Tanea Doswell and Katelynn McCrillis recently completed the Longwood Summer Scholars: Exploring Science apprenticeship program. The goal of this program is to increase access to quality STEM educational experiences for students in area high schools. This eight-week program offers students an opportunity to spend the summer at Longwood University carrying out research projects with Longwood faculty and undergraduate students.

Doswell’s project, which was sponsored by the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP), was entitled Designing Single-Molecule Electronic Devices, and focused on studying single-molecule electronics as a means to offer smaller, more efficient electronic devices with improved functionality.

McCrillis’ project was supported by the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED. It was entitled Spectroscopic and Chemometric Analysis of Petroleum Products for Forensic, Environmental, and Industrial Applications and focused on using alternate methods of petroleum analysis to analyze petroleum products and ignitable liquids.

Dr. Sarah Porter, Ph.D., director of the program and the project mentor for McCrillis’ group, said of the students, “Tanea and Katelyn were amazing students to work with. They joined in on college level research projects and made important contributions to their research groups. We were very lucky to have them participate in this inaugural year of Longwood Summer Scholars and I can’t wait to see what is next for them.”