UMF Spring 2024 Wilson Scholars, from left, are Grayson Koelbl, Natalka Harris, Manu Ritchie, Alden Hallett-Chelsea, Kelly Gentilo and Shaylynn Koban. Not pictured are Grayson Havens and Aidan Mulrooney. UMF image

The University of Maine at Farmington has announced the UMF Michael Wilson Scholars for spring 2024.

This semester’s Scholars include Kelly Gentilo of Bethesda, Maryland; Alden Hallett of Chelsea; Natalka Harris of Aspinwall, Pennsylvania; Grayson Havens of Farmington; Shaylynn Koban of Farmington; Grayson Koelbl of Stockton Springs; Aidan Mulrooney of Farmington; and Manu Ritchie of Farmington.

This bi-annual recognition names the top UMF students as single-semester scholars or full-year fellows. The program provides faculty mentorship and funding support to help them with their research investigation. Many of this year’s scholars and fellows presented at UMF’s recent campus-wide symposium.

Student researchers are individually sponsored by faculty and supported at every stage of their research. Faculty mentors assist with proposal development, research methodology, project presentation and continuing follow-up on pre-professional and post-graduate opportunities, according to a news release from April Mulherin with the university

A senior majoring in performing arts with a concentration in theatre, Gentilo’s project will be to create “Lucid Dream: A Multimedia Installation.”

A senior majoring in history, Hallett is researching “The Great Count Out: Maine’s Stolen Election During the Gilded Age.”

A junior majoring in English, Harris’s project, “A Circumnavigation,” is exploring space and design with an installation piece to be exhibited at the Monson Arts Gallery this summer.

A senior majoring in political science, Havens is writing a collection of autobiographical poems and short works, “Beyond the Binary: A Gender Memoir.”

A senior majoring in creative writing and psychology, Koban is investigating “Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Text Message Senders due to Emoji Usage.”

A senior majoring in performing arts with a concentration in theatre, Koelbl is composing a personal narrative, “Dough Boy: on Being Trans in the Arts.”

A senior majoring in history, Mulrooney is investigating “Where does Entente Come From? The Ambiguities of the Entente Cordiale and the Outbreak of the First World War.”

A junior majoring in English and creative writing, Ritchie is exploring “Adaptation: The Fanfiction of Academia?”

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