Senior Jenny Vanyur, a social sciences major and a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) participant, has made the most of her time at Elon.

A recipient of the Rawls Undergraduate Research scholarship, she has worked with Cynthia Fair, associate professor of human services, researching intimate-partner violence since her sophomore year. The project began when Fair approached Vanyur with an invitation to begin a study related to HIV.

“She was interested in finding her own little niche,” Fair said. “She decided to look at less visible forms of partner violence, like sexual aggression, and its effect on condom use. It’s a really exciting question, one that’s potentially very meaningful and not one that had been looked at in literature.”

During the course of her sophomore and junior years, Vanyur developed a survey and assessed sexual coercion, verbal aggression and condom use in a random sample of Elon students. This past summer she was invited to participate in SURE at Elon.

“I used [the time] to do all of my data analysis and draft almost my entire paper. If I had done that on top of other classes during the course of a regular semester, it would have taken much longer,” Vanyur said.

The pair’s research found that the more students reported cases of sexual coercion, the less likely they were to use condoms consistently. Vanyur hopes to present thier research at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum at Elon, the Council of Undergraduate Research and “maybe a couple of other professional conferences that aren’t just for college students.”

Vanyur has also interned with the Alamance County Health Department, as well as in a domestic violence center’s safe-house shelter. She is currently doing her senior internship at Guardian Ad Litem, an organization that partners with the court system and the Department of Social Services to act as advocates for abused and neglected children. She has volunteered with Crossroads Sexual Response and Research Center since her freshman year.

“A lot of [the volunteering] has been through service learning requirements, and it really made me realize that social work was the field I wanted to go into when I left Elon,” Vanyur said.

Her hard work, and ability to be involved with other aspects of Elon life, have made an impression on her mentor, Fair.

“I think she breaks the stereotype: she’s involved in her studies and her research. She’s a well-rounded person, with a minor in dance, who is also really smart, cares about people and really wants to make a difference,” Fair said.

Vanyur is vice-president of the Elon’s Finest dance team and president of Alpha Delta Omega, the honor society for human services majors.

She plans to attend graduate school to earn a master’s degree in social work and is now in the process of applying to such institutions as Columbia University and UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work.

Reporter: Camille DeMere - 10/24/07