A Note From the Editorial Team

Nothing can stop the progress of research. Not even a global pandemic.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic kept most of us teaching and learning virtually during the 2020-2021 academic year, the editorial team of the Journal of Research in Progress at Howard Community College, the faculty mentors, and the student researchers did not give up on putting together this special volume. We were apart in our own homes, but the research continued.

The researcher is driven by the quest for another piece of the puzzle to get to a more complete or clearer picture of things. During the days of quarantine, many of us turned to puzzles to pass the time. We know the excitement of opening a new box of puzzle pieces and the thrill that comes from gradually putting the puzzle together. In research, we do not even have all the puzzle pieces. Asking the question and being curious, which is the beginning of all research, is the opening of the puzzle box. Then, we look for the pieces or we create them. We find ways to put them all together by turning each piece this way and that or trying a piece here or there.

Each paper in this volume is contributing a puzzle piece to the greater picture or it is the last missing puzzle piece that completes the picture. During the global pandemic crisis, we have witnessed the power of research, knowledge, science, and humanity. The student researchers represented in this volume are contributing to that important work in discovery and knowledge-making. We are proud of and grateful for their work.

We want to extend a special thank you to all of the faculty mentors who advised and encouraged their students, and to the peer review volunteers for donating their time to the project. We want to thank Professors Steve Silberg and Jeremy Bomberg for coordinating between JRIP and the ART Division resulting in three original pieces of student artwork appearing in the journal.

Our team would like to send a special thanks to the HCC Foundation for their support and particularly our donor, The Kalhert Foundation, who contributed funds to allow this publication to happen. In higher education and in the real world, research work takes a village. We are grateful for all who contributed to this volume in various ways.

Best wishes,

The JRIP Editorial Team

Students interested in submitting articles for next year’s volume of JRIP
should contact the editorial team at JRIP@howardcc.edu