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Earlier this month, several students at ��ݮӰ�� had the opportunity to present research projects at the Student Research Conference, an on-campus event that has now been taking place annually for five years.

Senior Samuel Allen, an electrical engineering major, participated in a project in partnership with Valar Atomics, a local nuclear energy company, to seek out a solution for the company’s reactor design.

“We benefited in a lot of ways, especially getting the experience of talking and working with another company,” Allen says, “because we’re trying to please both our teachers here at school and the people we’re working with at Valar Atomics. So we’re learning that dynamic, and about how goals can shift mid-project, which is something that happens in work all the time.”

Another project was based on original research on combating bacterial antibiotic resistance. Biology majors Grace Cook and Marah Lane, two of the project contributors, shared their enthusiasm about the project.

Lane says, “There was a lot of perseverance involved. We had a lot of setbacks. But after getting through that, we were able to quickly get really good results because we had a lot of people around us to help.”

Cook adds, “You also just learn to appreciate the medications that we already do have and the work that has gone into building them. I have a better appreciation for modern medicine because of this, for sure.”

The conference was also joined by several middle schoolers presenting their science projects, who were invited from local Christian schools.

“We see this as a sweet opportunity for local Christian schools and homeschool groups to get excited about the potential future they have with us in our science department,” says Natalia Soto, the laboratory supervisor in ��ݮӰ��’s biological and physical sciences department.

If you are interested in learning more about the STEM programs offered at ��ݮӰ��, see here.