Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activities

Schedule of Events

At the conclusion of each spring semester, all Allegheny Community members are invited to gather to celebrate student research, scholarship, and creative activities on campus. The Cook-Lahti Scholars Symposium will take place in various locations throughout the day on Tuesday, April 29th. However, there are a number of Affiliated Scholars Symposium events that are taking place in the days leading up to the main event. Please view the schedule of events below and keep in mind that this website will be updated as we add, revise, and finalize details… so please be sure to check back frequently.

For more information, please contact Dr. Matthew Venesky (mvenesky@allegheny.edu), Director of URSCA.

Affiliated Events — April 21–28

Monday & Tuesday, April 21-22, 1:10 PM – 4:30 PM
Biology Department Senior Project Symposium, various rooms in Steffee Hall of Life Sciences
The Department of Biology is pleased to host its 27th Annual Senior Project Symposium to celebrate the biological research accomplishments of the Class of 2025. All members of the college community are invited and welcome to attend. Juniors, sophomores, and freshmen who are majoring or intending to major in Biology are especially encouraged to attend and participate. Follow this link for the full schedule of Biology Senior Presentations.

Friday, April 25, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
History, International Studies, and Public Humanities Symposium and Celebration, Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center
Members of the college community are invited to come view posters and discuss the outcomes of the work done by the graduating class of students that are part of the History, International Studies, and Public Humanities programs.

Monday, April 28, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Global Health Studies Senior Project Poster Symposium, Carr Hall Lobby
All members of the college community are invited to come view posters and discuss the outcomes of the work done by the graduating class of Global Health Studies seniors. Students interested in majoring in Global Health Studies are encouraged to attend and chat with our current Seniors about their experiences doing their Senior Comp in Global Health Studies.

Scholars Symposium — April 29

Are you a first or second year student interested in opportunities to engage in research, internships, civic engagement, or other Allegheny opportunities like these? Would you like to talk with students, faculty, or staff who have participated in such opportunities in the past? If so, please complete this Google Form to RSVP for the Scholars Symposium Mentor Breakfast. The Mentor Breakfast is a casual, catered breakfast where first year and second year students can mingle and talk with graduating seniors, professors, and representatives from the Maytum Center for Student Success about how to get involved in these opportunities at Allegheny.

Session 1: Academic Posters. During this session, students from across all years and disciplines will present research projects and creative activities that they have completed during the 2024-2025 academic year. Stop by the Campus Center lobby to view the outcomes of these projects and chat with our student scholars.

Session 2: During this session, Senior comp students majoring in the Art Department will be in the Allegheny Art Galleries along with representative pieces. Please pop by and view their work during this morning session.

Join us in this special session to listen to a selection of 3 graduating seniors as they given a brief oral presentation about their Senior Comp Projects. These students were nominated by members of their Department/Program and selected by the Director of URSCA to share the outcomes of their Senior Comp. In addition to these seniors, Prof. Janyl Jumadinova will kick off this event with some reflections on research and scholarship at Allegheny College titled, Lifelong Learning and the Scholar You Didn’t Know You Were. In her address, Prof. Jumadinova celebrates the quirky, chaotic, and unexpectedly inspiring process of scholarship as a lifelong mindset.

Charles Gibson
Smashing Stars and Forbidden Black Holes
Major: Physics; Minor: Music Performance & Astronomy

ABSTRACT: As stars evolve and change through time, they die and become a variety of objects including white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Stars with cores more than ∼5 times the mass of the sun will become black holes. However, very massive stars, with cores ∼40-120 times the mass of the sun will explode in a hypernova, leaving nothing behind. However, recent observations show that some black holes exist with masses that suggest a star that should have undergone a hypernova. I attempt to explain the existence of these black holes from stars that experience collisions with other stars and potentially evolve into supergiant stars that directly collapse into these “forbidden” black holes. I demonstrate that a very massive star that experiences a single collision during its life may collapse into a black hole, but subsequent collisions make it less likely to collapse into a black hole when it dies.

Joe Leszczynski
Has Jennifer’s Law Made a Difference? An Analysis of Caseloads and Discretion in Cases of Child Custody
Majors: Political Science; Community and Justice Studies

ABSTRACT: Domestic violence is a pervasive problem in the United States and has gained more attention in recent years. In 2021, the Connecticut legislature passed Jennifer’s Law, which expanded the definition of domestic violence to include “coercive control” behaviors and enshrined new child custody factors used when making determinations. Using principal-agent theory, punctuated equilibrium theory, street-level bureaucracy theory, and judicial policymaking literature, this project analyzes how the law has been implemented by trial courts. Analysis is grounded in scholarship surrounding the function of the family court in the United States. Findings suggest that the new law has spurred more legal activity, but is being applied inconsistently, and outcomes for litigants who allege abusive behavior have become more unfavorable. These results have implications for the lives of abuse victims, the possible strategies for future family court reform, as well as the efficacy of similar pieces of legislation being passed in other states.

Bridgette K. Reeb
A Roadmap to a Neighborhood in Healthcare
Major: Philosophy; Minor: Global Health Studies

ABSTRACT: Neighborhood is more than geographical. It’s a way that we relate to ourselves and others. I develop a relational theory that I call “neighborhood philosophy”. I discovered neighborhood philosophy through the nexus of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, the iconic children’s television show host Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and my belated husband Jim Reeb. I argue that neighborly love needs to be experienced in context to be understood, which makes modeling neighborly love critical to promoting neighborhood. I propose that while direct and prolonged exposure to neighborly relational models is the best way to help people “catch” neighborly “attitudes”, indirect exposures through media can still have a profoundly positive impact on one’s capacity for neighborhood. I draw on examples from Rogers’ Neighborhood to argue that neighborhood philosophy-informed relational models for patients in educational media could help enable them to be better neighbors to themselves and their healthcare partners.

For the past 19 years, Allegheny College has held a Senior Project Poster Symposium to highlight work from nominated students across all departments and programs. At this session, you can learn about research and scholarly activities from graduating seniors in the humanities, natural and social sciences, interdisciplinary pursuits, as well as seniors that have participated in internships, civic engagement projects, and international experiences. More information about this event will be provided in April. Light refreshments will be provided.

At this special ceremony, student prizes are announced and awarded by representatives of all the departments and programs at Allegheny College. In addition, the valedictorian of the 2025 graduating class will speak.

Please join us in the theatre for a screening of senior project films conceived and produced by students across several academic programs:

William Decicco: Becoming a Ballplayer: Cheech Dolla
Sylvia Hang: My Dad
Kofi Mensah: Sheepskin
Charlie Schwartz: Naturally