Despite the bright and sunny skies outside, visitors in the Discovery Room at the Suter Science Center on Thursday morning watched thousands of stars fill the night sky above their heads.
The stars, projected onto the dome of SSC 101—formerly home to the M.T. Brackbill Planetarium and now part of the D. Ralph Hostetter Natural History Museum—became a reality thanks to recent renovations and improvements by a group of EMU engineering students. For their senior capstone project, Adam Stoltzfus, Laura Benner, Hellena Gebremedhin, Micaiah Landis, Lleyton Stutzman, and Rebecca Tezazu, under the guidance of faculty mentor Stefano Colafranceschi, restored and modernized the EMU planetarium projector, which was originally installed in 1968 and had been unused since 2007.
| Additional demonstrations of the planetarium projector will take place this semester, with the first ones scheduled for Wednesday, April 23, from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. in the Discovery Room (SSC 101). |
On Thursday, as part of EMU’s eighth annual Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival, the students presented their work and led demonstrations of the star projector. Their project was one of 32 oral presentations and 64 poster sessions, featuring more than 200 students throughout the day across campus. Poster and presentation topics covered a wide range, from the effects of energy drinks on physical activity and an analysis of homemade kombucha to the repatriation of cultural artifacts at EMU and the rise of populist movements throughout history.
Click here to view the schedule from this year’s ACE Festival.
The campus-wide academic conference, held on Wednesday and Thursday, offered students the chance to learn from their peers and showcase their research, creative projects, and papers. It also provided an opportunity to continue conversations sparked by the university’s annual Common Read.
EMU President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman, providing opening remarks before the keynote address on Wednesday, discussed how fitting the festival’s name is. “I love that acronym,” she said. “We have many ‘ACE’ scholars at EMU, both among the student body and faculty.”
Author David Williams delivers keynote
The ACE Festival kicked off on Wednesday morning with the keynote by the Rev. Dr. David Williams, whose novel When the English Fall served as the EMU Common Read for the 2024-25 school year. Written as the diary of an Amish farmer near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the novel follows him as he tries to protect his family and way of life in the wake of a catastrophic solar storm that brings about the collapse of modern civilization. It was one of Amazon’s top 100 books of 2017, was selected as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and was nominated for the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award.
Williams, pastor of Poolesville Presbyterian Church in Maryland, read selections from his book and answered questions from moderator Dr. Marti Greene Eads, professor of English at EMU. In between readings, Williams spoke about the dangers of doomscrolling social media, the imaginative visions that inspired him to write his novel, and the ways in which our world, and its climate, are changing.
“Has anyone had to clean Texas dust off their car recently?” Williams asked the crowd at Lehman Auditorium. “I’ve lived in Virginia since 1975, and I can’t ever remember that happening—or seeing skies tinged with color and clouded by smoke from northern Alberta. For those who’ve lived in Virginia a while, when’s the last time you remember something like that?”
Watch a recording of the keynote here.
Faculty members receive Excellence in Teaching Awards
The 16th annual EMU Authors’ Reception and Awards Presentation recognized and celebrated the winners of the university’s Excellence in Teaching Awards. Professors Chad Gusler, Hannah Ferguson, and Hilary Moore were announced as this year’s recipients.
For testimonials about each award winner, as well as the recipients of the student writing awards, student academic awards, and the names of the 16 faculty authors recognized for their published scholarly works, click on the post below:
Senior VACA majors unveil art installations
Digital media and communication majors Oslyn Mejia Gomez, Noussaiba Garti, and Zack Furr presented their senior capstone projects at the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery and Lee Eshleman Studio Theater during an opening reception on Thursday afternoon. Inspired by street art, graffiti, and paintings of Christian icons, Mejia Gomez used wheatpaste to affix portraits he captured with a fisheye lens. Garti drew from cinema set design and crime scene storytelling to create an installation that explores personal growth and the journey of overcoming self-destructive habits. Furr incorporated photography and interviews with survivors of sexual assault to share their stories with empathy.
At the exhibition, Professor Jerry Holsopple announced EMU junior Jasmin Ruiz as the recipient of the Matthew Alan Styer Scholarship Grant, awarded for “exceptional skill and dedication in design and/or photography.”
Matthew Alan Styer ’05, a graduate of EMU’s Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) program, worked for EMU’s marketing and communications department as a videographer, designer and photographer until 2008. The scholarship endowment honors the memory of Styer, who died from leukemia at age 30 in 2011.
The sound of musical excellence
A student recital at Lehman Auditorium featured performances from vocalists Elie Hoover (soprano), Erin Batten (soprano), Eli Stoll (baritone), Mac Rhodes-Lehman (bass), trombonist Caden Bradley and pianist Fernando Sanchez. Student musicians were accompanied on piano by Harold Bailey.
Posters made perfect
The winners of this year’s STEM Celebration poster competition are:
Independent research division
- First place: Abigail Forrest, Maria Longenecker, Elaine Miranda Perez, and Marciella Shallomita
Knockdown of Cox6b (Complex IV) and ATPsyn𝜷L (Complex V) of the electron transport chain in Glutamate Neurons increases sleep and lifespan of Drosophila - Second place: Aja Laun, Malachi Peachey-Stoner, and Ella Richer
Improved methods of eDNA detection of salamanders using probe-based qPCR analysis - Third place: Iris Anderson, Daisy Hamsher, and Sarah Peak
Emotional regulation, bullying, and mental health: Exploring the interplay and outcomes in college students
Projects division
- First place: Micaiah Landis, Adam Stoltzfus, and Lleyton Stutzman
Design and control of a low-cost inverted pendulum system - Second place: Mariana Acosta and Levi Stutzman
Bridging communities: Constructing a suspended footbridge in Eswatini
Upperclass division
- First place: M Lashway and Ben Perkin
Effects of D. stramonium on C. elagans behavior and motility - Second place: Seungmin Cha, Elaine Miranda Perez, and Whitney Showalter
Analysis of homemade kombucha - Third place: Alex Belisle, Maria Longenecker, and Kate Stutzman
Physiological response to pain: Male and female pain tolerance under cold stress
General chemistry division
- First place: Bennett de Tenley and Emily Donovan
Comparing the antioxidant capacity of store-bought vs farmer’s market fruits - Second place: Apekshya Karki and Isaac Miller
Race to relief: Which tablet dissolves faster-gel or firm tablet? - Third place: Ephrata Amare and Melissa Miller
How does the pH of a beverage affect ibuprofen dissolution?
The posters from STEM disciplines (biology, chemistry, environmental science, psychology, biomedicine, and engineering) were judged by an interdisciplinary panel of EMU STEM faculty, with winners selected in the four divisions.
Toys for tykes
Students in the Nursing Care of Children course designed and built toys tailored to the gross and fine motor skills, social skills, and cognitive development of an infant or child of the assigned age, aiming to engage each area of growth through play. Those students were Odesa Elezi, Elijah Spicher, Abigail Foltz, and Gabriella Seal.
Swipe through the photo gallery below for more pictures from the 2025 ACE Festival.
Thanks to everyone who contributed their time and efforts to making the festival a success, including Kirsten Beachy, ACE Festival Chair, and Diane Farrar, ACE Festival Coordinator, EMU’s Language and Literature Program, Convocation at EMU, Clay Showalter, Daniel House, Aramark staff, Shannon Grinnan and Pioneer College Caterers. Additional thanks to the many faculty mentors and session moderators and to those who helped set up poster shows, administrative support staff, anyone who provided festival assistance, and to everyone who presented and shared their work!
Photos by Macson McGuigan/EMU and Jon Styer/At Ease Design & Consulting
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