History

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, vision, and values

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

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.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion is grounded in Guilford's Core Values. A diverse and inclusive learning environment, reflected by campus-wide events like GUS, enhances the educational experience for all students. Through GUS and, indirectly through faculty and staff mentoring, we will embrace and enhance the idea of inclusive excellence.

We recognize GUS is a platform to give all undergraduates a place to present their research. At the same time, we recognize that we can play a crucial role in closing opportunity gaps for historically under-represented groups in the academic research space. We are committed to developing and offering programs, policies, workshops, and other resources that will amplify marginalized voices.

While we are proud of everything we've done so far, we recognize that there is still a lot of work to do. Through GUS we will continue to provide a space that recognizes all voices.