Koralie Barrau, a senior studying Journalism and Mass Communication, and Steven Kelly, a senior studying Political Communication, are the 2017-18 Manheim-Sterling Undergraduate Research Prize recipients.
The prestigious prizes support outstanding mentored research and creative works by an SMPA undergraduate student from each major.
Koralie will produce a short-form documentary that tells the story of how Haitians are rebuilding and improving lives through remittances, the money sent back to family by relatives who have moved abroad for work.
This winter, she will travel to Haiti to film the project and go to the shantytown in Port-au-Prince where her subject lives with their family to produce interviews in Haitian Creole.
"Koralie is an exceptional student. Her work ethic, creativity and skill sets make her truly standout among her peers. Besides those attributes, she is also an incredibly kind, considerate and compassionate person,” said her faculty mentor, Imani M. Cheers.
“Receiving this award will allow her to share a story that is unfamiliar to many Americans yet incredibly timely and critical to understanding challenges facing immigrant families."
Steven will research the effects of increased partisanship on logical reasoning, exploring the intersection of partisanship and emotion. His study seeks to create a better understanding of how voters make decisions.
"Steven is doing cutting-edge research on the effects of partisanship — research that wouldn't be possible without the Manheim-Sterling Prize. We will learn something new about how Americans are affected by partisanship with this research," said his faculty mentor, Ethan Porter.