Mueller and Safe win Alpha Chi research grants

Waldorf College

12/7/2011

Dean Safe

Forest City, Iowa - Waldorf College students Jason Mueller and Dean Safe have won the Alpha Chi undergraduate award to support the research in their discipline.

The Waldorf College Alpha Chi Honor Society annually offers two $500 awards – one for an Alpha Chi member and one for a non-member. The student officers representing the Alpha Chi Society on the Waldorf campus screened the applications for the award and selected two proposals based on the quality of the projects and their impact on the Waldorf community.

A junior biology major, Mueller is conducting research that focuses on testing the metabolic needs of Geomyces destructans. This research should help develop a novel approach to prevent White Nose Syndrome a fatal disease that has killed over a million bats. Mueller, a native of Postville, Iowa, is a member of the Alpha Chi Honor Society and was recently inducted into the chapter on campus.

Safe, a senior double major in creative writing and English with a minor in studio art is not a member of the society. The Cannon Falls, Minn. resident will use the award money to set up an art exhibition centered on the people and places of the rural upper Midwest.



Jason Mueller

“These are two scholarly projects that the student officers selected from a very fine pool of projects. I was very pleased with the quality of proposals we received,” said Dr. Suzanne Falck-Yi, faculty sponsor and associate professor of English at Waldorf College.

Both Mueller and Safe received guidance from their professors throughout the development of their proposals. “I was pleased with the leadership shown by professors in guiding students and their writing ofthese proposals,” said Dr. Falck-Yi.

Started in 1922, Alpha Chi is a coeducational academic honor society. The purpose of the society is to promote academic excellence and exemplary character among college and university students and honor those who achieve such distinction.