Salama started developing her research project in the spring of 2018 and has been working with Associate Professor of Exercise Science Svetlana Nepocatych. Her project is centered around how caffeine and the volume of coffee affect appetite, affective response, cognitive function, blood glucose levels, hormone levels and subsequent energy intake in female habitual caffeine consumers.

For Salama, researching and working with Nepocatych has helped her think about class material and her field of study in a more sophisticated way that she believes wouldn’t have been the case without it.

“It’s definitely brought my thinking and learning to a higher level,” Salama said.

But one of the most rewarding elements for Salama, however, has been getting to know and work with the faculty and staff at Elon.

“I’ve learned so much more than class material through my personal interactions with the exercise science faculty, and gotten to know them to a way better extent than I ever would have otherwise,” Salama said. “I think I know them all very well, even on a personal level despite not having had half of them as professors yet, or not having them at all.”

Salama remembers flying home from studying abroad in Australia in the fall of 2018 as she was working on her proposal for Elon’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). She remembers having a ‘wow I can’t believe I’m doing this’ moment while on a layover flying back to the United States.

“I couldn’t even tell you where I was,” Salama laughed. “But it just made me feel really proud of myself and accomplished. SURE is an extensive process and I really had to know my stuff, which was really daunting having not being on campus and just having met Dr. Nepocatych before I left that summer.”

Her research has received support not only from Elon faculty and staff as well as a grant from Glen Raven and Honors Program. She spent the summer of 2019 collecting data at Elon and working with human research participants. During the fall semester, Salama analyzed results from the data she collected during SURE and found that there was no significant difference between the two different doses and volumes of coffee and caffeine they tested.

“There’s no difference, which does not mean it’s not a result necessarily,” Nepocatych said. “But it means between those two doses in two volumes, there’s no difference in appetite or glucose response or energy intake.”

Now Salama and Nepocatych are in the process of drafting a manuscript to submit to a peer-reviewed journal. Salama and Nepocatych has been scheduled to travel to San Francisco, California, in May to present at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 2020 conference before the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans.

Although Salama says her experience with žĂžĂČČ research has not always been easy –– from the early morning sessions with her research participants to the process of re-writing drafts and pouring hours into research on top of classes, other commitments and life –– the experience has been worth it.

“Then I think about the people I’ve met, the relationships I’ve formed, and the constant support I get from my department,” Salama said. “I remember how lucky I am to do research that I love at a school that I love with faculty that feels like family.”

Senior Instructional Technologist Daniel Reis has been instrumental in this collaboration as he has utilized his connections with other makers in the Triad including the Alamance Makers Guild, STEAM Junction, The Forge and Alamance Community College.

These organizations have come together to make different parts of a that is designed to go on top of medical masks worn by health care workers. Although Elon students are not frequenting the Maker Hub since campus has closed, the 3D printers are still hard at work, day and night, printing pieces of the shields.

Elon has 13 printers running almost full time to support the effort. Reis operates four of them and has two students, Sam Jimenez and Anna Altmann, helping operate the other nine. The entire collaborative operation involves about 18 people operating more than 55 3D printers.

Printing the pieces is just one step in the shield production process. Clear plastic sheets are cut and drilled, as is the plastic strip for the back of the shield. The Alamance Makers Guild and STEAM Junction are heading up the cutting and assembly, and are serving as the main contacts between the group and Cone Health.

Reis notes that what is special about this operation is the way each organization is contributing to this operation by utilizing their own strengths of production while building upon new ways to collaborate.

“I’m really proud of the way these organizations have come together around this project,” Reis said. “This was a great opportunity to work together on something. Thanks to our existing connections as makers, we were able to bring everyone together from the Forge, the Makers Guild, and the community college together to support this project.”

During the first week of production since the makers received approval to start on Tuesday, April 7, the group produced 827 total pieces, with 332 of those coming from Elon printers.

But that isn’t all Reis and the Maker Hub have been working on. He has also been printing to help alleviate the pain and irritation health workers experience from wearing masks all day. The piece attaches to the elastic straps on the mask and keeps them away from the back of the ears to decrease irritation.

These, too, are in high demand. Reis has already printed nearly 100 of these pieces and is working to produce roughly 100 more. The pieces are being distributed to health care workers in the Triad as well as the Triangle.

