Fourth year kinesiology student Ben Andrews' curiosity for a project focused on the presence of cocaine in baseball lead him down a 3-year-long research journey with kinesiology professor Dr. Craig Greenham. When Ben began his outstanding scholars career, Dr. Greenham approached him with this project and immediately the pair got to work. Soon after, Dr. Greenham realized that both of them had a burning passion for the CFL and that Ben had a passion for writing moreso than typical research work-so they acted on it. Dr Greenham explained, "as a mentor, you have to figure out exactly what the student wants from the experience and what their abilities are. Strong researchers like to crunch things analytically, for example. But for Ben, it seemed like he wanted to put pen to paper. It was just about figuring out the right ways for him to do that."
Over the past three years, Ben and Dr. Greenham have tackled several projects together. Ben has had the opportunity to write about the CFL academically through academic articles and conference presentations and has also contributed to longform Sports Journal "The All-Arounder", through which he was able to entertain a more popular audience. Ben also presented his research about the CFL at an international-level conference in Los Angeles, where he made connections with other CFL research enthusiasts. Ben said that "it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to go to Los Angeles-it was really interesting to be able to experience this side of academia as an undergraduate student."
What's next for the pair you may ask? Ben is preparing for graduate school-a pathway he knows has been influenced by his research work in the Outstanding Scholars program. "I'm moving into political science-but with a journalistic touch. The focus of my research will be the effect of local journalism on local democracy." Dr. Greenham and Ben are also preparing to submit 2 publications about ownership in the CFL for review.