Honors College students show off research and creative scholarship – and 36 are heading to the national stage
By William Lineberry
University College & Honors College
Health care inequities in rural and urban communities. Female representation in mass media. Artificial intelligence in medical engineering. Remote work and its effects on employee well-being. These and numerous other subjects were spotlighted by students recently at Virginia Commonwealth University’s second annual Honors College Research and Creative Scholarship Symposium.
On Feb. 17 in a series of poster sessions, 56 Honors College students presented their work to VCU faculty, staff, visiting prospective students and their families in the Honors College building.
“Participation in undergraduate research and creative scholarship provides students with a transformative experience that fosters their ability to identify and solve problems in the real world,” said Scott Breuninger, Ph.D., dean of the Honors College, which emphasizes experiential learning. “By giving these students one of their first opportunities to conduct research and creative scholarship, we hope we are helping set them up to make a significant impact in their fields of study and society.”
Presenting at the symposium was just the first step for some students, as 36 of them will now take their projects to the national stage. From April 7-9 in Pittsburgh, they will represent VCU at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, the annual flagship event in the field.
NCUR spotlights students from universities in every state as well as from abroad. The Honors College students are receiving full funding to attend the conference from the VCU Office of the President and the Office of the Provost. The 2025 cohort from VCU is the largest since 2018 and about a dozen students more than each of the previous two years.
The research and creative scholarship projects are a product of the Honors College curriculum, but a campuswide collaboration helps elevate the efforts. Students are paired with a faculty mentor whose expertise complements the research or creative subject, and they work together for the duration of the projects.
Faculty from VCU’s School of Medicine; College of Health Professions; Honors College; and the departments of Political Science, Biology, Chemistry and History in the College of Humanities and Sciences served as mentors for the 2025 cohort of students.
The majority of the projects were conceived in the Honors Rhetoric course, where every student must choose and develop a research subject. Other projects were developed during the Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Program and through independent studies.
Honors student presenter William Thomas, a junior majoring in biology, said the experience was impactful on multiple levels for him. He added that without cross-campus partnerships through VCU’s Maximizing Access to Careers in Research program, funded in part through the National Institute of Health, his summer spent researching sickle cell disease would not have been possible.
“It was very rewarding to have the experience of working with my mentor,” Thomas said. “I was blessed to have support from the VCU MARC program to research a drug candidate for treating sickle cell disease over the summer. While presenting this research to everyone, I was happy to notice that my presentation skills improved. It was also exciting to inform everyone about sickle cell research, which is heavily under-researched despite its prevalence in the world population.”
Thomas said the opportunity to present his research helps power his ongoing commitment.
“One thing I enjoy is being able to share exciting steps in my research process with family, professors and mentors,” he said. “Even when what I’m explaining seems foreign to them, my close ones always seem happy about the updates that I give them, and they show an immense amount of support. This support is what keeps me moving forward – and teaches me to never give up.”
For more on NCUR, visit the conference event page.