Student Spotlight: Chris Handy
02/10/2016
Meet 2016 海角社区 Discover Scholar Chris Handy
Chris Handy is a Senior majoring in Political Communication. After his May 2016 graduation, Chris intend to go to law school and get a dual degree Juris Doctor in Law and Master of Political Communication.
Chris鈥檚 project is titled, Depoliticizing Science: The Effects of Local Crises on Partisan Science Policy. Research by Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan inspired his idea for this project. Kahan鈥檚 work on the Cultural Cognition Project and, in particular, political psychology and science communication, motivated Chris to approach this new field of research.
Chris鈥� mentor, Dr. Kathleen Searles, was the professor who assigned Kahan鈥檚 research as a reading assignment: 鈥淗er class was interesting and I chose her as my mentor,鈥� said Chris. 鈥淭hroughout the project she has been great with guiding me toward my goals. Her help and input on experimental design has helped to build what I hope will be an effective platform for examining media effects.鈥�
Chris believes undergraduate research helps develop critical thinking and research skills that are largely beneficial for those students pursuing graduate education or professional school. He also thinks participating in research helps students forge lasting relationships with other academics.
The Manship School is in 鈥渢he ranks of the country鈥檚 strongest programs,鈥� according to a team of outside experts.