Third Canisius Fulbright Scholar Named
Roseanne C. Schuster ’07 to conduct a research project at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)
Schuster will conduct a research project at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) under the direction of Laurie Chan, PhD, professor of community health. She will investigate how indigenous communities have responded to the contamination of their traditional food sources. “Most pollution in the Arctic is not generated there; it arrives via wind and water transport from southern latitudes,” says Schuster. “The pollutants accumulate as they move up the food chain so that top consumers such as caribou have high levels. This puts the aboriginal populations, who have close ties with the land and depend on these top consumers, at great risk.” Schuster’s project will focus on the food security issues of the Gwich’in people, a group that moves between the Yukon and Alaska with the caribou.
Schuster will also pursue a master of science degree in community health at UNBC, and plans to use the study as her thesis project.
A biology major, Schuster received the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant in 2004, 2005 and 2006. During her years at Canisius, she conducted research with Dr. Dehn and presented “Mercury in Sport Fish from Lake Erie,” in 2004 at the 31st Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; “Microcystin in Sport and Pan Fish in Lake Erie” at the 32nd Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in Waterloo, Ontario; and “Utilization of a Commercial ELISA to Assess Microcystin Levels in Lake Erie Sportfish,” at the 33rd Annual Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in Jasper, Alberta.
She received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Morris K. Udall Honorable Mention in 2005. She was also selected as one of sixty students nationwide to present her research at the 2007 Council of Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill in Washington DC.
Schuster is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, DiGamma, and Tri-Beta Honor Societies. She was secretary of the International Affairs Society, a member of the college’s Model United Nations Team and a news reporter for the student newspaper, The Griffin. Schuster was also was a member of the Jesuit University Students Together in Concerned Empowerment and co-chair of the Fair Trade Coffee Committee in 2005.
She participated in an immersion trip to Jamaica in 2002, the college’s service trip to Jamaica in 2004 and Winter Service Week to New York City in 2005. In 2004, Schuster traveled to Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Thailand to film and study the Asian elephant with the Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation. In 2005, she attended Dr. Wadkins’ seminar in El Salvador and Honduras to study Christianity and its effects on history, economics and social structure.
Schuster also spent a semester in Sweden in 2006 studying anthropology, sustainable development and water management at Uppsala University. During her time in Sweden, she traveled to Russia and Estonia in 2006 to compare former Soviet satellite to Russia in social development and environmental policies.
To learn more about the Biology major at Canisius, click here.
The J. William Fulbright Scholarship is named for Senator J. William Fulbright and is the U.S. government’s premier scholarship program. It is designed to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, which provides recipients with tuition, fees, travel and research funds for a full year.
Date released: 5/16/2007