“These pieces make it more comfortable for our health care practitioners to wear their surgical masks all day,” Reis said.

“We have received a tremendous amount of support from Children’s Miracle Network, Duke Children’s Hospital, and the dance marathon community in making this transition to an online event,” said Dana Pajk ’20, president of Elonthon this year. “We are so inspired by Elon’s drive to continue fundraising and advocating for the kids at Duke Children’s Hospital and hope that this event will allow us to shine light on all members of the Elonthon community and what they have been able to accomplish this year.”

Elon’s largest student-run organization and largest philanthropic event each year, Elonthon was started in 2003 by a group of service-oriented Elon students looking to make a difference in children’s health, and has continued to grow and flourish each year. During its inaugural event, Elonthon raised $28,500 for Duke Children’s Hospital and last year, the effort generated $340,642, showcasing just how driven these students are to make this fundraising event happen.

Had the COVID-19 outbreak not disrupted plans, dancers were supposed to begin showing off their moves inside Alumni Gym at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 3, to start 24 hours of moving, shaking and fun. The event typically attracts more than 1,000 Elon students as well as the children and their families who benefit from the care of Duke Children’s Hospital.

This year’s virtual Elonthon event begins at noon on Saturday, April 4, and runs online until 6 p.m. Through Elonthon’s and , supporters can connect with miracle families, learn more about Duke Children’s Hospital, and engage in fundraising activities. Participants can expect a new theme to be announced at the top of each hour. 

Donations can be made to support Duke Children’s Hospital on until 6 p.m. The event concludes with the announcement of the fundraising total from this year’s effort.

Last year’s Innovation Challenge was centered around the issue of how to reduce, repurpose and/or manage the amount of packaging waste on Elon’s campus. Elon alumni Max Pivonka ’19 and Anna Cosentino ’19 won “Best Innovation” for their design “Gsoogle,” a center recycle and reuse delivery packaging for Elon’s Mail Services center.

The winning team will take home a $1,500 grand prize, with second place earning $1,000 and third place earning $600. Meals will be provided during the day-long competition.

Innovation Challenge committee member and Doherty Center Director Alyssa Martina has watched the innovation challenge grow and develop over time. According to Martina, one of the unique elements of this competition is its appeal to students across campus and from different disciplines.

“I love that we are embracing that whole mentality that any one of us can be innovative. It just takes some curiosity and creativity and willingness to work on teams to put forward best thinking and an innovative mindset,” Martina said.

For Martina, the Elon Innovation Challenge represents more than just a competition. “It just captures the best part of what, I think, college education is all about,” Martina said. “Which is about being curious, being creative, being innovative, thinking outside of the box, working in teams, being collaborative, and then coming up with really inspiring ideas.”

The challenge co-chairs are Becky Neiduski, the dean of the School of Health Sciences, Professor of Chemistry Karl Sienerth; the student co-chairs are Isabella Ponterio ’20 and Haley Brengartner ’20.

Registration for the Elon Innovation Challenge closes on Feb. 21. For more information on registration, visit the event website here.

Th Elon Innovation Challenge is hosted by the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is in collaboration with Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Communications, Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, School of Health Sciences, School of Education, and School of Law. The event is also sponsored by the Sullivan Foundation and Glen Raven and is also supported by žĂžĂČČ Compact of North Carolina.

Each year, the Ripple Conference hosts students from different institutions to learn, engage, reflect and share about religious and spiritual traditions, as well as secular worldviews. Attendees are exposed to diverse perspective and critical interfaith thinking by hearing from different speakers and breaking off into smaller groups for discussion.

This year, Ripple is co-directed by Caroline Penfield ’22 and Catherine Stallsmith ’22. Penfield, an intern in the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, sees the conference as a great way to connect with students about interfaith and have the opportunity to be exposed to wider perspectives. Penfield remembers her first experience at Ripple last year, and how impactful it was for her.

“What was so cool for me about Ripple was that not only was I hearing in general people’s different experiences and religious or other worldviews, but it was beyond engaging people in those conversations that we have here at Elon,” Penfield said. “Because students come from other schools, you get an even wider perspective.”

