Schuylerville High School senior Eleanor Hughes will compete in the Eastern Sub-Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium on Saturday, Jan. 27, representing the district as a University in the High School Independent Science Research student. Hughes’ research, titled, “The Effect of Political Socialization on Perception of Party Identification and Expression of Identity Homophily Among High School Students” has been a three-year project, under the guidance of Schuylerville High School teacher David Connelly and mentorship of Dr. Christopher Ojeda.
Hughes’ research, which will be presented at the sub-regional symposium, has a two-fold purpose of study:
- Examine the perception of party identification among adolescents and identify what factors influence its accuracy.
- Examine which factors influence exhibition of identity homophily among adolescents. Identity homophily is the tendency to seek out people with political alignments similar to one’s own.
Hughes collected data from Schuylerville High School students through a survey and then analyzed the data in comparison to her hypotheses regarding political socialization. Click here for Hughes’ research paper.
About Independent Science Research
There are currently 12 Schuylerville students enrolled in Independent Science Research, a course that begins sophomore year. Participants choose and explore a topic of interest using the scientific method as a guiding foundation. Students contact scientists and authors of articles they have studied to build relationships, and eventually choose an appropriate mentor to guide them throughout the program. Students also have the opportunity to earn college credit through the University at Albany. Anyone interested in enrolling should contact their school counselor for more information.