THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - The Fifth Annual Festival of Scholars at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks will showcase the work of students and faculty from Tuesday, April 26, through Monday, May 2.

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 more than 40 free interactive presentations and performances open to the public.

More than 300 faculty-mentored student projects are featured. Topics range from the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, to the effect ginger intake has on exercise recovery time, to the impact of studying abroad on students’ cultural sensitivity and emotional intelligence. One student will share her research on Facebook, which showed that people were less influenced by what people wrote about themselves than what others posted on their walls.

Several students will discuss what they found in recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents on the Reagan administration’s role in the Cold War. Collaborating with CIA historians, the students analyzed the correlation between data in CIA reports and the words and actions of President Ronald Reagan and his staff in the 1980s.

School of Education students will review the results of their efforts to develop empathy in students through 16 different service-learning projects at schools throughout Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties. Several School of Business students will present the marketing plans they developed to help businesses, ranging from custom painters looking to expand to a Lutheran camp organization facing declining participation. Graduate psychology students will present the latest research on sports concussions, Alzheimer’s disease and autism.

Students in the High Definition Digital Cinema class will screen shorts they filmed and multimedia majors will share stories and characters they created. KUSC radio host Alan Chapman, a composer/lyricist and well-known pre-concert lecturer, will comment on formal papers presented by music students. Recitals, an art and music walk, and a nature tour of the CLU campus are also slated.

Faculty will share their sabbatical projects and alumna Mary Neal Vieten will discuss her work developing a new model for treating military personnel and first responders suffering from stress-related psychological injuries.

CLU’s Office for Undergraduate Research is presenting the festival.

For a complete list of events and projects, go to http://www.callutheran.edu/fos. For more information, contact the Office for Undergraduate Research at or (805) 493-3795.