Academic Excellence Symposium
May 30, 2025
Academic Excellence Symposium - Student Information
Date: Friday, May 30, 2025 – 1:30-5pm
Overview:
The Academic Excellence Symposium offers students an exciting opportunity to showcase their academic projects and gain valuable experience in a professional setting. This is your chance to present your work to a broader audience, beyond the classroom, and to enhance your resume or graduate school applications.
Presentation Options:
- Poster Presentation
- 10-Minute Oral Presentation
Eligibility:
- Open to all students with an academic project.
- Students must work with an adviser from their department to develop their presentation.
- Department chair approval is required.
Benefits of Participation:
- Resume & Application Enhancement: Having a presentation at a symposium is a great addition to your resume or graduate school application.
- Broader Exposure: Share your work with faculty, peers, and visitors from across the academic community.
- Professional Presentation Practice: Gain confidence in presenting in a formal setting.
How to Apply:
- Submit a proposal by April 18, 2025.
- Proposal submissions can be made through the link below:
Academic Excellence Symposium Application
For questions or additional information, please contact your department adviser.
Schedule
1:00-1:20pm
2nd Floor WEC: Refreshments and Posters
1:20-1:25pm
WEC 226: Welcome and Introduction
1:25-1:55pm
WEC 226: Keynote speaker Melody Ezpeleta, DMFT, LMFT-A
Bio: Dr. Ezpeleta completed both an M.S. in Marital and Family Therapy (2018) and Doctor of Marital and Family Therapy (DMFT) degree (2022) at Loma Linda University. She is a proud alumna of Walla Walla University where she earned a B.S. in Psychology in 2015. Dr. Ezpeleta’s personal and professional experiences within various school systems instilled a passion to contribute to the field of marriage and family therapy and a desire to give back to the community through active collaboration with others. In May 2021, she presented at the ARC/AHSRA conference to introduce her project. She later accepted a faculty position as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Walla Walla University which began Fall 2021 while completing her doctoral degree during her first year as a faculty member. As a result of her doctoral project research, Dr. Ezpeleta was the recipient of the 2022 Research Excellence Award from the School of Behavioral Health at Loma Linda University. Dr. Ezpeleta is currently a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Associate (LMFT-A) in the State of Washington, with a focus on advocating for children, adolescents, and their families. She is also an Approved Supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT).
Lecture title: It's Time for a Change: An Invitation to Collaborate on the Assessment of Mental Health Needs in SDA Academies
Brief description: Currently, there is limited literature about the mental health of students in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) academies so that movement towards continued discussion and action can take place. In 2022, Dr. Melody Ezpeleta conducted the first qualitative mental health needs assessment in the SDA school system as a part of her doctoral project with the support of the North American Division Office of Education (NADOE) and the Pacific Union. The study involved gathering the perceived experiences of high school students in terms of their mental health while attending SDA academies from the perspective of administrators, direct school personnel, support staff, and alumni. The results involved the identification of the mental health conditions being attended to and what mental health resources or supports are still needed at the academies for high school students. Furthermore, recommendations were developed for the Pacific Union and the North American Division Office of Education (NADOE) to contribute towards program development, implementation, evaluation, and future needs assessments. This keynote presentation aims to bring awareness towards the importance of assessing for the mental health needs of high school students in Adventist academies, along with an invitation to collaborate on future needs assessments to initiate actions steps towards enhancing the mental health experience of high school students attending SDA academies.
2:00-2:55pm
WEC 225, WEC 226: Paper presentation session 1
3:00-3:55pm
WEC 225, WEC 226: Paper presentation session 2
Session 1a (WEC 225)
Moderator:
Theme: Health Experiences
Speakers and titles:
Yedith Rodriguez - College Students Knowledge of Women’s Health and Social media Use as a Source of Health Information
Juliet Quave - The Role of Attributions in Patient and Staff Experience
Audrey Gonzalez - PCOS Risk Factors and PCOS’s Association with Endometrial and Ovarian Cancers
Session 1b (WEC 226)
Moderator:
Theme: Communicating Under Pressure
Speakers and titles:
Stacy Wisener - A Dramatistic Study on Crisis Communication Materials
Emmalyn Logan - Perceptions of German Americans in the American Press during World War I
Hanah Lee - Exploring the Factors of Special Education Teacher Burnout
Session 2a (WEC 225)
Moderator:
Theme: Student Experiences
Speakers and titles:
Luz Arango Zea - An Autoethnographic Journal of a Peruvian International Student
Stella Ga - Sleep, Study, Socialize: Pick 2 - Stories of Stress in College Students
Samuel Hoffmann - The Atlas App
Session 2b (WEC 226)
Moderator:
Theme: Constructing Reality
Speakers and titles:
Claire Bussell - The Use of the Term Martyr in California Newspapers during the Armenian Genocide
Colton Herber - Orthopedic Advances beyond Traditional Off-the-Shelf Implants: Moving toward Customizable 3-Dimensional Metallic and Hydrogel Based Implants
Caidyn Boyd - “The Question of Palestine” and Recognition of Palestinian Statehood within UN Resolutions