Schmid College’s undergraduate summer research fellows presented their work at the Summer 2026 Research Symposium, to an audience of peers, family members, mentors and faculty, on July 30th, 2026.
The symposium featured 59 undergraduate researchers from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), the Stauffer-Fletcher Jones Chemistry and Biochemistry Research Fellowship, the Schmid Summer Research Fellowship, the Beckman Scholars Program, and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Earth and Environmental Sciences (SURFEES). Scholars began work in various labs supervised by Schmid faculty in mid-June. Their studies spanned disciplines including food science, environmental science, chemistry, biology, health science, statistics and psychology. Over the course of seven weeks, student researchers worked with faculty mentors, conducted experiments, and some are co-authors on upcoming papers. Their summer research experience culminated in five-minute “flash talks” and poster presentations, where guests were invited to ask the scholars questions directly.
Molly Niswender, ‘26, is one of this summer’s Beckman Scholars who presented at the Summer Research Symposium. She graduated this spring with a bachelors in biochemistry and molecular biology, and has been studying a protein involved in breast cancer research for the past 15 months. Thanks to her time as a Beckman Scholar, Molly is in the process of publishing her first research paper, a rare achievement for an undergraduate student in the scientific community.
Molly says that her time as a Beckman Scholar gave her invaluable research experience, and guided her in discovering her career path. She will be taking the specialized skills developed this summer with her as she pursues her PhD in cancer and cell biology at UC Irvine.
“A lot of the time undergrads will be on a graduate student paper as, like, the 14th author. But my mentor, Dr. Cecilia Zorita Lopez, and I have worked on this project together for two years now. I’ve been able to work really closely with her, designing figures, writing the manuscript. We’re working on our first draft right now. Fingers crossed everything goes well. But we’re really excited about this data.”
Berenice Gonzales, ‘27, biochemistry major, said her time as a Schmid Summer Research Fellow has been “fulfilling.” She spent the summer, as she put it in her flash talk “putting cells through ‘Happy Hour,’” to trigger alcohol-induced cellular stress, which can cause heart damage. Berenice aims to pursue a PhD in clinical research, studying autoimmune diseases.
““I think for a really long time, I always thought a researcher looked a certain way. I think now that I’ve been given the great opportunity to be a part of a research lab and open that part of my brain up to creativity, I realized that anybody could become a researcher. You just have to have that curiosity. I encourage everyone to at least try it out, because they’ll definitely learn a different part of themselves throughout the experience,” says Berenice.
Dr. Christopher Kim, the dean of Schmid College, attended the symposium as both the dean and as a faculty mentor to several of the scholars. Since Chapman began hosting summer undergraduate research programs in 2012, Dr Kim says that the number of students participating has grown six-fold.
“Every year I’m filled with a lot of pride and gratitude for the effort that the students put into their presentations, for the hard work they do over the summer, and the really polished, confident way in which they present their research. I know it’s a very stressful event, but they all do a really great job,” says Dr. Kim.
Learn more about year-round undergraduate research opportunities at Schmid College here.
