?Alabama State University News October 28, 2014 Students among Presenters at Annual Research and Creative Symposium By Tina Jolley The John Garrick Hardy Student Center was filled with excitement, posters and presentations during the second annual Research and Creative Symposium sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The Symposium provides a public forum for presenting scholarly and creative activities. This year's theme was "Exploring Possibilities and Focusing on the Future." Participants included 28 community presenters, 60 faculty members and 92 students who took center stage presenting research on diverse topics, including the history of hip hop and the recent Ebola outbreak. Fred Yeboah, a junior biology major from Ghana, was one of several students who researched the deadly Ebola virus and presented results. "My group members and I wanted to study how Ebola is going to affect other regions of the world as it spreads. One of the most interesting things I learned was that a drug used in 1976 to combat the virus is not effective in treating the virus in 2014," Yeboah said. "There have been advances in the virus, and we need better treatment." Jinizha Johnson, a senior political science major from Opelika, Ala., presented a poster titled "Be a Slave at First or Free at Last." "My research focused on the commercialization of hip hop. I looked at how the original pioneers of hip hop focused on societal issues facing African-Americans, as opposed to today (when) it's more about sex and materialism," Johnson said. "I listen to hip hop; so, I wanted to know how we have drifted so far away from hip hop's original purpose." ASU President Gwendolyn E. Boyd delivered the keynote address and spent time reviewing the students' posters and talking with them about their research. Boyd said she is proud that students are taking the time to learn how to express their thoughts and research in a scholarly manner. "They need to understand that they have great minds," Boyd said. "They need to write, they need to speak and explore all of the opportunities available to them and show the excellence within them. This is an opportunity to take a topic, go deep into that topic, get facts and information and explain with words what it means, not only from the past but what it means for their future. This is an opportunity to celebrate greatness, to celebrate scholarship for doing the right thing and moving in the right direction." Dr. Ram Alagan and Dr. Elizabeth Peifer co-chaired the two-day symposium which was co-sponsored by ASU, The Family Sunshine Center, One Place, New South, Inc., the Montgomery County Task Force on Domestic Violence, Oxford University Press and Pearson. Other topics of research included voting rights, the value of an HBCU education and the influence of women-based reality shows on the behaviors of young women. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.