Keck Scholars Program (KSP)

2011-2014

The goal of KSP at Pepperdine University is to expand student research engagement across majors and across the curriculum in order to connect new students to scholarship early in their undergraduate careers. Each year nine to ten first-seminar courses are designed with the aim of developing students as scholars. Students design and conduct original research in teams with the guidance of faculty and undergraduate peer mentors.

• Read the KSP article, "Developing First-Year Students as Scholars," published in CUR Quarterly.

Program Components

There are three parts to the program's framework including formation of teams and research ideas, conducting the research, and presenting the results. Faculty isolate an aspect of their own scholarship and invite students into that field, not only by sharing their research and their excitement about their own work but also by inviting students actually to participate with them in thinking about research initiatives. Students are then asked to develop their own research questions in teams.

• Learn more about KSP Seminar Elements
• Additional program components:
  • Mini-Grant Awards
  • Travel Funding
  • Peer Mentorship Opportunities

First Year Seminar Courses

Project Directors

Dr. Stephen Davis

Dr. Stephen Davis is Distinguished Professor of Biology at Pepperdine University. He has served as coordinator of Pepperdine's Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Biology, has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR), and has been selected as a Harriet and Charles Luckman Distinguished Teaching Fellow as well as Teacher of the Year at Pepperdine University. In 2008 he received the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching at Baylor University. Much of Dr. Davis's research centers on the physiological ecology of chaparral shrubs and their adaptations to wildfire, drought, and freezing.

Dr. Constance Fulmer

Constance M. Fulmer is Associate Dean for Teaching and Assessment at Seaver College. She holds the Blanche E. Seaver Chair of English Literature and is Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. She has previously served as Chair of the Humanities and Teacher Education Division and as coordinator of the First-Year Seminar Program. She works regularly with undergraduate English majors in conducting summer research and writing articles based on their research.

Dr. Lee Kats

Lee B. Kats is Vice Provost for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Pepperdine University. He holds the Frank R. Seaver Chair in Natural Science and his primary research interests include conservation, amphibian ecology and stream ecology. Dr. Kats works with his undergraduate research students in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California and in Costa Rica and Argentina.