Students Use Academic, Personal Data to Explore Wars, Military Service
College of Southern Maryland criminal justice major Larissa Hughes, right, along with teammate Mayowa Aribisala, studying athletic training, both of Waldorf, explain the research methodology and results used in a group project on the Iraq War to CSM President Dr. Brad Gottfried, left, on April 30 at the La Plata Campus. Part of Making Connections: The First Year Seminar course, the poster project required students to investigate recent wars and military service by collecting and reading articles and interviewing veterans. Hughes group interviewed her brother Gregory Barnhart, in his second tour in Afghanistan, via Skype to learn about his experiences and feelings on serving in the military. “This project gives the students an opportunity to not only gain skills in academic research and information gathering, but it allows them to build confidence. Students see that the project is not just to fulfill a classroom assignment, but it is interesting to the entire college community, including the president,” said CSM Integrative Learning Center Director and Course Coordinator Michelle Simpson. For information on CSM, visit http://www.csmd.edu.