Research and Rapids

After a summer in a lab coat or buried in books, students and faculty gathered for two days of academic stimulation and social bonding in July. Students who spent the summer doing research with faculty presented their findings at the second annual Colby Undergraduate Summer Research Retreat (CUSRR), hosted by Crab Apple Whitewater in The Forks, a small town near the Canadian border.

Students gave presentations about their summer research.
Photo by Brian DiMento '10

More than 70 students and 17 faculty members participated. Presentations ranged from research on cancer (chemistry) to social innovation (government). “I’m a humanities guy,” said James Violette ’11, who gave a presentation on increasing foreign-language literacy. “So it’s interesting to see lots of science presentations. … I’m learning a lot, and it’s interesting to see what my peers are doing.”

The second day of the retreat consisted of whitewater rafting—an exhilarating break after a

summer of research. Crab Apple, a rafting company owned by a Colby alum, guided the trip down the Kennebec River, filled with rapids from class III to V. Colby students and faculty look forward to the retreat as a chance to learn from each other and to hang out together amongst the wonders of the Maine wilderness.

For more information, watch the insideColby video and visit www.colby.edu/CUSRR

After the Scholarly work was done, students, faculty, and staff took to the rapids.
Photo Courtesy Colby Chemistry Dept.

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