Snapshots from Scholars Week 2025

Scholars Week is an annual, week-long event showcasing the academic prowess of and exceptional research by Western students. This year marked the biggest Scholars Week since it began 25 years ago, with more than 400 student participants. Students shared their work in poster sessions, research presentations, creative writing pieces and three-minute thesis defenses. 

With all the incredible work being done at Western, attending any of the Scholars Week events surely left you feeling inspired. From the virtual treasure box, here are some gems you might have missed - and this is by no means a comprehensive, "best of" list by any means, it's just a broad representation of the incredible work being presented.

Undergraduate Highlights 

Forecasting National Park Visitation Using Social Media 

Seniors Sydney Campbell and Parker Perry teamed up to evaluate the model for forecasting national park visitation. The team, alongside Professor of Statistics Kimihiro Noguchi, used geotagged Flickr image posts to find the number of monthly on-site headcounts needed to accurately generate future monthly visitor counts for national parks. The students analyzed multiple parks to determine which parks performed best under different scenarios. Though there are some anomalies the students are still working through, the team hopes the predictive model can be used to help parks better allocate resources to keep up with infrastructure costs. 

Rebuilding Community in Human Services Post-Pandemic 

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the human services program sought to find a way to rebuild student relationships and community. The Human Services Club was born out of this need. Seniors Sonja Hendricks and Sydnie Sharp, juniors Kayanne McNeill and Rayne Luthi and WWU alumnus and University of Washington Master of Social Work student Kyra Hasley worked alongside Academic Program Director for the Human Services Program Christina Van Wingerden to put in more than 300 hours of work to launch the club. This included marketing the club through word of mouth, posters and social media, creating a logo and hosting community-building events. The club is open to all students, and the program saw an increase in students interested in pursuing a degree in human services due to club attendance, one area the club hopes to focus on next is building a similar club for remote-learning students. 

Environmental Sciences Field Camp 

Woodpeckers, amphibians, bats, and kingfishers! The Elwha and Grande Ronde Rivers are alive with wildlife, and both ecosystems offer an abundance of research opportunities. Environmental Sciences (ESCI) Field Camp students returned from two research trips led by Professor John McLaughlin in April and early May and speedily turned around to present their faculty/student research collaborations twice during Scholars Week.  

Scholars Week presentations from ESCI Field Camp include "Nighttime Secrets: Assessing Habitat and Insect Abundance as Predictors of Bat Behavior," by Gracie Swanson and AJ Denton; "Fire in the Hole: Distribution of Cavity Nesting Birds Along the Grande Ronde River Corridor," by Luke Duvall, Caleb Barville, Celeste Jerome, and AJ Denton; "Belted Kingfishers as Indicators of Restoration Progress in the Snake River Basin," by Birdie Greening, Buck Foster, Rachel Corichi, Jack DiChiara, and Brooke Beaty; and "Embracing Restored Habitat: Amphibian Distributions and Abundances Following Dam Removal on the Elwha River," by Jack Gates, Jack DiChiara, Brooke Beaty, Ava Weatherl, Buck Foster, Celeste Jerome, and Luke Duvall. 

Did you miss their talks? You can watch an archived video, and read more about ESCI Field Camp.

Graduate Highlights

Graduate students showed up in three different events during Scholars Week: Three-Minute Thesis, Poster Session and Creative Writing Presentations. Three-Minute Thesis challenges grad students to present their research in only 180 seconds and in an engaging way that is accessible to a general audience. But it’s also just a nice opportunity to have a lively conversation and ask questions about the exciting work these students are doing. Thirty grad students participated in Three-Minute thesis, 52 grad students presented at the Poster Session and five grad students gave readings of their creative work. We’ve included a sampling of their work for you below:  

Helping introductory biology students act as scientists

Kanaili Singkeo explored if Biology 101 gave non-major students a chance to participate in labs as scientists while they are students. About 430 students take the introductory biology course every quarter, and Singkeo found that the lab curriculum encourages them to participate in key types of science practice such as developing and using models and constructing explanations and engaging in argument from evidence. At the same time, three key areas of science practice were not likely to be present: evaluating information, communicating information and defining problems and designing solutions. Singkeo proposed changes to the curriculum to encourage students to participate in all areas of science practice, and the biology department will implement these changes in the 2026-27 school year.  

