Ask Stetson senior Patrick Sheridan about what made Florida tourism and he doesn’t mention sunshine or theme parks.

Florida tourism boomed in the early 1900s for the working class, thanks to the Good Roads Movement, which advocated for an ambitious network of highways to carry automobiles from places like Chicago and Indianapolis to Miami.

“Before 1910, Florida was a tourist destination, but you relied on railroads, so usually it was wealthier people,” said Sheridan ‘19, a member of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa honor society and the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. “With the introduction of the automobile, which was more affordable and more accessible, Florida really became the big tourist destination that we see it as today.”

Sheridan’s senior research project, “Good Roads and the Dixie Highway,” will be one of about 193 projects, art work and performances presented across campus during the 21^st annual Stetson Showcase on Tuesday, April 16.

He won Best Undergraduate Presentation at the Phi Alpha Theta state conference in Jacksonville on March 30 and also presented the research to the Florida Conference of Historians in Sarasota in February, as well as in his Senior Project class in December. Now, he’s looking forward to Showcase and the chance to “present it more publicly rather than in the confines of the university or the academic community,” he said.

The university cancels undergraduate classes for the day every year to allow students to attend Stetson Showcase. Students also can receive up to five Cultural Credits for attending the presentations and other events.

Showcase is free and open to the public, including the keynote address by Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, Ph.D., J.D., a University of Florida professor of Criminology and Law, on April 16 at 6:15 p.m. in the Stetson Room.

The theme of this year’s Showcase is “Rites of Passage,” and will feature photographs and artwork from Stetson students through the decades, said Kimberly Reiter, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, and Chair of the Stetson Undergraduate Research Committee and Stetson Showcase.

Reading from this year’s program, she said: “The photographs through the program come from the Stetson Archives and yearbooks that remind us that generations of Stetson students have gone through the same rites of passage and that the ghosts of those students in many ways still walk the classrooms, the books, the labs and the performance halls. Help us celebrate those students of 2019 who will add their memories and their presence to the academic journeys made by other students at Stetson through the decades.”

This year’s Showcase will be dedicated to longtime Stetson professor Charles Vedder, Ph.D., who passed away last summer and was interested in criminology, she said and added that the keynote address will focus on criminology and law.

Student presentations will be reviewed by a panel of judges, who will award Maris Prizes at each location, with $200 and a certificate of excellence. Honorable mentions also will be named in each category.

“Showcase is what we call a sticky experience. In other words, it is something that sticks with the kinds of students who present. … It means a great deal to them that the rest of the university is seeing their work, especially the Maris winners,” she said.

Since 2007, Reiter has served as Chair of Stetson Showcase and the Undergraduate Research Committee, which awards $2,000 Stetson Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Grants for students to conduct research. Up to $500 also is available to pay for travel related to their project.

Reiter says she is hoping to raise funds to expand the SURE grants and Showcase. “In fact, the funding for SURE grants hasn’t changed since 1997. The students who are presenting from their SURE grant research are incredibly good scholars,” she said.

In order to continue, “especially with the kind of quality keynote speakers that we want to bring in,” Showcase will need to address its fundraising and support levels, she added.

To donate, visit Stetson University Office of Development Online Giving for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity and “Make a Gift Now.”

Here are the Maris Winners for each location, who received $200 and a certificate of excellence, followed by the Honorable Mentions in each category:

ARTS AND SCIENCE MARIS WINNERS:

Tara Breeden The Effects of tDCS and Meditation on Anxiety and Attention

Hallie Kimbrel Comparison of the distribution of southern rays, Hypanus americanus, and bluntnose rays, Hypanus say, in Pinellas County, FL

Katherine Scott Keep Calm and Pray On: The Exploration of How Religious Involvement Predicts Anxiety Levels

Samantha McPherson Assessing the metabolic cost of pregnancy in pygmy rattlesnakes (Sistrurus miliarius)

Solomon Nehrig Harmonic Levels

Claretta Holsey Mouth Sound

Elijah McCoy App-tastic: How can technology improve the stage management process?    

Zoe Weaver Bu Yi Yang: Why Democracy in Taiwan is in Two

Samantha Harris The Limitations Behind a Laser Range Finder

William Gillett Analyzing Cryptobiosis in Tardigrades: Hypsibius dujardini and Dactylbiotus dispar

Molly Flanagan The Effect of Informative Contexts on the Recall of the Orthographic Representations of Words

MUSIC MARIS WINNER:

Kat Kirby-Kopczynski, Voice (Soprano)

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MARIS WINNERS:

Kailee Howe  “Mish Mash Bowl”

Nathaniel Diamond, Nathaniel Smith, Regis Steighner, and Matthew Sweeney  A New Business Approach for the Cancer Action Network of the American Cancer Society

ARTS AND SCIENCE HONORABLE MENTION:

Samantha Fink Full-thickness Macular Hole Formation after Repair of Rhegmatogenous and Tractional Retinal Detachment

MacKenzie Nalven The Effect of Limiting Email Usage on Job Productivity

Anthony Bonilla Alpinia zerumbet Seed Extract Reduces Jurkat Leukemia Cell Viability

Jacob Koos Infrared Thermal Imaging: The Effects of Emissivity on Thermal Radiation

Olivia Valiante Inside the Box

Hali Pollard Layers

Kaitlyn Kocsis Balancing the Best of the World: National Geographic Traveler’s Rhetorical Presentation of Culture and Its Ideological Significance

Angela Osmar Academic Help-seeking Behaviors in Black College Women 

Nathan Bodger Women’s Rights, Buddhism, and Law in Thailand

Shaylen Vitale  We Knew: The Failure of the American Press in Second World War Holocaust Coverage

Hanna Elmasry Robot Liability

Maddy Wheeler The Prevalence of the Pentastome Parasite, Raillietiella orientalis, in Pygmy Rattlesnakes and Ribbons Snakes in Central Florida

Kyra Aviles Decreased Cell Viability in FGFR-inhibited Injured Adult Ciona intestinalis Hearts

Jessica Algieri Forgotten Founders and Fictional Facts: The Unique Story of Elizabeth Stetson Countess of Santa Eulalia

MUSIC HONORABLE MENTION:

Maria Toledo, Percussion

SOBA HONORABLE MENTION:

Son Vu  Sale Role Play

Bilal Hashmi and Levesque Zechariah Lennar

-Cory Lancaster