Rosalind Russell Presents at Buena Vista University's Fourteenth Annual Scholars Day

2018 May 3

Buena Vista University's (BVU) fourteenth annual Scholars Day was held Saturday, April 28. The event provided students from all disciplines an opportunity to present their best original research, academic posters, artistic creations, and performances to their peers, professors, and the public.

This year's Scholars Day event featured presentations from more than 40 BVU students, exploring topics from literature and business to science and history.

Rosalind Russell , a senior distributive sustainable development major from Rochester , was one of the students who participated. Russell 's presentation was titled "An Approach to Valuing Urban Wetlands Using Economical, Social, Environmental, and Political Factors" , and the project's abstract is as follows:

With the rapidly increasing populations in urban settings, many cities are experiencing increased flooding, diminishing water quality, and limited green spaces. The use of urban wetlands is one of the ways in which cities can alleviate some of these problems, but the high cost of doing so is often a deterring factor. Research shows many strategies for valuing wetlands in non-urban settings, but few are applicable in urban settings. The City of Storm Lake, located in northwest Iowa, recently completed construction of Abner Bell created wetland, which captures and treats 170 acres of mixed urban and agricultural stormwater runoff before entering the North Raccoon watershed. This wetland now serves as a habitat for native plants and animals, as well as providing a public wildlife area for the Storm Lake community. Abner Bell and the 2012 Little Storm Lake remediation project serve as examples as to the ways in which urban wetlands can benefit economic, political, social, and environmental efforts in urban areas. These projects provide a format for valuing urban wetlands, and could also be used as potential reference urban wetlands for evaluating the human-related benefits that are not often found in non-urban settings.

A second research project was also presented, entitled: "Data Science in Society: Predicting Local Housing Prices and BVU Student Retention"

Data Science in Society (DATA 100) is a general education course that focuses on social, economic, environmental, ethical, and other issues pertaining to the discipline of Data Science as well as foundational methods for Data Analysis. The project in the course introduces the students to the Data Science process using real-world datasets. In this presentation, you will see two projects from this class. The first project uses data from housing sales in the City of Storm Lake over a span of ten years (2007 to 2017) to predict the price of a house with a set of relevant parameters (i.e. number of beds, square feet, age). It was found that Linear Regression was the best model for predicting housing prices in the City of Storm Lake, but more data is needed to improve the accuracy of this model. The second project uses Buena Vista University student data to find patterns in student retention using both academic factors and non-academic factors. It was found that generally, academic factors are a better predictor as to who will return, but who will leave still remains hard to derive.

Data Science in Society (DATA 100) is a general education course that focuses on social, economic, environmental, ethical, and other issues pertaining to the discipline of Data Science as well as foundational methods for Data Analysis. The project in the course introduces the students to the Data Science process using real-world datasets. In this presentation, you will see two projects from this class. The first project uses data from housing sales in the City of Storm Lake over a span of ten years (2007 to 2017) to predict the price of a house with a set of relevant parameters (i.e. number of beds, square feet, age). It was found that Linear Regression was the best model for predicting housing prices in the City of Storm Lake, but more data is needed to improve the accuracy of this model. The second project uses Buena Vista University student data to find patterns in student retention using both academic factors and non-academic factors. It was found that generally, academic factors are a better predictor as to who will return, but who will leave still remains hard to derive.

"Scholars Day is an opportunity for students to showcase their talents, passions, and best work to their peers, faculty, family, and friends," said Dr. Tracy Thomas, assistant professor of psychology and chair of the events committee who organized the event. "Not only do the presenters benefit from the occasion to display their work to peers and faculty, but the BVU community benefits from bearing witness to the high-level work of the students."

The keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Darren L. Whitfield, a 2007 BVU graduate, who is the assistant professor of social work and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry. As a researcher, Whitfield's scholarship focuses on the areas of psychosocial, sociocultural, and structural factors associated with health outcomes for gay and bisexual men of color, systems of oppression on health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities, and intersectional social identities for LGBTQ communities.

Whitfield has more than 10 years of practice experience working in the HIV/AIDS field working at the AIDS Project of Central Iowa, The Virginia Department of Health, and The Kansas City Free Health Clinic. In his spare time, he volunteers with several agencies serving LGBTQ communities. Currently, he serves on the board of directors for the Persad Center, the second oldest LGBTQ Community Center, the advisory board for the AIDS Free Pittsburgh Taskforce, and a commissioner for the Pittsburgh City Commission on AIDS.

This year marked the second time Scholars Day and the annual Student Recognition Dinner - which was held later that evening - were held on the same day.