Lyric and Lesbian Dance Parties by X Sam Wong, MFA, poetry 

Exploring the lyric as a poetic concept, Wong presented on the poetry of Sappho, the spare quality of Emily Dickinson, and the songwriting of Chappell Roan and Kehlani. Inspired by the theme of lesbian dance parties at The Wild Buffalo, Wong engaged lyric, fragment and completion. 

Have you met “Haddie,” the walking mushroom coral?  

Environmental Studies graduate student Kaitlin Barrailler wonders if anthropomorphizing coral – using her instead of it, giving her a name, etc. – can activate empathy, increase connection, and energize conservation efforts. This tactic has worked for reptiles, birds, and insects, but what about coral, which doesn’t have eyes or even a face. Kaitlin is exploring these ideas at the Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion. Kaitlin is advised by Associate Professor Cameron Whitley from the Sociology Department, Professor Gene Myers from the Environmental Studies Department, and Sarah Brenkert, the principal evaluator at the Seattle Aquarium. Kaitlin and other first-year Environmental Studies grad students are repeating their 3-minute talks on Thursday, June 5, as part of the Environmental Speaker Series.

Risk perception as sea level rises in American Samoa 

Tilali Scanlin, a first-year Environmental Studies graduate student, is from American Samoa, a small cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, situated halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii with a population of around 50,000. The people and culture are closely tied to the ocean, but rising sea levels and climate change threaten their way of life. Tilali is returning to American Samoa this summer to conduct a risk perception study. Associate Professor Rebekah Paci-Green and Assistant Professor Francisco Laso are Tilali’s faculty advisors from the Environmental Studies Department. Tilali and other first-year Environmental Studies grad students are repeating their 3-minute talks on Thursday, June 5, as part of the Environmental Speaker Series.

Who likes rice? (everyone raises their hand) 

Prizma Chapagain is from Nepal, where rice is about 50% of the average person’s diet and is grown in every region. Prizma is heading to Nepal this summer to talk to farmers about the role of Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) in their agricultural practices. Prizma plans to observe, document, and then share these stories with policymakers and others who could benefit. Prizma’s faculty advisor is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Rebekah Paci-Green. First-year Environmental Studies grad students, including Prizma, are repeating their 3-minute talks on Thursday, June 5, as part of the Environmental Speaker Series.

How can we measure how much water is used for irrigation? 

Bo MacArthur is a second-year Environmental Studies graduate student whose graduate research focuses on quantifying agricultural irrigation. Bellingham and the western part of Whatcom County are part of WRIA 1 (Water Resources Inventory Area 1), which generally encompasses the Nooksack River watershed. A lawsuit, called an adjudication, to legally clarify all water rights is just beginning. Water rights are complicated, and this process can take decades. Bo developed a model that estimates agricultural irrigation that may help farmers who will now be required to quantify water usage. His model is based on a soil water balance approach that treats the root zone of the soil like a leaky bucket. Rainfall and irrigation fill the bucket, while transpiration, evaporation, runoff, and deep percolation drain it. Just as a bucket cannot be less than empty, if his model predicts a negative soil water balance, the missing water must have come from irrigation. Catch a recording of Bo talking about this research at a recent Environmental Speaker Series talk.

How is wildfire smoke from North America affecting Greenland’s Ice Sheet? 

