Record 57 Students Offer Research Results

The 23rd annual Westmont College Student Research Symposium celebrates the noteworthy accomplishments of a record 57 Westmont students who worked on 44 research projects on Wednesday, April 17, from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the Winter Hall Atrium. The event highlights noteworthy work by students from the humanities, social sciences and the natural and behavioral sciences and is free and open to the public.

Students will present their findings and answer questions during the reception. Research topics include identifying alligator lizards, the Danish rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, effects of perceived masculine sex role attitudes, and using machine learning to predict future donor giving.

Westmont offers undergraduate students the opportunity to work directly with professors on research and scholarly projects. Faculty encourage students to experience the life of a scholar by engaging in research and often include students in their own work.

The symposium features English creative readings and Major Honors presentations. Christopher Browning ’19 offers “The Pillars of a Quiet Life,” a collection of essays tackling the four largest themes forming his identity, from 3:45-4:05 p.m. in Winter Hall room 206. Taylor Tejada ’19 reads “The Things We Keep,” a collection of essays from interviews with family members, from 4:05-4:25 p.m. at Winter Hall room 206. Kyle Hansen ’19 offers his Major Honors project in mathematics, “Much Ado About Nothing or All for Naught? Investigating the Zeros of Complex Functions,” from 4:30-5:05 p.m. in Winter Hall room 106. Heidi Pullmann ’19 presents her Major Honors project in chemistry, “Analyzing the effects of tau protein peptide variants on bursting patterns and c-fos expression in primary cortical neurons,” from 5:10-5:45 p.m. in Winter Hall room 106.