Penfield also highlights that some participants from different colleges and universities don’t have interfaith programs at their institutions, so Ripple can serve as an opportunity to share what elements of interfaith work have been successful at Elon and help provide ideas that everyone can draw from to bring back to their schools.

include:

• Rev. Jennifer Bailey, co-founder of
• Rev. J Dana Trent, an ordained Baptist minister and former hospital chaplain who recently published her fourth book, “.”
• Katie Gordon, who helped create the movement
• Kevin Singer, co-founder of Neighborly Faith, an organization that encourages dialogue between evangelical Christians and Muslims

For more information about the Ripple Conference visit their website or to learn how to get more involved with interfaith at Elon, check out the Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life’s website.

The concept of the Human Library Project was developed in 2000 by two brothers, Ronni Abergel and Dany Abergel, and their colleagues Asma Mouna and Christoffer Erichsen in Copenhagen. Their main idea? To let humans become books for a day and give them the opportunity to share their stories to “readers” who “check them out.”

At Elon, this type of connection has particular significance as students, faculty, and staff are able to open up and share their individuality without barriers. Participants have the opportunity to make connections and be able to openly share pieces of themselves. For the Human Library Project, Belk Library collaborated with the Koenigsberger Learning Center, Residence Life, and the Center for Equity and Inclusive Excellence to make these opportunities for connection possible.

“The real focus is to create conversations around difference,” Assistant Librarian and event coordinator Patrick Rudd said. “The organization defines it as different walks of life, identities across race, religion, family background, sexual orientation, gender, profession, hobbies, class, disability, skill set, and all of the aspects of what it means to be human.”

Some books choose to talk about their experiences as an immigrant, a first-generation college student, or what it was like to grow up in a military family. Rudd shared more examples of powerful stories often told at the event, some of which are about sexual assault or gender issues that have impacted people and their human experience.

This year’s Human Library was the third time Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies Brent Smith volunteered as a book. Smith said that each time he has participated he has told a different story. On Thursday, Smith shared what it has been like to be part of the baby boomer generation in his book titled “Beer-brewing baby boomer” in hopes of putting a human face to the newly popularized expression, “OK, Boomer.”

“I think it’s the synergies that are probably the most powerful part of the Human Library experience,” Smith said. “You go into it ostensibly talking about one thing and suddenly you are in a whole other place.”

Some books even choose to leave their professional titles at the door when they participate in The Human Library. Danielle Golinski, assistant director of career services for the Love School of Business, is one of those people. Golinski said she enjoys showing Elon students that the faculty and staff they interact with on campus each day have lives and passions outside of work.

“The best thing about this experience is breaking down those walls,” Golinski said. “Typically, when a student wants to check me out as a book, I don’t even introduce my title or anything like that because I am a human being and I have some unique stories that I want to share with the students.”

Not only was the experience of The Human Library impactful for the books sharing, but the connection embraced by readers also felt powerful, especially for Eduardo Sanchez ’23 who said that “everyone has something that connects them to people” and that could see himself in different aspects of each book he talked to.

“I think people can gain a lot from knowing that we have a lot in common,” Sanchez said. “More than we think we do, even if we come from different walks of life and we have different backstories.”

The event featured panelists with various expertise including Associate Professor of Art and Environmental Studies Samantha DiRosa, food activist Njathi Kabui, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies Aaron Sparks, Assistant Professor of Law Vanessa Zboreak, and Lecturer in Environmental Studies and English Michael Strickland.

The evening was focused on addressing the issue of climate change as well as offering solutions to the global crisis. Drawing from their own unique backgrounds and areas of expertise, the panelists discussed the far-reaching impact of climate change and the urgent need for change.

Moderator and Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship Elena Kennedy opened the evening’s discussion by asking each of the panelists how climate change effects their individual disciplines and continued to pose questions surrounding the challenges of politization, engagement, and opportunity.

Zboreak noted the topic of climate change touches many areas of life. “The law is massive and everything is climate change,” Zboreak said.

As panelists echoed this sentiment, they also offered their own contextual expertise ranging from their experiences in the farming industry as well as in political studies and art.

Kabui was born in Kenya and came to the United States for education and one of the things he has come to understand over time is that climate change effects people in unequal ways in the United States and internationally. As a chef and food activist, Kabui highlights how food is directly impacted by climate change, something Strickland knows well.

“The whole issue is transdisciplinary,” Strickland said.

