Extracting and collecting DNA from red-shouldered hawks was the focus of a presentation by Joren Kilsdonk ’25.

In the Lab and Beyond: Summer Research Across Disciplines

St. Norbert College’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) is an opportunity for students and faculty to come together across all disciplines and collaboratively pursue research. This summer, students and their mentors researched topics ranging from economic approaches to religion in the U.S., to modern perceptions of classic literature, to molecular evaluations of native animal species. Here is a small sampling of everything that SNC students have dedicated their summer to exploring. 

Effects of Sibling Displacement in Foster Care
Inspired by her own family to research the child welfare system, Aria Quiggle ’25 posed the research question: What did the effects of sibling displacement look like for children in foster care in terms of their emotions, academic achievement, social life and relationships? Her two older brothers were first fostered and later adopted by her parents before Aria was born.

“I began to wonder what it would have been like if they were split before entering my family,” she says.

During her study, Quiggle dove into individual experiences with the foster care system to truly understand how siblings’ emotions, academic achievement, social life and relationships are impacted. With the help of faculty mentor Laura Krull (Sociology), Quiggle conducted in-depth interviews with people who had experienced sibling separation in foster care as well as those who remained with their siblings in foster care.

Quiggle found that there were negative effects seen in multiple aspects of the lives of those who had been separated from their siblings when compared with those who hadn’t been separated.

Quiggle says she will continue her research in the upcoming fall semester through an independent study.

“I am excited to continue my research to establish more patterns. I hope to conduct a few more interviews to gather a wide variety of experiences,” she says.

Religion Through an Economic Lens
Katie Shultz ’26 and Marc von der Ruhr (Economics) worked together to examine the economic approach to religion. Studying religion through an economic lens reveals the supply and demand sides of religion in places that do not have state-sponsored religions. During this summer’s SURF program, Shultz focused her research on the competitive religious market in the United States, mainly focusing on the supply side.

She examined a previously established supply-side argument that suggests the U.S. will sustain high levels of religious activity because there is a large supply of churches and religions. But Shultz’s findings generally disproved these original arguments and showed that religious preferences in the U.S. are not as stable as initially believed.

Shultz will continue working toward publishing a research paper that can be submitted to the Economic Society in Stevens Point, Wis. She also hopes to attend the Economic Society’s conference in October.

Furthering Genetic Research on Native Hawk Populations
Mara Hann ’25 and Joren Kilsdonk ’25 continued a research project that SNC students began in 2017. For the past seven years, students have been using molecular techniques to evaluate populations of red-shouldered hawks.

These birds are native to Wisconsin and have been classified as endangered by the DNR due to their habitat preferences and human disturbances. Examining DNA from the hawk’s feathers using molecular techniques gives the students a non-invasive way to learn more about the population structure and behaviors of the species.

This summer, Kilsdonk focused on the process of extracting and collecting the DNA for it to be examined, while Hann looked into what these DNA samples were telling them about existing hawk populations.

Kilsdonk plans to further expand the project’s sample pool by continuing to extract DNA samples. Hann is hoping to publish a paper on the red-shouldered hawk population’s behavior patterns and habitats to help with conservation efforts.

Classic Literature Through Modern Lenses
Paige Daul ’25 proposed the thesis that there is a divide between the implied reader and modern readers of classic literature. Because these two groups of readers have different backgrounds and contexts, the way that they view topics of love and abuse are very different, Daul hypothesized.

To study and apply this thesis, Daul looked at two classics that contain representations of love and abuse – “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë — with the help of her mentor Laurie MacDiarmid (English).

These characters and their relationships have historically been put on a pedestal as great love stories, Daul says. This is because original audiences and modern audiences have different expectations of what romantic relationships should look like.

“Readers at the time of publication had more to gain from reading a romanticized version of abuse. Now, women have more choices and more freedom than they had back then,” Daul says.

After making these assessments, she poses questions about how these interpretations of romantic relationships shape today’s readers and the ways this could impact their own relationships. Ultimately, Daul states that it doesn’t do any good to completely disregard these classics as teachable material so long as they can acknowledge that these relationships may no longer be praised under modern lenses.

Daul will continue her studies of these classic stories through an independent study by looking into how they are applied and adapted into different forms of media.

Sept. 5, 2024