University of Mary Washington’s campus was alight with ingenuity last week at its 19th annual Research and Creativity Symposium. Students from across academic disciplines presented results of creative projects and scholarly research cultivated alongside faculty mentors throughout the past year.
Junior education major Maddy Woodard built a website to help teachers integrate arts into the classroom. Senior music majors Nathaniel Harvey and Patrick Lynch teamed up with sophomore computer science major Matthew Fenton to explore audio design for video games. Biological science students William Burkey, Aidan Kimener and Michael Afful studied whether exercise improves memory, while classmates Sabrina Perez, Kori Wilson and Paola Marques examined how different levels of physical activity affect anxiety.
These students and hundreds more gave oral presentations and displayed academic posters, engaging the campus and local community in their work. Events spread across the University in places like the Hurley Convergence Center, Dodd Auditorium, James Farmer Hall and more. Music recitals, art exhibitions and even a tree planting – donated by a UMW alumna in memory of her mother and grandmother, both also alumnae – ensured innovation and tradition from every corner of campus were represented.
Presenters had the opportunity to explain their work in depth, field questions and share what excited them about their projects. Noticing a gap in arts-based teaching resources, Woodard addressed the issue in her project, saying “integrating the arts into all curricular areas provides a multitude of benefits, including emotional growth and stronger student-teacher relationships.” The website she created “is something every teacher, current or future, could use,” she said.
Even after five years of coordinating the event, College of Arts and Sciences Assistant Dean Betsy Lewis said she’s still amazed by the range and quality of student projects. “It’s a great tradition – celebrating the work of students on the last day of classes,” she said. “Nearly every major and department is represented, showcasing the depth of creativity and research across campus.”
Beyond student contributions, faculty and alumni played key roles during the week’s events. The College of Business hosted its eighth annual Strategy Case Competition, endowed by Beautiful Home Services LLC, where students presented business solutions to a panel of judges. English and linguistics held its 20th annual Kemp Symposium in Combs Hall, featuring presentations on authors like James Joyce and William Faulkner as well as projects on rare book pairings, ethics in literature and contemporary women writers.
Faculty members led discourse, attended sessions and even read from their own work – like Professor of English Chris Foss, who shared from his new book, The Importance of Being Different: Disability in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales.
UMW alumni Brendan Casey ’92, a senior scientist at Fermilab and an American Physical Society fellow, attended a Department of Physics colloquium that day to share his latest research involving tiny particles called muons and their potential to influence our understanding of the universe.
For students, the symposium was a celebration as well as a chance to leave a mark. Senior Erica Berger, a historic preservation major and museum studies minor, focused her project on incorporating more student-life materials into UMW’s archives.
“I wanted to show why it matters to document student experiences,” said Berger, who also works on campus in Special Collections. “Our stories belong in the record, and this project helped encourage future contributions and ensure students and researchers can find them.”
For a full list of presentations, visit the Research and Creativity Symposium website.
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