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When Jessica Fennell ’06 (Pittsburgh, Pa.) began a term paper for a course on 20th-century French civilization last fall, she planned to write about luscious desserts.
But, she says, “every time I did a web search, I kept finding results about obesity.” So she picked another subject for her paper—and found a topic for her senior honors thesis.
Fennell, a French major and music minor, is exploring the emerging obesity problem in France, particularly among children, and comparing attitudes among the French and Americans toward the phenomenon of obesity in their countries.
She is also trying to find reasons “why obesity is such an enormous problem in the United States, but the issue is just emerging in France,” she says. “The statistics are shocking. Sixty percent of Americans are overweight or obese as opposed to 15 percent of the French.”
Fennell is examining many factors that may be contributing to obesity problems, including social class, television, advertising, and school lunches. She finds recent increases in French consumption of fast food “striking” and notes that the government has intervened to curb the growth of obesity.
Fennel’s thesis adviser, Chris Reyns-Chikuma, assistant professor of French in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, grew up in Europe and specializes in 20th-century French history. He offers a “fresh view on the American culture,” she says, adding, “The Skillman librarians have also been very helpful, as have faculty from other departments whom I’ve consulted.”
Fennell studied in Paris last spring and taught French to high school students for a semester through a Lafayette internship. She hopes to eventually teach the language.
“From my research, I will gain a better understanding of French culture, which I can transmit to students in a classroom,” she says, adding, “Lafayette has a great foreign languages department and an excellent study-abroad program, also.”
A peer tutor in French, Fennell has volunteered as a tutor for prisoners and with the Safe Harbor homeless shelter through the College’s Landis Community Outreach Center. She also is an America Reads tutor, an active participant in intramural sports, and a member of Alpha Phi sorority. She has served the College in the student phonathon as well.
Honors theses are among several major programs that have made Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. The College sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year; 39 students were accepted to present their research at last year’s conference.