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| Chris Lambert '10: "My research experience opened my eyes to Shakespeare's work in ways that I could have never imagined." |
“My research experience at Randolph-Macon opened my eyes to Shakespeare’s work in ways that I could have never imagined,” says
Chris Lambert ’10. Lambert, an
English major with a minor in
secondary education, first became interested in the Bard after he took R-MC Professor Marisa Cull’s
Shakespeare and His England course in fall 2008. “I became enthralled with Shakespeare’s life and work,” says Lambert. “I later heard about SURF (Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship) and the opportunities that research would offer in expanding my knowledge of Shakespeare. I spoke with Professor Cull about doing a research project and she offered me several suggestions for topics.”
R-MC’s SURF program was introduced in 1995 as an endowment to support scholarly undergraduate research by R-MC students in all disciplines. The initial gift for this program was made by Benjamin Schapiro ’64 and his wife Peggy.
To read more Student Experience stories, click here.The Right Angle Finding just the right research angle was a challenge for Lambert. “With Professor Cull’s help, I decided to devote my research to Shakespeare and Teaching, two things that I care about very much,” he says. “As a future teacher, this project gave me the opportunity to research how Shakespeare was, is, and will be taught. This will help me when I tackle the subject in my own teaching, less than a year from now.”
Lambert’s research involved a lot of reading. “I combed through at least 30 books and articles to find the right information,” says Lambert. “I sometimes got overwhelmed but when I found what I was looking for, it made the search worthwhile.” During the college’s annual Research Day, Lambert presented his findings to staff, faculty and students.
“I found that the methods for teaching Shakespeare have changed dramatically in the past hundred or so years,” he says. “It began as instruction from a silent reading perspective and moved slowly but progressively into what we now have, active reading and performance usage. Additionally, I produced three lesson plans, one for each type of active instruction I found: performance, film usage and active discussion.”
At Home on Campus Lambert, who hails from Warrenton, Virginia, decided to come to R-MC after receiving an e-mail from the
Admissions Department. “I took a look at the Web site,” he says. “The first thing that made me want to explore the possibility of attending R-MC was the beautiful campus and the friendly faces that were featured on the homepage. I came down for a campus tour and met some of the staff and faculty and right then and there, I made up my mind that this was the place for me. I loved the size of the campus, the emphasis on faculty-student relationships, the curriculum, and, well,
everything. And I still do.”
From Literary Society to Volleyball Team
Lambert serves as president of R-MC’s
Washington Literary Society. His duties include facilitating meetings, coordinating with the other five officers for events and activities and being in charge of the society’s charitable program, the annual book drive, which runs from November to December. The goal of the drive is to collect books for the Beaumont Correctional Center as well as for American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. “What I most enjoy about the literary society—we call it ‘
Wash Lit’—are the amazing opportunities it has given me to express myself as a leader and the opportunity to do things for others. Wash-Lit also coordinates on-campus events, such as movie nights and poetry readings.”
Lambert also works in R-MC’s
Marketing and Communications Department and writes for the student newspaper, the
Yellow Jacket. “I love writing for the paper because it gives me a chance to write about a variety of topics,” Lambert says. “My favorite stories are about the R-MC volleyball team. I’m friends with the entire volleyball team and I loved getting to write about them. As a writer, I like meeting new people, taking a closer look at their lives and then sharing that with others.”
The ever-busy Lambert is also an Orientation Leader, the vice president of public relations for the Student Virginia Education Association (SVEA) and the Logistics and IT chair for the
Dance Marathon. He also serves as the team captain for the
intramural co-ed sand volleyball team, the Net Busters. His team, consisting of some of the freshmen from his 2009 Orientation Group, played 12 games between September and October 2009. While they came in dead last, “We had a blast!” says Lambert.
Making the Grade(s) Lambert has been on the Dean’s List six times during his career at Randolph-Macon College. In spring 2009, he was awarded the David Trent Prize in English. R-MC English Professor Amy Goodwin, Ph.D., presented the award to Lambert during the college’s annual Honors Convocation ceremony for his efforts in reviving the Washington Literary Society and for his excellence in writing.
A Teacher at Heart Lambert hopes to start teaching high school in fall 2010. “I’m looking into schools from my hometown, but I’m also considering the possibility of traveling further north, possibly Fairfax, Virginia,” he says. Lambert also plans on attending graduate school while he’s working. “I’ll be pursuing a master’s in English and after that I hope to pursue my Ph.D. I have really high expectations for myself,” says Lambert. “I really feel that if I keep at it and believe that I can do it, I’m going to get what I want out of life.”
For information on R-MC’s Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/research.aspx For information on R-MC’s Washington Literary Society, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/Academics/english/washington-literary-society.aspx For information on R-MC’s English department, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/english.aspx For information on R-MC’s Education department, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/education.aspx For more R-MC student profiles, visit http://www.rmc.edu/why-rmc/students.aspx.
For more information about the breadth of programs and opportunities available at Randolph-Macon or to schedule a campus visit, contact our Admissions Office at (800) 888-1762 or at admissions@rmc.edu