Last Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, students, faculty, staff, community members and guests filled McCardell BiCentennial Hall, Johnson Memorial Building, Wright Theatre and Mahaney Center for the Arts for the eighth annual Spring Symposium, a celebration of research, creativity and the liberal arts. With classes suspended on Friday, April 11, students and faculty alike were able to attend a plethora of oral presentations and poster sessions in Bi-Hall throughout the day, with topics ranging from a Sociological and Linguistic Analysis of “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (William Painter ’17) to the Effect of Invasive Garlic Mustard on Northeastern Tree and Fungal Communities (Morgan Childs ’14).
Oral presentations were organized into themed sessions, with researchers from a variety of fields presenting under the same theme. These themes showed the interdisciplinary nature of a liberal arts education and gave students the opportunity to explore topics completely new to them. Oral presentation sessions were punctuated by poster sessions in BiHall’s Great Hall. These colorful visuals and the more informal atmosphere turned the symposium into a more social and communal event, allowing fluid movement between posters and lively chatter amongst the many attendees.
The celebration began in the Center for the Arts with a keynote address by San Francisco-based author and Middlebury graduate Vendela Vida ’93. Vida’s keynote address began the two-day symposium, in which more than 350 undergraduates participated. Vida acknowledged the impact of her professors on her success in writing, highlighting the impact of the College’s faculty on the intellectual creativity and curiosity as professors at the Symposium guided the research presented, moderated each oral presentation session and attended to support their students.
The Thursday evening portion of the symposium continued with an opening reception with performances by the Middlebury Swing Club and MiddJazz, followed by “Music in the Museum,” a preview of the senior thesis dance concert, a “Kuchipudi-Swing” dance performance, as well as screenings of student films, reading of student plays, and a musical showcase. In Wright Memorial Theater, “A Clockwork Orange” had its opening night, continuing with a performance on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, Johnson Memorial Building featured open studios of current studio art students as well as studio art and architecture displays. In Bi-Hall, the day began with oral presentations organized around themes such as, “Globalizing Our Conflicts,” “Declaring Whom We Love,” “+/-: Polar Oppositions,” and many more.
A Bidirectional Blessing
Becky Wasserman ’14 presented a portion of her senior thesis in an oral presentation entitled, “A Bidirectional Blessing: Contemporary Jewish Synagogues and the U.S. Sustainable Foods Movement.” Wasserman discussed how the sustainable food movement has developed in a Jewish context, explaining terms such as “eco-kosher” and “tzedek,” or justice. She illuminated how the Jewish focus on ethics extends to the realm of sustainable food and enhances secular sustainability practices, observing more generally that secular and religious motivations often enhance motivation for and dedication to a practice, such as being vegetarian. She explained how this phenomenon benefits both the synagogue and the sustainable food movement because it attracted more young people to participate in religious events in the synagogue, while benefiting local food pantries and creating urban gardens in cities and spreading the sustainable food movement. She concluded that this would have an even greater impact in the future because young children growing up in a context of this kind will have food sustainability as a “foundational element of their value system.
The Neurobiology of Nurture
Senior Simran Sabharwal ’14 presented research on education and neuroplasticity in a presentation entitled “The Neurobiology of Nurture: Strengthening Resilience in ‘High-Risk’ Youth through Mindfulness, Compassion, and Empowerment.” Sabharwal, who plans to pursue a career as a teacher after graduation, explained how adversity in childhood – violence, poverty, substance abuse, etc. – is manifested in the limbic system of the brain. This can sometimes affect a person’s ability to regulate their emotions even in adulthood. Through programs of mindfulness, compassion and empowerment, teachers can create an environment to help students escape the adverse effects of extreme stress. She used local examples, such as the MindUp program at Bridport Central School, to illustrate how this concept is already being successfully implemented today and can be expanded to positively affect others, including the more than 46 million Americans living below the poverty line. Her presentation highlighted the role of the symposium as a reminder of Middlebury’s commitment to the liberal arts: she observed, “Often times the “hard” sciences are so isolated from the social sciences and humanities. I think the symposium could be a great way to reintegrate the liberal arts by encouraging students to share research across academic disciplines.”
Arts for Economic Development
Though many presenters were seniors discussing a portion of their senior thesis or a senior project, younger students were able to get involved as well. After he wrote a research paper for her freshman seminar “Voices Along the Way,” Professor Kathy Skubikowski encouraged Sebastian Fica-Contreras ’17 to present it at the symposium. In his paper and presentation, Fica-Contreras pondered the question, “Could Arts Education Be Important for Economic Development?” He discussed how many schools emphasize science and the STEM fields, depriving students of the many benefits of arts education, such as development of creativity, innovation, higher GPAs, higher confidence levels, and decreased levels of stress. He showed that those participating in the arts were more likely to attend and graduate from a four-year college or university and successful companies often emphasize creativity as a skill when hiring. He called for more research to be done to investigate how arts education could impact the economy on a macro scale. Leif Castren ’14 discussed research he started on his year abroad in Chile, studying the 2008 and 2009 eruptions of the Volcán Chaitén in the lake region of northern Patagonia. He explained how the eruptions deposited a thick layer of nutrient-deplete tephra on top of the nutrient-rich soil, completely changing the ecological landscape of the area. He included graphics of his own creation from Adobe Illustrator as well as field drawings from his trips to the volcano site to shed light on why the plants he found were able to grow where they did, despite the lack of nutrients in the soil.
Preventative Care in Medicare
Alex Ruocco ’14 presented research on a portion of his thesis investigating eligibility for Medicare and the utilization of preventive care. Preventive care includes measures aimed at identifying patients at risk for serious conditions and preventing those potential illnesses. Among the examples Ruocco highlighted were cholesterol tests, mammograms and colonoscopies. He used a Regression Discontinuity Design to investigate how turning 65 (and thus being eligible for Medicare) affected the probability that a person would use various preventive measures. He found an increase in the amount of people obtaining the services but pointed out that other factors, like education, would increase utilization of preventive care, which is currently under-utilized in the United States. Ruocco predicted that the implications of Obamacare may not be as far-reaching as they could be because it does not take into account factors other than monetary accessibility, such as education and free time.
Takeaways from Symposium
These are only a few of the vast array of presentations and creative works displayed at the symposium, but no matter which events you attended, the talents of Middlebury students were on display. Thomas Lu ’16 highlighted the hard work put into all the works displayed and presented at the symposium: “I found the Symposium truly remarkable. It was humbling to be able to see the hard work and labor that many of my peers have put into their presentations, talks, and demonstrations.” Attendee Richard Brach ’16 observed that at Middlebury, “work is primarily exchanged between students and professors. The symposium provides an excellent opportunity for this exchange to be between students. And it’s cool to see your friends through this academic lens that you don’t normally think of when you see them.”
Spring Symposium Gathers Crowd
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