Student research celebrated at Academic Symposium

Upper School students showcased their year-long projects on Friday, April 20
Rabun Gap’s 2018 Academic Symposium was a chance to celebrate award-winning student research on everything from salamander behavior to the influence of Theodore Roosevelt. This annual event showcases the best work coming out of our Upper School classrooms and laboratories.

Projects were on display all day throughout the A&T Building. Selected students gave presentations onstage in the Rearden Theater for the entire Upper School community, and the day was concluded with a riveting performance of “Brainstorm” from Dr. Chaves’ performance class.

Rabun Gap’s two year-long Humanities projects — Project Eagle for sophomores and the American Studies Thesis for juniors — comprised much of the project space. For Project Eagle, students choose a historical figure and delve into primary sources to form a thesis and develop a research paper. They also created a poster board presentation. Rabun Gap juniors analyze an event or topic and its effect on American History, communicating their research through a formal paper and a Pecha Kucha presentation.

A panel of student, faculty, and community judges rated projects and papers and interviewed students during the Symposium. Awards were divided into two categories — Humanities and General Academic Projects. Also, for the first time there were Student and Faculty Choice distinctions awarded.

Earning first place from the Humanities Panel for Project Eagle was Sarah Futral for her project “The Revolutionary Global and Domestic Impact of Margaret Thatcher”, and Anja Racic for the American Studies Thesis with her project “Salvation for a Society in Distress.” In the General Academics category, Cindy Shen earned first place for her research “The Influence of Abiotic Factors on the Abundance of Stream Salamanders in Rabun Gap, GA.”

Award-winners were:

Student Choice Awards
Humanities
Niamh Dempsey 
Ian Braga
Ilana Nzizera
Dorothy Akpovwa
Anja Racic
Gabrielle Jiang

General Academics
Anja Racic and Gavron Campbell — “Health Comparison of Eagle and Indian Lake”
French and STEAM classes — “Map of Paris”
Cindy Shen — “The Influence of Abiotic Factors on the Abundance of Stream Salamanders in Rabun Gap, GA”
Dorian Provencher, Sarah Maria Schmidt, and Piper Wright — “The Bone Song”
Sam Core, Jeremy Nash, Victoria Cochran, and Katie Cox — “Antibiotic Properties of bee venom”

Faculty Choice Awards
Project Eagle Poster Boards
Honorable Mention: Kainaat Trehan
Honorable Mention: Adora Adeyemi
Honorable Mention: Josephine Nyakundi
Honorable Mention: Hazel Ley
Honorable Mention: Petey Webster

Humanities Panel:
Project Eagle
1st Place: Sarah Futral
2nd Place: Gai Kumamoto
Honorable Mention: Dennis Mosmondor
Honorable Mention: Jessica Campbell
Honorable Mention:  Tori Anderson
Honorable Mention: Hayley Nguyen
Honorable Mention: Ada Graham
Honorable Mention: Olivia Harris

American Studies Thesis
1st Place: Anja Racic
2nd Place: Eduards Strautmanis
Honorable Mention: Kathy Gu
Honorable Mention: Jay Reece
Honorable Mention: Gabrielle Jiang
Honorable Mention: Miko Staniewicz
Honorable Mention: Dorothy Akpovwa


General Academics Panel:
1st Place: Cindy Shen — “The Influence of Abiotic Factors on the Abundance of Stream Salamanders in Rabun Gap, GA”
2nd Place: Kacper Kuzimski and Zoe Owens — “Intense Agriculture Impacts on Fish Communities”
HM: Sam Core, Jeremy Nash, Victoria Cochran, and Katie Cox — “Antibiotic Properties of bee venom”
HM: Dorian Provencher, Sarah Maria Schmidt, and Piper Wright
HM: Jordan Webber and Angel Rios; Kyleigh Overholt and Mia Gray — “Chemistry of Smells”
HM: Alex Mescher and Will Prim — “Enzyme Lab”
HM: Anja Racic and Gavron Campbell — “Health Comparison of Eagle and Indian Lake”
HM: French and STEAM classes — “Map of Paris”
HM: Natalie Jump and Vishal Sharma — “Retirement Planning”
HM: Will Adair and Mantvydas Jasiunas — “Retirement Planning”
HM: Jazmyn Pickstock, Ketsia Mambi, and Bailey McBride — “Tibia Song”
HM: Miko Stankiewicz — “TED Talk”
 
Back
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School is a private, coeducational day and boarding school for grades Pre-K through 12. Centrally located between Atlanta, GA, Greenville, SC, and Asheville, NC, we prepare young people for college, career, and a lifetime of leadership and service.