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The annual Academic Symposium at Mount Saint Mary’s University celebrates the research and creativity by Mount students and other members of the community. Each year, the symposium brings in a harvest of work reflecting the excellence, spirit and diversity of the Mount community. This is especially evident with Mount students as they hone their skills presenting their work to a larger audience, sharing research that has captured their interest and imagination.

“There is so much in our public discourse that seeks to challenge the notion that a university degree is valuable in our society today,” says Daniel Prosterman, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. “What is going to be exemplified here is just the opposite. It’s going to underscore the work that you all have done, it’s going to help the audience understand the work that is being done at the University and provide further enrichment to us all as we demonstrate the value of what’s going on here at the Mount.” 

The hybrid event included a total of 37 sessions between 20-minute individual presentations, 50-minute panel presentations, and 10 Honors Program capstone presentations; there were also 14 poster presentations. The presentation sessions were virtual via Zoom, and the poster sessions took place at the Chalon Circle. Poster presenters stationed themselves by their work, and expertly fielded questions from faculty, fellow presenters, and student passersby. 

Presenters submitted 250-word abstracts in January and those selected demonstrated not only mastery of a topic but also the ability to explain the subject matter in language understandable by those outside of the presenters’ respective academic disciplines.

The annual event is sponsored by the Center for Academic Innovation and Creativity. Andrée Leighton, PhD, the director of CAIC and assistant professor, history and political science department, welcomed participants and attendees: “This year’s program testifies to a commitment to the Mount’s mission. This is a unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in many different interdisciplinary conversations, discover new ideas, collaborate and make connections. We are so interested and eager to learn about our students’ work and what they are helping to bring forward to the world.” 

The academic symposium welcomes sessions from disciplines in which presenting is de rigueur, such as the sciences, but any research or topic is welcome from any program — traditional undergraduate and undergraduate Honors, Weekend/Evening & Online College and graduate. All students are represented — from first year to final year. It provides students a wonderful opportunity to gain practice with presentation skills and to become a subject matter expert in a topic of interest.

Waree Protprommart ’23, a biology major, believes the science majors may have more opportunities to present, at least formally, than someone in, humanities for example. In addition to several presentations a year at the Mount, she has presented at several professional conferences. Although she claims to still get nervous, she says the Mount is a comfortable place to develop this skill. “I don't want to be uncomfortable or make a mistake,” she says, “but at least it's like family. Everyone wants to help you be successful.”

Protprommart performed double duty in this year’s symposium: She presented “Student freedom of expression at Mount Saint Mary’s University” on Zoom in the morning and was in The Circle little more than an hour later to present “The effectiveness of the synthetic IAPP [islet amyloid polypeptide or amylin] variants on inhibiting human IAPP aggregation” alongside Kayla Echeverria. Three other undergraduates participated in more than one session on this day.

Faculty also participate as presenters, and not always to discuss their own research or cover an academic topic. The symposium is a celebration of everything related to academics, including how to deliver it, trends, and resources. For example, a group of five faculty from different departments presented “Developing the online training certificate (OTC) program: What we learned.”

President Ann McElaney-Johnson, PhD, spoke during the welcome session. “It’s such a joy to come together every year to celebrate the intellectual accomplishments of our students, faculty and staff,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to share our research and engage in conversations on topics that matter to us as an academic institution. The first time I attended the symposium was 12 years ago during my inauguration. It’s a Mount tradition that has grown and it’s really a joyful day.” 

This year, 91 students and 15 faculty/staff presented with support from 13 moderators. While staff participation is modest, it is growing and was at its highest level yet in 2023. Discussions are underway to plan next year’s symposium, with a variety of possibilities for expanding the event including increasing the number of sessions and involving alumnae and more staff.

This year’s first-time moderators were pleased to find that they did not need to be familiar with the subject matter for their session; their role was to facilitate the Zoom session (e.g., letting people into the session and possibly introducing the participants). While, many student sessions have a faculty member serving as a de facto moderator, faculty nonetheless appreciate someone else monitoring the Zoom technicalities while they are supporting their students.

View a number of this year’s sessions on .