Working individually or in collaboration with other Park Scholars, other Ithaca College students, or a faculty mentor, Park Scholars are eligible to receive funding to pursue research and other programs outside the classroom. Park Scholars then share their results and the knowledge gained within the Program and to Ithaca College and beyond.
Each spring, Park Scholars present the results of their work on the difference-making power of media at Ithaca College’s prestigious campus-wide James J. Whalen Academic Symposium. Past research topics have included
- representation of Latinos in U.S. television;
- language used to report on immigration, refugees, and border issues;
- transgender authorship; and
- the psychology of continuity-editing.
On April 25, Park Scholars joined MLK Scholars in their first-ever joint program, “Celebrating Community Service.” Each of the Park and MLK Scholars designed and printed a 2’x3’ poster that displayed the who, what, why, and how of the individual community service they carried out during the 2022-2023 academic year. Posters were on display in Campus Center for the evening, and Park and MLK Scholars had the opportunity to learn about each other’s service projects and to share ideas and experiences.
Park Scholars helped a wide range of community organizations that included ACEing Autism, Black Girls Don’t Get Love, Buffalo Street Books, Caroline Community Zoning, Christ Chapel, Finger Lakes Toy Library, Food Donation Network, Ithaca Arts, Ithaca High School TV Production Club, Ithaca Youth Bureau, Kentucky Attorney General Campaign, Kids in the Game, Prison Journalism Project, Racker, Respite Care, Smithsonian Institution, SPCA, Underground Railroad Mural, Village at Ithaca, and Youth Forum Theatre.
