R.V. Bennett Honors Program’s 2025 Spring Symposium spotlights a diverse range of subjects that includes humanities, sciences and education.
COLUMBIA, KY. (04/18/2025) An inability to control the spread of AIDS in West Africa, dying of a broken heart, a 17th century plague in an English town and the impact of a late-19th century British novel were among the topics presented on Thursday, April 17, at the 2025 Spring Symposium of the Lindsey Wilson College R.V. Bennett Honors Program.
The academic event spotlighted the breadth and depth of 13 students’ research on 15 semester-long projects, which was made possible by working under the close guidance of a faculty mentor.
“I like to think about this day as a kind of victory lap for our students,” said psychology professor Jordan Greenburg, who is also acting director of the R.V. Bennett Honors Program. “Our students have been working all semester on their projects with a professor, and they have put in so much time and so much effort into their projects. And now they get a chance to kind of show off what they’ve done.”
And show off is what the students did at the all-day event, held in the Lindsey Wilson Honors House. Topics presented covered the areas of science and health, biology and medical sciences, history and culture, expression, and advocacy and application.
Two double features
Two students — Maufinda Howard ’26 of Campbellsville, Kentucky, and Katie Saylor ’26 of Louisville, Kentucky — each presented two research projects
Howard, a biology major, discussed the virtues of using phage to fight bacteria and a drug to fight HIV, and Saylor explored trauma and personality and using self-expression to deal with bottled up emotions.
Howard, who grew up in Foya, Liberia, became interested in learning more about fighting HIV because of the inadequate way her native country in West Africa addressed the spread of AIDS.
“We have to not only educate ourselves about HIV and AIDS, but we have to show empathy and compassion to those infected with the virus,” she said.
Saylor said her second research project was a valuable reminder why people should look for ways to express themselves artistically or creatively as a way to manage emotions.
“One aspect about adulting that’s not discussed enough is not letting yourself reset and taking time to express your emotions,” said Saylor, a human services and counseling major.
‘More than I can chew’
In addition to giving students an opportunity to collaborate with a professor on a deeper dive into a subject, the research projects also taught students the limits and requirements of research. Students in the honors program are required to present six research projects during their four years at Lindsey Wilson.
“I always wind up biting off more than I can chew every semester,” said Fikir Tefera ’25, psychophysiology major from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, whose research project this spring was the “Impact of Chronic Stress on Health Throughout Lifetime.” “I learned pretty quickly that I had to narrow down my study.”
Zachary Hite ’27, a mathematics secondary education major from Hodgenville, Kentucky, learned in his paper, “In Sickness and In Health,” that cooperation, community and compassion were key to helping the small English village of Eyam preventing the bubonic plague from spreading beyond its confines in 1665.
The efforts of the late-19th century political novel A City Girl — which Margaret Harkness published under the pseudonym John Law — to inspire the British masses to embrace socialism was examined by Cadence Groce ’27, a criminal justice and women and gender studies major from Somerset, Kentucky.
Learning from tragedy
Personal tragedies and life experiences also informed and inspired some students’ research.
Alannah Bowman ’27, an accounting major from Columbia who grew up 31 miles from Pittsburgh, wanted to know why the 19th century industrialist and Steel City icon Andrew Carnegie remains “such a controversial and interesting character,” so she presented a paper titled “‘The Good Scot:’ Andrew Carnegie’s Legacy and the Homestead Strike.”
Stella Kwagala ’26, a nursing major from Uganda, gave a talk about leukemia because she watched her late mother, Agnes Namulemo, die after being ravaged by the disease. Loss of a close family member also inspired research by MaCayla Falls ’25, who presented “Grief and Its Physiological Effects Can You Die From a Broken Heart?” Her father, Matt, died earlier this year after being diagnosed with cancer last summer.
“It is possible (to die from a broken heart), but if we choose to see loss in another way we can learn from it and build on it,” said Falls, a biology and psychophysiology double major from Elk Horn, Kentucky.
Other students used their research project to address a public policy or public health issue. For example, Zoe Wilson ’26 of Rineyville, Kentucky, studied “The Active Brain: How Exercise Impacts Brain Function and Literacy Instruction.” Wilson came to the conclusion that schools should not forget that exercise and play can be valuable learning tools for elementary school-age students.
“The reality is that the element of play is an integral part of the development of elementary students, and there are virtually endless opportunities to incorporate content instruction with physical education,” said Wilson, an elementary education major.
Lindsey Wilson College student Katie Saylor ’26, a human services and counseling major from Louisville, Kentucky, presents one of her two research projects, “All Bottled Up: A Journey of Self-Expression,” at the 2025 Spring Symposium of the Lindsey Wilson R.V. Bennett Honors Program on Thursday, April 17, at the Honors House.
Lindsey Wilson College student MaCayla Falls ’25, a biology and psychophysiology double major from Elk Horn, Kentucky, presents the results of her research project, “Grief and Its Physiological Effects Can You Die From a Broken Heart?,” at the 2025 Spring Symposium of the Lindsey Wilson R.V. Bennett Honors Program on Thursday, April 17, at the Honors House.
Lindsey Wilson College student Zoe Wilson ’26, an elementary education major from Rineyville, Kentucky, holds a model of the human brain while presenting her research project, “The Active Brain: How Exercise Impacts Brain Function and Literacy Instruction,” at the 2025 Spring Symposium of the Lindsey Wilson R.V. Bennett Honors Program on Thursday, April 17, at the Honors House.
Lindsey Wilson College student Maufinda Howard ’26, a biology major from Campbellsville, Kentucky, makes a point about phage while presenting her research project, “Bacteriophages: A Solution to the Antibiotic-Resistant Problem in the World,” at the 2025 Spring Symposium of the Lindsey Wilson R.V. Bennett Honors Program on Thursday, April 17, at the Honors House.
Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The college’s 28 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)