WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) welcomed Nicholls State University undergraduate student Brooke Mazac to Capitol Hill this week and announced that she is Louisiana's only winner in the prestigious 2017 Posters on the Hill contest.  This national competition gives students the opportunity to showcase their research to congressional members, meet with their representatives, and learn about advocacy for undergraduate research.

“I would like to extend a sincere congratulations to one of Louisiana's brightest young minds, Brooke Mazac.  Brooke, who is an education major at Nicholls State University, was selected out of hundreds of applicants as a winner of the Council on Undergraduate Research's competition, Posters on the Hill, and was the only college student from Louisiana selected,” said Sen. Kennedy.  “I am proud of the work Brooke and her mentor Dr. Cynthia Vavasseur are accomplishing at Nicholls State University.”

Brooke's project - entitled “Examining the Construct of Time-on-Task in an iPad Assisted Reading Intervention for At-Risk Students” - explores how the presence of technology in educations impacts a student's learning.  Specifically, Brooke wanted to discover if the use of iPads during teaching affected the percentage of time the student was on task.  The results of the study were that in five out of the six trials students spent more time-on-task with an iPad than they did without an iPad.  Brooke's research is an extension of a project and research of Dr. Vavasseur funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents.  To learn more about Brooke's study visit this website.

Sen. Kennedy meeting with Brooke Mazac and her mentor Dr. Cynthia Vavasseur