Brooke Grasso
Staff Writer
University of La Verne students and faculty showcased their creative and scholarly work May 8 in the Campus Center Ballrooms for Faculty Research Day.
The event was originally created by Al Clark, professor of humanities, for faculty to share the research that they had been working on.
“Different perspectives have the ability of formulating, reformulating and advancing research,” Clark said.
Clark said that he experienced one of his own projects being pushed forward in a direction he had not imagined after being inspired someone else’s research.
“This a time for sharing,” he said.
Research day also was an opportunity for seniors to present their senior projects as the year comes to a close.
Senior biology major Bradley Blackshire collaborated with Biology Professor Jerome Garcia on a research project concerning a mechanism for understanding the aging of cells.
Blackshire said he liked that the event gave him the chance to get acclimated to presenting his work to other people. He explained his research to various spectators throughout the event.
“It builds confidence,” he said. “And it makes you learn how you want to project yourself.”
Students and staff gathered around as Blackshire explained what they hoped would be a life-changing discovery.
The mechanism may be able to be used in the future for further research.
Blackshire hopes that once his mechanism is published, it will have the ability to help scientists in their studies.
“People looking for a way to reverse aging can use this mechanism in the future,” he said.
Blackshire’s inspiration was one of the terms involved with the aging process that he had never heard of before, Glutathionylation.
He said he was interested in learning and researching something he had not learned about previously.
Issam Ghazzawi, associate professor of management, and Tommy Cook, a recent ULV business graduate, presented on organizational challenges and failures within a business, a topic they have been thoroughly researching for over a year.
Ghazzawi emphasized bad leadership as the reason for the downfall of a business and then applied it to everyday life.
“We always have to lead by example,” he said.
Cook and Ghazzawi’s research analyzed business structures of well-known companies such as Kodak, Quiznos and JCPenny.
Cook has owned several of his own businesses and said that all of their research is relevant to entrepreneurs and company owners of today.
“In today’s economy businesses are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.
“We have to learn from the mistakes of others,” he said.
Cook said he is glad he was able to do research with Ghazzawi and appreciates the opportunities like this that he has experienced throughout his time at La Verne.
“La Verne has nurtured me,” Cook said.
Brooke Grasso can be reached at brooke.grasso@laverne.edu.
