BY ANNIKA LYNCH

Staff Reporter

On Thursday, May 15, Central will be hosting The Symposium On University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) from 8 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. in the SURC.

The SOURCE Committee, chaired by Psychology Instructor Kara Gabriel, is putting on the event featuring faculty, staff and students.

“You’ve got these middle schoolers, university students and staff,” Gabriel said. “You’ve got a great chance to continue science and creative activities across multiple generations.”

This year, SOURCE will be showcasing 350 presentations, with 604 listed authors and co-authors. All presentations are mentored by faculty and staff at Central, and many presentations have more than one mentor.

The SOURCE committee will be welcoming mentors from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Yakima Valley Community College and Pacific Northwest University of Health Science. High schools and middle schools from around Kittitas County will also be involved.

The event will also have professionals from western Washington participating, including Boeing executives and engineers, and business owners from Seattle. Additionally, Lego League Robotic competitors will attend the event.

Courtney Lear, English and literature graduate student, is a judge for the presentations that will be involved in this event. Lear said SOURCE is a worthy cause to be able to support her peers who are doing research, since she is doing research as well.

Lear will also be presenting her masters thesis project, called “Dystopian Cinderalls: ‘I Follow Him Into the Dark.’”  The project looks at the female protagonist from younger adult dystopian novels.

“It bothers me that the media is portraying them as these really strong and powerful protagonists,” Lear said. “If you read all of [the novels] they all have love interests when things get hard.”

Jackie Stone, early childhood education senior, will be presenting a dance she choreographed for a final project from last quarter.  The six-person dance, called “Do They Make a Sound?,” aims to spread awareness about bullying.

Stone also wrote a poem to coincide with the dance.  As an education major, she has a personal connection to bullying awareness.

“We focus on bullying with elementary school kids, middle schoolers and high schoolers, but there still is bullying in college and still bullying growing up,” Stone said. “It never really goes away.”

Stone is part of the Orchesis Dance Company and is mentored by dance teacher Crystal Fullmer.

Physics instructor Michael Jackson is mentoring for physics, engineering and technology students. He has mentored on-and-off since he began teaching at Central in 2007.

This year, Jackson will be mentoring students who were involved in a 2012 research project where they measured far infrared (FIR) laser molecules. Physics seniors Mark McKnight and Brad DeShano will be presenting their findings from the project. Additionally, senior Eric Johnson created a poster to display the discovery of FIR Laser admissions.

This will be the first  project DeShano has presented to a large group like SOURCE. He is really excited to present his project and said i will be really fun.  DeShano wants to give tips to physic majors that are getting involved with SOURCE next year.

Jackson wanted to remind physics students that they need to present a project in order to graduate. Presenting at SOURCE is one way to complete that requirement.

“[SOURCE is] a good outlet for students,” Jackson said. “If a student hasn’t looked into that I would really encourage re-them to do so.”