Environmental Sciences second-year graduate student Ella Hall is trying to quantify how much wildfire smoke deposition contributes to the reduction of albedo on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Albedo refers to how much solar radiation a surface can reflect. Fresh, clean snow can reflect up to 90% of the sun’s radiation but anything that darkens the surface of snow reduces its ability to reflect heat, thereby accelerating melting. Wildfire smoke contains black carbon, otherwise known as soot. Smoke that originates in North America can be transported via the prevailing wind and atmospheric circulation patterns and deposited on the Greenland Ice Sheet, darkening the surface. Ella quoted two studies that said that the Greenland Ice Sheet is one of the largest contributors to global sea level rise and that if the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, it would contribute about 7 meters to global sea level rise. Ella is advised by Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Alia Khan. This work is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to PI-Khan, which builds on her previous studies about black carbon deposition on the Greenland Ice Sheet and globally. Ella spoke more about this research and the arctic amplification, how the arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, at a recent Environmental Speaker Series talk.

How does Oregon’s religious history connect to the broader narrative of the United States?

History graduate student Jasmine Judd is exploring Oregon’s early exclusionary laws in Antebellum America. Oregon is often thought of as separate and more virtuous than other states and regions of the U.S. But Judd aims to show that Oregon, in the decades leading up to the civil war, as a whites-only republic, is not culturally separate but a product of the nation it intended to join. Racialized ideology is well documented in the North and South, but Judd, focusing on anti-slavery Presbyterian minister James Patterson Millar, explores how northern and southern protestants brought their racialized values to the coast during westward expansion. Judd’s graduate advisor is Professor of History Johan Neem.  

How does RHOA — a molecular switch protein — contribute to vascular development and integrity?

Ekaterina Monakhova is a graduate student of biology looking at blood vessels in zebrafish embryos. She works in a lab that focuses on cerebral cavernous malformation, a condition characterized by clusters of abnormal blood vessels in the brain that have weak vessel walls, which are prone to rupture. It’s widely known that RHOA is a switch protein that has an important role when it comes to vascular development and integrity. In zebrafish, Monakhova says we know when there is too much RHOA, the vessels do not form properly, and there is no blood flow. When there’s not enough RHOA, the vessels become leaky. But the specificity of RHOA’s role — the exact mechanisms by which it regulates vascular development — is not well understood. Monakhova’s research is going to help fill those gaps in the research. Monakhova’s graduate advisor is Assistant Professor of Biology Laura Pillay.  

Reshaping the Stage: Fat Body Politics and Clarinet Performance

Music graduate student Sarah Lucas-Page says, like in many realms of our society, anti-fat bias is prevalent in the classical music industry and affects the most basic elements of the job from access to well-fitting performance clothing — which is crucial for sound performance — to whether a performer gets a call-back after an audition.  

Through a series of surveys and interviews, Lucas-Page is analyzing patterns of bias in the community and developing ways to combat these harmful and exclusive behaviors. Her findings so far show the following:

• 65.8 percent of survey participants (76 people) believe clarinetists are treated differently because of their weight. 26.3 percent said maybe.
• 50 percent of survey participants (76 people) said that yes, they have heard unkind words about their weight and/or appearance from members in the clarinet community.  
• 36.4 percent of participants (76 people) stated that sometimes they have a negative bias towards fat people, 18.2 percent stated that yes they have a negative bias but are learning not to, and 9.1 percent said no but they used to.

Lucas-Page's faculty mentors are Associate Professor of Music Charles Halka and Professor of Music Bruce Hamilton.

Two Poems  

Miriam Milena is a graduate student of creative writing, specializing in poetry. She read her own poetry ranging from elegy for a departed friend to a dream vision of a scene from her mother’s childhood to a brief and playful ars poetica. Milena said if there is something that unifies the work she read, it’s her preoccupation with the way that the everyday immaterialities of our lives — namely light and language — trace the contours of our selves and our songs. Milena has received support from Brooklyn Poets and Mineral School, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, the Cola Literary Review and Bellingham Review. Milena's graduate advisor is Assistant Professor of English Cori Winrock. 

Scholars Week is the annual celebration of outstanding student research and creative work. Held May 12 – 16, 2025’s Scholars Week featured a Poster Session, Three-Minute Thesis Talks, MFA/MA Creative Writing Presentations, Faculty/Student Group Collaborations, and more. Learn more on the Scholars Week website.