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When Leslie Saint ’04 (Dunellen, N.J.) arrived at Lafayette, she knew that she wanted to major in psychology. Now, almost three years later, Saint has added a second major in Africana Studies, completed externships, and undertaken two psychology research projects.
One involves how people perceive motion through peripheral vision and the other measures the effects of a pilot program that matches Easton Area School District students with volunteer mentors.
An EXCEL Scholar, Saint set up computerized tests that show human forms and objects in motion under the guidance of Jeannine Pinto, assistant professor of psychology. The tests are designed to determine whether the subjects can distinguish between the human forms and the objects. In Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, students work closely with faculty on research while earning a stipend. More than 160 students participate each year, many going on to present their research in journal articles and/or at conferences.
“Designing the displays was the hardest part of the work,” Pinto says, explaining that after reading reports on other research in the field, Saint set up the displays and prepared for the data-collection phase.
“She’s terrific,” Pinto adds. “She took what she read and put it together with her previous course work.”
Saint says she became interested in the research after taking Pinto’s Perception class. She worked initially with adult subjects before conducting research on infant perception.
In a second project, Saint is analyzing data on middle-school students, including grade-point average, attendance record, and level of participation in extracurricular activities. The data are derived from students in the Easton Area School District who have participated in the Adopt-a-Class pilot program over the past several years. Saint is conducting this research as part of an advanced course with Ann McGillicuddy-DeLisi, Metzgar Professor of Psychology.
Saint, who tutors a fourth-grade student at Easton’s March Elementary School through Lafayette’s Landis Community Outreach Center and serves on the center’s advisory board, says she’s interested in mentoring programs and wanted to learn more about their effects.
“I find it fascinating,” she says. “It’s interesting to see how data can be analyzed.”
McGillicuddy-DeLisi says Adopt-a-Class, sponsored by Northampton County Communities that Care, is designed to improve students’ chances of graduating from high school. According to Rachel Hogan, community mobilizer for CTC, the program began with the 1999-2000 class of fifth-graders at Easton Area Middle School and will continue with those students, now eighth-graders, until they graduate in 2007.
“Some kids left, and some didn’t join the class until the sixth or seventh grade,” says McGillicuddy-DeLisi. She adds that Saint is working with data for the first three years of the program. “It’s a very messy data set. It’s real life. It’s not just an intellectual exercise.”
Saint began the project by reading established research about how mentoring programs and participation in extracurricular activities affect students’ chances of graduating.
“Her work is great,” says McGillicuddy-DeLisi, explaining that Saint embraced both the real-life and analytical aspects of the project.
Hogan says that while CTC already knows students in the program have improved in the three areas Saint is examining, she is looked at the information more closely and prepared a statistical analysis.
“Leslie has been one of the brightest students I’ve ever seen at Lafayette,” Hogan says. “We have a high level of comfort with her.”
The recipient of a Lafayette Simon Scholarship and the College’s Leroy D. Nunery ’77 Intellectual Citizenship Award, Saint says she’s pleased with both the research and career-exploration opportunities she’s had at Lafayette.
“I don’t think you would find so many opportunities for one-on-one research with professors at many other schools,” she says, adding that “being able to meet and connect with graduates is something else that makes Lafayette special.”
Three alumni have welcomed Saint to their workplaces for externships, Bernie Stieffel ’59, psychotherapist and addictions counselor at The Starting Point, Inc., in Westmont, N.J.; Christina Seckar ’96, human resources manager at Schlumberger in Princeton Junction, N.J., and Ed Landis, Jr. ’56, attorney, Meyner and Landis LLP, Newark, N.J.
“These alumni are an example to current students that even though it may appear that your Lafayette Experience ends at graduation, it does not have to. Through continued participation in the College, you have the opportunity to enrich the experience of an incoming Lafayette student, a student that you can get actually meet and stay connected with during their college career. I think that sets Lafayette apart.”
Saint coordinates Lafayette’s resident adviser program and is a resident adviser in Soles Hall. She is also treasurer of Association of Black Collegians.