2024 Symposium Award Winners

The following outstanding presentations, posters, and creative works were awarded prizes at the 14th Annual Wiggins Memorial Library Academic Symposium on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Each student is listed along with their faculty mentor. If the presentation was recorded, a link to the video recording is provided.

High Merit Winners scored within the top 10% of their category. Merit Winners scored within the top 25% of their category. All of these winners names will be published in the 2023-24 edition of Accolades and all will receive a prize seal for their certificate. Join us in congratulating these winners!

Art Exhibits

High Merit

Living Pages by Arianna Aguila (Faculty Mentor: Prof. Dejan Mraović)

Merit

"Birds Crossing", a humorous traffic sign, 2023 by Simon Osbourne (Faculty Mentor: Prof. Dejan Mraović)
Nigerian Flora by Jamari Cannady Pratt (Faculty Mentor: Prof. Dejan Mraović)

Undergraduate Oral Presentations

High Merit

Exploring Bolivia: No, Not Bolivia in South America: Bolivia, North Carolina by Sarah Cribb (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Justin Nelson)
Crossing the Globe from my Bedroom: An Autoethnography of Computer-Mediated Communication in a Cross-Cultural Setting by Maisy Rainey (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dean Farmer)
Analysis of Guardian ad Litem Program Construction by Aaron Walls (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catherine Cowling)
Changing Perspectives of "The Glass Menagerie"--a disability studies reading by Mackenzie Wood (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Donna Waldron)

Merit

The Miracle On Ice: How Geopolitical Rivalries of the Cold War Heated Up the Ice for an Unforgettable Hockey Game by Elizabeth Davis (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jaclyn Stanke)
College Through the Lens of a First-Generation Hispanic Student by Crystal Lopez-Alvarez (Faculty Mentors: Dr. Sherry Truffin and Dr. John Roberson)
“I am not romantic, you know”: A Feminist Reading of Charlotte Lucas by Gray Ricks (Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Rambo)
Meridian Kiosks: Efficiency Analysis by Jalen Wilkes, Patrick Adams, and Cameron Tassos (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kim Fowler)

Graduate Oral Presentations

High Merit

Increasing Compliance with Evidence-Based Metrics for Adult ADHD Treatment Monitoring by Robert N. Agnello (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Pennings, Nominated by Dr. Emily Cayton)
Syncretism: Christ, Culture and a Twissian Approach by Mark Hunter Locklear (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cameron Jorgenson)

Merit

An Examination of Virtue and Vice in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Jared Fries (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cameron Jorgenson)

Undergraduate Poster Presentations

High Merit

Investigation of S321A variant of the thiamine dependent enzyme SucA in abiological carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions by Sumiya Bibi (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Evan Reynolds)
Effects of substituents and reagent concentrations on the oxidation kinetics of benzyl silyl ethers by Mia Turley (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sarah Goforth)

Merit

Coast Guard Academy “Operation Fouled Anchor” Cover-up by Sage Dougherty (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Laura Lunsford)
Prevention of Burnout in Nurses and its Impact on Patient Safety by Danielle Drent and Mackenzie Helms (Faculty Mentor: Prof. Sharon Boyd)
Rational Design of Mutations to Expand the Substrate Scope of the Thiamine-dependent Enzyme SucA by Angelique Girard (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Evan Reynolds)
Isolating Antibiotics: Assessing the Antibiotic Potential of the External Microbiome of Solenopsis invicta by Leeann Stearns and Amanda Beal (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle Thomas)

Graduate Poster Presentations

High Merit

The clinical course, prognostic, and risk factors of neck pain conditions: an overview of systematic reviews by Toni-Ann Ariola (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Emily Bailey)
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in the Setting of Chronic Renal Failure by Zachary Kitts, Nidhi Kumar, David Feist, Joseph Leuelling, and Aishani Tingare (Faculty Mentors: Dr. Alan Proia and Dr. Amy Hinkelman)
Five Common Causes and Diagnosis of Cirrhosis in Adults by Brianna Stempniak, David Lehrburger, Katherine Hennion, Danielle Ogonowski, and Nicholas Iskandar (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Larson)

Merit

Effects of Acupuncture on Obesity by Zachary Kitts and Nidhi Kumar (Faculty Mentors: Dr. Nicholas Pennings and Dr. Robert Agnello)
Acidosis-dependent vascular regulation: role of GPR4 by Rudra Swami (Faculty Mentor: Dr. Victor Pulgar)