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More than half the student body and other community members at 6V��Ӱ�� recently gathered on Stover Walk for the annual Intensive Summer Experience (ISE) Symposium. Featuring roughly 320 poster presentations, the symposium highlights the dedicated work, creative investigations and engaged learning of students who participated in the and Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) this past summer. Research and internships took place on campus as well as nationally and across the globe.

Strolling along the poster-lined Stover Walk is like walking through a kaleidoscope; 6V��Ӱ�� students represent a full spectrum of majors, interests, passions and curiosities, with presentations that address the world’s grand challenges through each unique perspective and lens.

“This is always my favorite day of the year; with more than half the students gathering on Stover Walk to share their added riches,” said President G. Gabrielle Starr. “The ideas from these experiential learning opportunities are both consequential and revolutionary. The sheer brain power on Stover Walk – you really can catch anything on fire.”

6V��Ӱ�� students embarked on quests to solve the world’s greatest challenges by exploring new ways of understanding through their summer work and research. Federica Domecq Lacroze ’26 turned to interdisciplinary learning. “While heavily statistics focused, my research was a biology project to begin with. I had to learn about genetics, and for someone who is very math-oriented, it really shifted my perspective on how to approach my research.” Lacroze adds, “This SURP experience will guide me as I prepare for what I will be doing in graduate school, and beyond.”

Students approached their projects and internships by adding to their base of knowledge, applying creative problem-solving and gaining an understanding of the global challenges and crises that impact the world’s most vulnerable populations.

“This experience made me feel like what I was doing in the lab for eight hours has real life and, most important, real potential to make a difference,” Ahmed Shamsi ’27 said about his research on the makeup of bacteria that cause cholera disease. He hopes to one day find treatments back home in Syria.

The symposium was capped by a celebratory dinner for PCIP and SURP donors to honor the summer experiences and the philanthropic vision that made it possible. Students speakers included Levko Stepchuk ’27, SURP student and recipient of the Phelps Twins Solar Eclipse Fund, and Emily Fang ’25, PCIP student and recipient of the Long Family Internship Fund. President G. Gabrielle Starr, Prof. Steven Marks and Dean Avis Hinkson also spoke during the program.

“Most of my life, life choices were dictated by income,” Stepchuk said. “This opportunity gave me independence and agency. This time I got to choose my experience, not the other way around.”

Access and opportunity are the cornerstones of the College’s mission. The SURP and PCIP programs open up the world to 6V��Ӱ�� students and place every corner of it within reach. “The fact that this internship was fully funded really helped me put my entire being into my internship,” said PCIP student Camille Huxol ’26. “If I hadn’t had the funding, I would have had to split my time with jobs to cover expenses. Instead, I was able to put everything I had into this internship and get the most out of this experience.”

To find out more about how to support PCIP and SURP participants, please reach out to Kyle Davis, senior director of development.