April 16, 2026 at 4 pm
Clark Memorial Library 244
Savannah Fout
“Stitching Together an Exhibition”
This presentation documents the process of preparing a collection of art for presentation in a professional gallery. After being selected to display at 934 Gallery in Columbus, SSU junior Savannah Fout has been carefully making changes and additions to her portfolio of paintings, sculptures, and textile works. This presentation explores experimental embroidery and narrative through quilting, supplementary interactive materials, and general gallery must-haves such as framing conventions and written documentation.
Current major or area of academic interest: Fine Art and Illustration
Mentor: Mallory Plinke
Audra Smith
“Accommodating Diverse Learners and Why It is Important”
This project explores the importance of accommodations for diverse students within the classroom. It also highlights the effects that accommodations have on academic success. Diversity in the classroom requires intentional planning to ensure that all students receive proper support to help them succeed in their education journey. After having observation hours in the field and conducting an interview with a special education teacher, I was able to get a deeper understanding on specific examples of the many ways that accommodations can be implemented for each student's individual needs. Accommodations need to be provided for students who are English language learners and speak English as their second language as well. It is important that all students receive an equal opportunity to learn, and accommodations allow for a welcoming learning environment to be created.
Current major or area of academic interest: Primary Education
Mentor: Kejing Liu
Alex Loudenslager
“The Chaos Process: Discovering the Role of Chaos in Resolving Artistic Perfectionism”
While the focus of this project was on science fiction worldbuilding through a series of digital illustrations and graphic design projects, the realization that it was becoming more about a struggle with perfectionism and artistic process has shifted the focus of this presentation. This presentation documents that journey from a perfectionistic process to one that embraces chaos and mistakes as necessary facets of creation. At the beginning of the semester, grinding technical exercises, reliance on digital 3D tools, and over-planning displayed a perfectionistic approach motivated by fear of failure. As the semester progressed, acknowledgment of this process's instability emerged, leading to discovery of a new approach. Rather than fighting against mistakes and chaos, it became more realistic to incorporate them as artistic constraints and steer the chaos intentionally. This journey toward discovering a sustainable creative process, explored through an artistic worldbuilding project, reveals how embracing disorder can resolve creative paralysis.
Current major or area of academic interest: Fine Arts and Illustration
Mentor: Charles Davis
Annie Ucci
“Subaltern Narratives: A Study of Chicana Writer Sandra Cisneros”
This conference expands on previous study of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, by studying Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek. It further explores narratives written by women of color, exploring the search for identity that someone who is both a person of color and a woman must undergo. The central idea is the reimagination of narratives that attempt to define and limit women.
Current major or area of academic interest: English
Mentor: Pablo Salinas
April 17, 2026 at 4 pm
Clark Memorial Library 244
Amber Blevins
“Clinical Reasoning of Sensory-Based Approaches in Pediatric Feeding Difficulties”
This project intends to investigate the use of sensory-related approaches as an intervention for enhancing pediatric clients’ ability to do self-feeding. This project will be completed through a literature review of empirical research that has already been completed on the topic, questionnaires with two occupational therapy professors who work with pediatric patients, a thematic analysis of each questionnaire, and a research paper and presentation to present the findings. This project is being established to investigate the clinical reasoning behind why occupational therapists choose sensory approaches to intervention to target self-feeding. This project is supported by a preliminary literature review and found Kim et al. (2021) and Trewin et al. (2022) investigated sensory approaches as interventions and concluded further research is needed to explore the experiences occupational therapists have when using clinical reasoning for self-feeding interventions.
Current major or area of academic interest: Occupational Therapy
Mentor: Ann Marie Allen
Jadelyn Lawson
“Recent Changes to the USDA Food Pyramid”
This presentation aims to identify the recent changes in the USDA food pyramid and evaluate the impacts of these changes on overall systemic health and oral health.
Current major or area of academic interest: Dental Hygiene
Mentor: Georgeann Kamer
Joe Koch
“Adapting Tools for Amateur Spectroscopy”
This project looks into the use of basic spectroscopy instruments and working to use and adapt them to be used with the Seestar S50, a commercially available telescope.
April 23, 2026 at 4 pm
Clark Memorial Library 244
Alaina Johnson and Makayla Raynard
“Compassion Fatigue in Nursing: Causes, Manifestations, and Prevention Strategies”
Compassion fatigue is a significant concern in nursing, characterized by physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion resulting from prolonged exposure to patient suffering and the demands of caregiving. This literature review examines key contributing factors, including work overload, staffing shortages, emotional involvement with patients, and systemic workplace challenges. Common symptoms include decreased empathy, fatigue, anxiety, and job dissatisfaction, all of which can negatively impact patient care and safety. The literature emphasizes the importance of both individual and organizational interventions, including self-care, resilience-building, supportive work environments, and early recognition, to reduce compassion fatigue and improve outcomes for nurses and patients.
Current major or area of academic interest: Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Mentor: Ruby LaBello
Logan Brown
“Git LFS and Perforce: A Speed and Storage Comparison”
Continuing with my work on Git server hosting last semester, this project integrates features specifically designed for the version control of video games with large binary files. Git LFS will be compared to Perforce in terms of upload vs download speed and storage requirements. The requirements imposed on a user for both software will also be addressed.
Current major or area of academic interest: Game Programming
Mentor: Jason Witherell
Haley Magee
“Technical Art's Ever-Winding Path”
A continuation of last semester's conference studying technical art. Will cover the finalization of previous tools, creation of a new one, and implementation into my senior gaming project. Additionally touching base on smaller, related endeavors for the project and an interview with Serena Zafris, an industry technical artist with multiple years of experience.
Current major or area of academic interest: Digital Simulation & Game Engineering
Mentor: Greg Lyons
Ava Intelisano
“Human Cadaver: Maintenance Techniques & ڰ's Advanced Human Anatomy Course”
Simultaneously to taking the Advanced Human Anatomy with Human Cadaver course, I will be conducting research on the history of human cadavers. I intend to review historical literature and modern medical databases, in concurrence with learning more about ڰ’s cadaver storage and management. Through diving into the history of human cadavers, development of preservation techniques, modern cadaver embalming for medical research purposes, and cadaver management used at ڰ, I will create proposals for potential methods of maintaining cadavers for the use of ڰ's Advanced Human Anatomy course in the future.
Current major or area of academic interest: Biology: Biomedical Sciences
Mentor: Dr. Ryan Powell