what others are researching and to attain some practice and rub shoulders with a few elders in the field,” Nichols said.

by Aleka Thrash

Cornerstone University radio stations WCSG and WaYfm both held sharathons in March involving approximately 40 volunteers. WaYfm’s goal was to raise $395,000, and they raised $262,000.

“We didn’t know what to expect with the economy the way it is,” said Rich Anderson, WaYfm’s general manger.

WaYfm held two sharathons: one in the fall and the other in the spring.

“We normally just did one sharathon in the spring,” Anderson said. “If you combine the two together, we are ahead of where we were a year ago” he said.

With the budget cuts and the effects of the economy, WaYfm is closing their Kalamazoo office, and relocating all of WaYfm to the Grand Rapids office on the Cornerstone campus. As a result of closing the Kalamazoo office, WaYfm will lose two part-time employees and save approximately $25,000 a year.

WCSG’s goal was to raise $375,000. They raised $290,000. WCSG hosted a two-and-a-half day sharathon. It was originally scheduled for two days, and they extended it into the morning show in the third day in an attempt to get closer to their goal.

“We have seen a decline all the way around, a decline in volunteer assistance, decline in the number of people giving, decline in the size of the gift,” said Chris Lemke, general manager and network program director for Cornerstone University radio.

People did not give as much this year as they have in the past to help support the radio stations.

“I think people did the best they could. It’s incredibly humbling when someone comes and says, ‘I lost my job, but because your station has meant so much to us, here is $10 a month,’ and they have no idea where it is going to come from but they are going to give $10 a month,” Lemke said.

In an effort to reach their goals, both WCSG and WaYfm sent mailing to past donors letting them know the sharathons were coming and to encourage them to give early.

“We don’t do a huge amount of promotion on the radio, because an on-air fundraiser is something people look forward to,” Anderson said.

Although both radio ministries did not reach their goals and have had to make budget cuts, radio programming will not be affected, according to Lee Geysbeek, vice president for broadcasting Cornerstone University radio.

“Programming will stay pretty much the way it is. Our No. 1 priority has to be the listener and the product they get. We obviously need to grow that product and tell people about that product,” Geysbeek said.

“In this season when the economy is really tough we just don’t know what it’s going to look like at the end of this fiscal year or calendar year. We are trying to cut deeply enough. Our first priority is people and programming,” he said.

CU Radio wants to retain every staff person possible so that programming won’t be affected. “The people that we have here are really good,” Geysbeek said.

“People are the ones that execute the programming. If we start reducing people then our programming and the impact that connect back to the listener — how we served them will be diminished. We are trying to cut as deeply as we can to protect people and programming,” he said.