Staff Writer- Ethan LaLumiere
The 2025 Fall Research Symposium & SigX Showcase will be held on Wednesday, September 17th, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Beck Hall atrium. Many upperclassmen will be presenting either a research project they completed through Gustavus, an internship, or a study-away experience. Any student is welcome to attend.
“It is an opportunity for students who have done research to present their findings,” Professor of Biology & Director of Fellowships & Scholarships, Dr. Pamela Kittleson, said.
Many students helped professors with research projects over the summer in order to gain experience in their scientific fields. For example, Dr. Jeff Jeremiason leads students over the summer on a project that researches environmental changes in the Boundary Waters.
“We looked at impacts of climate change and metal mobility by forming our dissolving organic matter. So we’re really interested in carbon data, and we looked at how climate change could affect carbon and metal cycles in the future,” Student researcher and Junior Dasha Shyroka said. “Our results show that warmer plots tend to have more carbon and more lead in the water. It’s really fun, and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had.”
Many of these projects are overseen by the Gustavus Director of Undergraduate Research, Dr. Amanda Nienow.
“I oversee and help any students doing research across campus. And so part of my job is to help students figure out that these opportunities exist, and connect with faculty here,” Nienow said. “They also meet with me weekly to do professional development. There’s about 20 ish hours of that kind of work that they do on top of whatever research project they’re doing. So I teach that part of it, and then once they’re kind of done, they have opportunities to present here on campus. I’m the one that organizes those events.”
This year, the SigX Showcase component was added to display more interests of students in different fields, such as humanities or social science majors who had internships and studied abroad.
“Lately, it’s been a lot in the STEM sciences, science area, we’re trying to expand it into lots of other areas. So this summer, for example, we had somebody, a couple people, actually, in art and art history, and one person in sociology, anthropology school,” Nienow said. “I think maybe somebody in the library as well. All of those students eventually will be doing this research, if they’re doing it for credit, for signature experience credit.”
The Fellowships Office has a lot of opportunities where students can showcase their experiences as well.
The Fellowships Office supports students in nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships. They’re often sponsored by the government, like the State Department or the Department of Defense or some other congressionally appropriated funding, like National Science Foundation, or the Barry Goldwater Excellence in Science Award.
Many of these opportunities support three general areas of interest for students: Studying a language abroad, scientific research, and working abroad. The critical language program is a government program that sends students to study in areas where languages that the US needs more speakers of are spoken.
That’s what Junior Ethan Moudry was doing in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He was studying Russian. “The two awards that he got helped pay for that,” Kittleson said. “The other is tuition money towards Gustavus. That typically is for students who have done research, and it’s typically science students that get tuition money towards Gustavus through the Barry Goldwater Excellence in Science Scholarship.”
Working abroad could be achieved through the United States Fulbright Scholars program, according to Kittleson.
“The third area are students that want to work abroad or go to graduate school after Gustavus. Right now I’m helping six students apply to the US Fulbright. That program sends students to one of 140 countries to either teach English, do research, or to study away in another country after Gustavus,” Kittleson said.
The Symposium & Showcase is meant to show students about opportunities at Gustavus they might not realize exist otherwise, as well as show the accomplishments of current students.
“I have been encouraging everyone to apply to these programs, because it’s just such a cool experience that Gustavus gives you,” Shyroka said. “It’s so unique that you can stay on campus and you get paid for it. You get research experience. And our professors are so amazing. Especially with research, it’s really fun, and the connection you make with the professor is so special.”