Strickland called the audience to action, especially in regards to food selection. One of the ways Strickland said that individual people can get involved is by supporting local farmers instead of corporate agriculture and “voting with your food dollars.”

Another major issue raised at the panel was political polarization in the United States and the question of whether that helps or hinders policy on climate change.

Zboreak shared that the level of political engagement in the United States is high and informational literacy rate is rising. This, she says, may be one way in which polarization is an “opportunity to create awareness.”

As the evening came to a close, DiRosa also called for awareness that takes the form of connection. Specifically, DiRosa expresses the need to reduce ideas of separateness in order to nurture connection and to “fall back in love with the Earth.”

It was there that Lecturer Shereen Elgamal first suggested Plante get involved with immigrant and refugee outreach through Elon Volunteers! to expand her knowledge and practice speaking Arabic. Plante began interning and tutoring refugees at the Center for New North Carolinians in Greensboro, N.C., and became passionate about the rights of refugees and immigrants and the issues facing them.

In the spring of Plante’s first year at Elon, she was accepted laterally as an Elon College Fellow, which brings with it the expectation of conducting research. She knew right away that she wanted to focus on refugees.

“I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew that that was where my passion was and that’s where my interests were,” Plante said.

From that point, Plante found Assistant Professor of Geography Sandy Marshall, whose expertise includes the experience of refugees. During Plante’s sophomore year, the two talked and studied literature and noticed that, while there was information about refugee mental health, there was not much research that explored “the way refugees have agency in their new lives after resettlement,” Plante said.

In the spring of her sophomore year, Plante was awarded the Lumen Prize. A new cohort of Lumen Scholars is selected from a highly competitive applicant pool each spring, with each scholar receiving a $20,000 award to support žĂžĂČČ research. Lumen scholars receive monetary support for their various research needs, and work closely with faculty mentors to develop and bring their research to fruition.

“When I found out I got Lumen, I was honestly shocked,” Plante said. “I still remember I was standing in the Phi Beta Kappa Commons and found out. I was shocked but I was really excited.”

Marshall, now Plante’s mentor, is a human geographer whose work focuses on migrant and refugee children and youth with a particular interest in conflict and humanitarian aid. With Marshall’s expertise and Plante’s passion for the topic, the two developed their Lumen project based on the need to elevate the voices of refugees in order to understand their needs more comprehensively – what is working for them and what is not.

Plante’s research focused mainly on data collection her junior year. She interviewed refugee youth and conducted participant observation of refugee youth and adults at the Center for New North Carolinians. It is clear to Marshall that Plante is passionate about the work.

“It’s an incredible feat that people can be uprooted from a country, spend sometimes years in limbo in a second country, sometimes in a refugee camp, or in precarious circumstances in the city, and then suddenly be resettled in a new country and in the United States have six months to become self-sufficient,” Marshall said. “And I think she was very interested in that process. One thing I thought was really interesting is she wanted to look at those internal family dynamics, and I think that came through her experience working with refugees.”

Now a senior, Plante is analyzing her data, writing and applying to present her research at conferences. Her research has uncovered themes so far that include how refugees create belonging and a feeling of security, as well as how spaces like schools and apartment complexes affect that sense of home.

“I think this question of belonging is so interesting,” Marshall said. “It sounds like it’s one of those words that we see and we use a lot, and it’s sort of unpopular parlance. We don’t always think of it as an academic concept, and yet it’s really at the core of so many of our debates we have in society right now.”

For Plante, one of the biggest takeaways from her research deals with issues surrounding refugee resettlement policy. She says that individual refugees aren’t always kept in mind and that their opinions and voices are not always elevated enough to have an impact.

“I think the biggest frustration for me has been seeing the number of barriers that refugees face that I feel like could be solved so much easier if their voices were taken into account when policies are made,” Plante said.

Although Plante is concluding her research at Elon and gearing up toward her future, she doesn’t quite feel finished.

“It feels like this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Plante said. “I feel like I have learned so much about refugees, but even just about people in general and how people create meaning through new experiences.”

“At first, we noticed that a few people we knew had some really impressive creative talent without much of a channel to share it with other people,” McElhinney said. “These students jump at the opportunity to show their work to other students at Elon in a very eager way, like there was no other way they have a chance to do that.”

