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As Marquis Scholar Joseph Benoit ’04 (Middletown, N.J.) goes through his senior year at Lafayette, he’s faced with a number of choices that will help determine his career and his lifestyle. At the same time, he’s learning from a group of people who made choices of their own many years ago.
Benoit, a double major in psychology and music, spent the summer interviewing five dozen people age 55 and older about the quality of their marriages and their health as part of an EXCEL Scholars research project with Jamila Bookwala, assistant professor of psychology.
“I liked talking to them and learning how different life was when they were younger,” Benoit says. “I found it very reassuring and hopeful to talk to the people who were actually in good and healthy marriages after so many years.”
In Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the 180 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
Benoit began his research at the Country Meadows assisted living facility in Bethlehem, Pa., and conducted the bulk of his interviews at the PEAK Center Inc. in Lansdale, Pa. He says he also found that many interviewees had endured unhealthy relationships for much of their lives.
“I learned a lot about cognitive functioning and depression as a result of the participants’ various life events,” Benoit says.
While the researchers initially sought only married couples to include in the study, they soon added widowed and divorced subjects as well.
“The research reinforced what I already thought about things,” Benoit says. “I always figured a big part of how happy a person’s going to be has to do with their partner.”
Bookwala, who received a grant this spring from the Lindback Foundation to conduct research on the links among marital quality, depression, and ethnicity in older Americans, plans to present a report based on her data analyses at the American Psychological Association’s 2004 annual meeting.
She regularly shares her research through journal articles and book chapters, including an article coauthored with psychology major Jamie Jacobs ’03 (Margate City, N.J.) that is scheduled for publication in The Gerontologist. She actively involves Lafayette students in her research, which led to student presentations last year at conferences held by the American Psychological Association in Chicago and the Gerontological Society of America in Boston. Recipient of six research grants and several honors recognizing teaching or scholarly excellence, Bookwala was one of just 15 scholars in the country chosen to attend a prestigious Summer Research Training Institute in July funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Benoit is continuing to work with Bookwala this fall as an advanced research student, testing hypotheses for the data he collected.
“He has done a superb job conducting the interviews and setting up the data for statistical analysis,” she says. “He is enthusiastic about research, is very task-oriented, and has been a pleasure to work with.”
Benoit was happy for the opportunity to work with Bookwala.
“She is very intelligent and personable,” he says. “I have great respect for her.”
Benoit, who also is working on a senior project in music, has been pleased with the opportunities he’s had at Lafayette.
“The school is small enough that you can get to know your professors very well and then work closely with them,” he says.
A graduate of Middletown High School, Benoit sings with The Chorduroys, Lafayette’s male a capella group. He also plays guitar, piano, saxophone, and other instruments in the band Not Today and in a variety of music ensembles and musical theater productions.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past five years, more than 130 Lafayette students have presented results from research conducted with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference.