Students Present Research

The College held its ninth annual Spring Student Symposium last weekend from Thursday, April 9 to Friday, April 10, with over three hundred students presenting on their academic and creative endeavors. Many students gave oral or poster presentations on their independent work in Bicentennial Hall, while others performed or presented elsewhere throughout campus.

The event began Friday evening in the concert hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts with a keynote address  from Kevin Murungi ’01. Murungi spoke to his experience as Director of Human Rights and Foreign Policy Programs at Global Kids, a nonprofit educational organization for global learning and youth development.

“I look forward to seeing and hearing about all of your amazing, innovative research over the next few days,” he told the audience of students, faculty, and community members.

“Even after this symposium, I encourage you to use your unique skills and talents to serve your communities and to be the best global citizens you can possibly be.”

On Friday morning, Vice President for Academic Affairs Andi Lloyd welcomed the student presenters in Bicentennial Hall’s Great Hall. “When I looked through the catalog of talks last night, I couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer breadth of your collective endeavors,” she told them.

Following  Lloyd’s welcoming, Great Hall was abuzz with conversation, with presentations and posters ranging in topic from youth unemployment in the U.S. to the effects of testosterone on spatial memory in male rats.

Katie Hill ’15, in her talk “A Violent Line: Migrant Death in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands,” focused on how domestic projects to build fences along the border have actually pushed people into more environmentally destructive paths of immigration to America. She presented a chilling story about a man who, unassisted by border police, tried to recover the body of his daughter who had died trying to cross the border. He ended up, however, finding five other bodies, not one of which was his daughter’s.

Lisa Gates, Associate Dean for Fellowships and Research, expressed her excitement during the event. “I am always so impressed by the incredible work our students do. The Spring Student Symposium is the one event where you can really see the impressive research and creativity that happens on this campus. Even with miserable weather on Friday, BiHall was full of people and energy all day. Every session I attended was full, and many of my colleagues felt attendance was up over last year.”

She continued, “One shift this year was working with Studio Art to strongly encourage greater participation from Studio Art students in the Friday presentations in BiHall. Students discussed their work in the oral presentations and set it up as part of the poster sessions, which really added to the experience.”

Colin Boyle ’18, one of the many students who attended the day’s events, said, “I think the diversity of topics and the indecisiveness of a lot of students deciding between presentations really spoke to the breadth of learning going on.”

He spoke to one of his favorite presentations, whch was given by the J-term Japanese boatbuilding class.

“The students talked about how this particular boat design is losing ground in its native land of Japan,” Boyle said.

“It’s crazy to think that the art form isn’t being taught anymore to Japanese teenagers and young adults, yet we have a group of students here who are exploring it,” he said.

After a full day of presentations, the presenters and guest attendees gathered for a reception in the Great Hall on Friday evening to mark the close of the ninth annual Spring Student Symposium. Another symposium will be convened next fall, once again to be sponsored by the Center for Teaching Learning and Research.