Wellesley College's Ruhlman Conference to Showcase
Outstanding Student Work on April 29th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 28, 2009
CONTACT:
Arlie Corday,
781-283-3321

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- The 2009 Ruhlman Conference, to be held Wednesday, April 29, from 9 am-6 pm on the Wellesley College campus, will feature presentations of projects completed by more than 300 Wellesley students. The projects range from “Indoor Air Pollution Exposures in Himalayan Communities” to “The Effect of Imaginary Companions on Preschoolers’ Play” to “Real Men Wear Sequins: Performing Gender on the Takarazuka Stage.”

The Ruhlman Conference helps to foster collaboration among students and faculty across academic disciplines while enhancing the intellectual life of the college. Reflecting the diversity of student interest and accomplishment, it presents student work in a variety of formats: papers, panels, posters, exhibitions, musical and theatrical performances, interactive teaching presentations and readings of original work. The day is organized around six themes: Cross Cultural Research, Economic Issues, Literature and the Arts, Political Development, Science and Technology, and Social Analysis. 

In addition to the quality of work, the wide-ranging topics make the Ruhlman Conference an exceptional event. Under the theme of literature and arts, for example, you can choose among 18 presentations, including “Wit and Wellesley: Taking Ourselves Less Seriously,” a performance by Wellesley comedy group Dead Serious.

Senior Samantha Heep will discuss the success of some states’ extended dependent coverage laws, which allow unmarried young adults to be covered under a parent’s private health insurance plan until their 25th birthday, during her presentation “Easing the Transition to Adulthood: The Effects of Increasing the Age of Dependency for Health Insurance to 25.”

“Young adults represent the largest group of Americans who are not covered by health insurance,” Heep wrote. “One third of young adults — 13 million — lack health insurance, compared to 16 percent of the population as a whole.”

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www.wellesley.edu/DeanCollege/Ruhlman/home.html.

Wellesley College has been a leader in liberal arts and the education of women for more than 130 years. The College's 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate students from 50 states and more than 65 countries.

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