Research Updates:
2008 Tucker Center Summer Interns:
Undergraduate Research Done Right!
Tucker Center Newsletter - 2008 Fall
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| Terrence Jordan | Jill Haom | Erin Morris | Sarah Hammon |
The Tucker Center attracts outstanding students from all across the country to come to the U of M and receive a first-rate educational and research experience. Our mission could not be better illustrated than by the four undergraduate interns who worked in the Tucker Center this summer. Two of the interns, Terrence Jordan and Jill Haom, were part of the U of M’s Ronald E. McNair Scholars cohort—a program designed to provide minority, disabled or low-income undergraduate students the research skills necessary to gain admission to and successfully complete their graduate study. Jordan, a Kinesiology major, worked with project mentors Heather Maxwell and Nicole LaVoi on a media project titled “Racial Representations of Women’s and Men’s Intercollegiate Basketball Coverage on ESPN.com.” This fall, Jordan began his Master’s program in Sport Psychology at Georgia Southern in Statesboro, GA.
Haom begins her senior year as a U of M Kinesiology major and works as a Program Assistant in the Department of Recreational Sports. Under the guidance of project mentors Chelsey Thul and LaVoi, Haom worked on the study “Unequal Opportunities, Unequal Outcomes: The Physical Activity of East African Girls,” which was funded by the Melpomene Institute for Women’s Health Research. Jordan and Haom finished their summer research assistantships by presenting their research at a University-wide McNair Scholars poster session last August. Haom was also one of five McNair Scholars selected to present their research at the 2008 National McNair Research Conference this October in Delavan, Wisconsin.
Our other two interns arrived at the Tucker Center from outside the U of M. Erin Morris is a senior majoring in Sociology with a Sport Studies minor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Morris’ interest in Sport Sociology is fueled by her passion for playing and coaching hockey, as well as her experiences as a youth soccer referee. Sarah Hammon, a Psychology major with a minor in Sports Psychology, is in her last year of study at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. After completing an internship at the St. Paul Children’s Hospital Exercise Medicine Clinic, Hammon’s interest in studying the impact of sport and exercise on children’s overall health and well-being led her to seek out the Tucker Center. Both Morris and Hammon worked with LaVoi on qualitative data analysis pertaining to the emotional (e.g., angry) responses of parents whose children are involved with youth sports.
The Tucker Center congratulates and applauds the work of these four young scholars who gained valuable experience and greatly contributed to our research endeavors this summer! For more information about internship opportunities, contact Dr. Nicole LaVoi, Associate Director of the Tucker Center, at nmlavoi@umn.edu or (612) 626-6055.