{"id":58768,"date":"2025-04-22T16:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T20:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=58768"},"modified":"2025-04-23T11:51:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:51:32","slug":"festival-showcases-academic-and-creative-excellence-at-emu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/festival-showcases-academic-and-creative-excellence-at-emu\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival showcases academic and creative excellence at EMU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The stars, projected onto the dome of SSC 101\u2014formerly home to the M.T. Brackbill Planetarium and now part of the D. Ralph Hostetter Natural History Museum\u2014became 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,<\/strong> and Rebecca Tezazu, <\/strong>under the guidance of faculty mentor Stefano Colafranceschi,<\/strong> restored and modernized the EMU planetarium projector, which was originally installed in 1968 and had been unused since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, as part of EMU\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/strong><\/a> to view the schedule from this year\u2019s ACE Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019s annual Common Read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EMU President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman,<\/strong> providing opening remarks before the keynote address on Wednesday, discussed how fitting the festival’s name is. \u201cI love that acronym,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have many \u2018ACE\u2019 scholars at EMU, both among the student body and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Author David Williams delivers keynote<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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The ACE Festival kicked off on Wednesday morning with the keynote by the Rev. Dr. David Williams, <\/strong>whose novel When the English Fall<\/em> 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\u2019s top 100 books of 2017, was selected as a New York Times Book Review <\/em>Editor\u2019s Choice, and was nominated for the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams, pastor of Poolesville Presbyterian Church in Maryland, read selections from his book and answered questions from moderator Dr. Marti Greene Eads, <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHas anyone had to clean Texas dust off their car recently?\u201d Williams asked the crowd at Lehman Auditorium. \u201cI\u2019ve lived in Virginia since 1975, and I can\u2019t ever remember that happening\u2014or seeing skies tinged with color and clouded by smoke from northern Alberta. For those who\u2019ve lived in Virginia a while, when\u2019s the last time you remember something like that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch a recording of the keynote here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Faculty members receive Excellence in Teaching Awards<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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The 16th annual EMU Authors\u2019 Reception and Awards Presentation recognized and celebrated the winners of the university\u2019s Excellence in Teaching Awards. Professors Chad Gusler, Hannah Ferguson, <\/strong>and Hilary Moore <\/strong>were announced as this year\u2019s recipients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2025 Excellence in Teaching Awards celebrate faculty members\u2019 exemplary performance<\/a><\/blockquote>