Sam Vining of Tryon, N.C., presented “Comparing the Views of Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther on Jews.” His mentor was Dr. David Yelton.

Sam Vining, of Tryon, N.C., presented “Comparing the Views of Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther on Jews.” His mentor was Dr. David Yelton.

Gardner-Webb University students presented their original research from an array of academic disciplines during the largest-ever Life of the Scholar (LOTS) Multidisciplinary Conference on campus on March 19. For the first time in its 20-year history, LOTS included graduate students among the nearly 60 overall participants in an event also sponsored by the GWU Chapter of Alpha Chi and the Undergraduate Research Program.

Research topics incorporated both the personal and professional interests and experiences of students, and many presentations displayed studies across multiple liberal arts disciplines such as psychology, languages and sciences.

“These students are representative of all that is to be celebrated at Gardner-Webb,” Dr. June Hobbs, director of Undergraduate Research and professor of English, asserted. “What we are trying to do is bring a life of intellect to the Gardner-Webb campus. One of the ways we do that is through the Undergraduate Research Program.”

“Gardner-Webb is a university committed to Christian principles and ideas. We are also a university committed to being the best we can be in the field of academics,” summarized Dr. Tom LeGrand, director of the GWU Center for Christian Ethics and Social Responsibility and one of the conference’s faculty speakers. “By the different fields studied and presented at this conference, you can see the connection between those principles and academic work and accomplishment.”

Since its inception in 1995 by Dr. Les Brown, professor emeritus of biology, the Life of the Scholar Multidisciplinary Conference has allowed students to share their research with the community, stimulate creative thinking and enhance their resumes with a professional conference credit.

-Submitted by Matthew Tessnear