McElhinney says he and Reeth had two main aspirations when developing the store: to provide an outlet for students to channel their creativity as well as to help them gain confidence “in turning what they love into a viable business opportunity.”

The Student-Made Store has given almost 50 students the chance to showcase their work and connect them with other students and faculty that love their products. “And even cooler, we’ve seen some students who were sure nobody would be interested in buying their art sell out of dozens of products within two hours,” McElhinney said.

At the Student Made-Store’s first opening in December 2017, the store quickly sold $1,600 in products from 15 sellers. For McElhinny, this confirmed that the idea for the student store had “actually become a reality” and by the second opening in December 2018, McElhinny realized that the store had room to scale and grow into something bigger.

Now, the Student Made Store has its own website — — and will have its third annual Holiday Market on Dec. 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. in McKinnon Hall. McElhinny anticipates this event to be the biggest yet and hopes to be in attendance himself.

Beyond the Student-Made Store, McElhinny wants to spread Elon’s creativity outside of the Phoenix community and even to other colleges to create a “campus network of art” so that students everywhere can support each other and their different styles as well as help them gain professional experience.

“We hope to make this concept a part of entrepreneurship programs at colleges, where students have a chance to get hands-on experience managing sales, marketing, communication, design, event planning, accounting, and so on,” he said.

With her first single already released on Spotify and a second coming to the streaming music service on March 8, the singer and songwriter has her eyes set on the future.

“It was a childhood dream until it turned into me being really persistent about it happening,” Spear said.

Spear’s music career has its roots in the theater, when she began participating in local productions with her brother when she was 6 years old. “He stopped, but I wanted to keep going,” she said.

Spear sang for roughly five years in the theater before she started writing music. “I wrote a song for my dog. I was like ‘I love you so much I want to write a song about you’ and then I just kept writing,” Spear said.

Spear started performing around Los Angeles when she was a sophomore in high school. She took a gap year after high school graduation to further study the music industry and begin to lay the foundations of her music career. “I wanted to take advantage of the ‘music capital of the world,’ so I stayed and it was amazing,” Spear said.

Spear was originally interested in Elon because of its well-renowned Department of Performing Arts, but decided instead of focus specifically on music. She’s relished being surrounded by so many people who have the same interests. In only six months at Elon, Spear has learned a lot about music, particularly in the area of music production.

“I didn’t know anything about the production prior to coming here,” Spear said. “I knew about the music business and how to write, at least my personal writing style. But even being here for six months — it blows my mind, there is so much you can do, so many resources.”

But for Spear, it’s the people who have influenced and helped her the most so far. “The biggest thing for me is the people,” Spear said. “My friend group is probably 15 songwriters and all we do is write songs and play music. We will stay up until 3 a.m. writing, and that’s magical.”

Spear notes that a lot of her support comes from within the Music Production and Recording Arts program.

“Basically what we try to do is we try to foster musicality in students,” Senior Lecturer in Music and Limelight Records faculty advisor Clay Stevenson said. “So if they are studying in our program we are trying to help them be the best, whatever they want to be in music.”

Stevenson notes that Spear has already taken strides within the industry and within the program since arriving at Elon. Along with her academic work, she’s involved in , Elon’s student-run record label.

“Eliza is in somewhat of a unique position because she’s been so proactive. She’s been generating a lot of activity within the department which is good.”

Stevenson breaks down how Elon specifically helps students in the music department succeed. He notes that with “so much noise out there,” it can be difficult to find focus.

“We are able to have that stuff already synthesized for students,” Stevenson said. “They come in and based on the professor’s experiences we are able to say ‘hey look, these are the procedures you need to follow to be commercially viable, to be commercially successful. These are the attributes of a musician, performer, an engineer, a mix engineer, or recording engineer. These are the things you should focus on that are going to give you a leg up on someone who is just watching a random YouTube tutorials’.”

Spear’s latest work, set to be released on March 8 followed by a live performance at local venue The Fat Frogg, was produced by Associate Professor of Music Todd Coleman. Spear said that support from faculty speaks to the environment in the program and at Elon. She sees fellow students and faculty helping out with cover art, photographs and other components that support musical artists.

“It’s a great environment to foster creativity,” Spear said of Elon.

Spear’s show at The Fat Frogg will begin at 10 p.m. on Friday. Her work can be streamed on Spotify and on her .