The Fourth Annual Festival of Scholars at California Lutheran University will showcase the work of students, faculty and alumni from Sunday, April 25, through Saturday, May 1.

Scholarly work by undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and School of Business will be featured in public presentations, demonstrations and performances.

In celebration of CLU’s 50th anniversary, this year’s festival also includes alumni discussing their work. Chris Elkins, a 1970 graduate and highly regarded microbiologist who has done extensive research into disease-causing bacteria, will receive the 2010 Outstanding Alumnus Award.

More than 250 faculty-mentored student projects are featured in the festival. During the General Poster Session, students will be available to discuss their research on the way television shapes children’s ideas of family, cyber bullying among college students, and effective techniques for delivering bad news. The School of Business Poster Session will feature projects on online social networking in churches, the costs of depression in the workplace, and a new marketing plan for Coca-Cola.

Three students will present projects that incorporate social scientific research and their own civic engagement. They delved into HIV/AIDS in rural Uganda, Mexican immigration, and the causes of the Los Angeles high school anti-immigration walkouts of 2006. A class of freshmen will discuss the documentary they filmed about an undocumented immigrant woman who has been provided sanctuary by a Simi Valley congregation for the last two years.

Several faculty members will discuss their sabbatical projects on science, education, religion, music and other topics.

Recitals, an art exhibit and a nature tour are also slated. Screenings followed by faculty panel discussions will explore crime, punishment and the unconscious sense of guilt in the movies “Fargo,” “In Bruges” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

CLU’s Office for Undergraduate Research is presenting the free public events.

For a complete list of events and projects, go to http://www.callutheran.edu/fos