Volume 1 (2009)

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (JIUR) premieres this year following a three year journey from conception to inception to reality. Following an Association for Psychological Science meeting in New York City in May of 2006, during our next facility meeting I excitedly shared a workshop I had attended hosted by Psi Chi (The National Honor Society in Psychology) which provided the nuts and bolts for the creation of an undergraduate journal produced and published at the university level. Every member of our faculty enthusiastically embraced this idea and it continued to appear as an agenda item month after month. Although a priority, the never-ending demands upon each of our professional lives prevented any real progress. Recognizing that the best made plans often go astray, we finally accepted our limitations and agree to hire a graduate assistant who would accept the primary responsibility of making this journal a reality.

This journal is the first volume of what we hope will be a long line of publications of exceptional undergraduate academic research papers. We believe we have remained true to our intention which was to offer undergraduates the chance to express their ideas to a broader, interdisciplinary audience. By publishing scholarly work from a variety of disciplines and by collaborating with university faculty, administration, and student authors the JIUR integrates into discussion the diverse discourses of the university’s intellectual community. In so doing, we also seek to demonstrate the strength of undergraduate scholarship at Southern Adventist University and our continuing focus on academic excellence.

We are pleased and grateful to our university, especially the School of Education and Psychology, for support, encouragement, and most of all the commitment to academic excellence that affords this publication.

Robert S. Coombs, D.Min., Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief