The history of GUS

The first Guilford Undergraduate Symposium was held in 2008 with 50 presentations in Dana Auditorium, King Hall, and Duke Memorial Hall. Faculty members Rob Whitnell (Chemistry) and Melanie Lee-Brown (Biology) co-founded the event after attending the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium.

Since then, over 1,500 Guilford students have made more than 1,000 presentations. In a 2013 interview with The Guilfordian, Lee-Brown and Whitnell noted GUS's ability to bring the community together by breaking out of academic silos: "It is always fun for us to see science research next to art exhibitions while a poetry reading is happening around the corner."

Mission

The Steering Committee of the Guilford Undergraduate Symposium is committed to making research opportunities accessible to all students of the Guilford community. In partnership with the Hege Academic Commons, we support undergraduates, Early College students, and continuing education students through research workshops, advising, and presentation opportunities.

Vision

• To support transformative undergraduate research experiences that create spaces for student belonging, confidence building, community engagement, and the development of the student's scholarly identity. We strive to center equity in our work and acknowledge that systematic exclusion from research spaces has created disproportionate challenges in research advancement for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.

Values

All researchers have an obligation to conduct research ethically. To that end, there are four common values associated with the responsible conduct of research (Steneck, 2007, p. 3):

• Experiential learning: We believe that undergraduates learn best by doing and that presenting research provides an excellent opportunity for students to ask questions, develop practical skills, and see their research come to life.
• Collaboration: We believe that the collaborative partnerships between students and mentors will lay the foundation for future success. We believe that undergraduates are capable and valuable partners in the development of new knowledge.
• Curiosity: We believe that curiosity is empowering in that it questions existing ideas, challenges existing knowledge, and leads to the acceptance of diverse perspectives. Undergraduates can be catalysts for positive change and we aim to support them in that endeavor.
• Community and belonging: A core Guilford belief, we support our students holistically on their research journey through the belief that their lived experiences, identities, and strengths have an important place in the community. Our goal is to create a welcoming and supportive research community.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion: We believe that diversity is one of Guilford's strengths and that through diversity, equity, and inclusion we can create an environment where all students may succeed.

• 

  2008

  The year GUS was co-founded by Rob Whitnell and Melanie Lee-Brown. There were 50 student presentations in Dana Auditorium, Duke Hall, and King Hall.

• 

  1,500

  Since 2008, more than 1,500 Guilford students have participated in GUS. We have also had an increasing number of student presenters from an increasing number of disciplines since 2022.

• 

  17

  The number of research award winners - for the Hege Research Award or the Hege Emerging Scholars Award - or graduating seniors with Contribution projects that have presented at GUS since 2022. Some of our students have used their projects as springboards for art exhibitions while others have said GUS was great preparation for graduate school.

• 

  103

  The number of first-year and Early College at Guilford students who have participated in GUS - via poster sessions, oral presentation, or demonstrations - since 2022. We believe that GUS is a great experience for all students and that participating in your first year can get your academic journey off to a great start.