By Caitlin Antonios and Emily Glory Peters
Each fall at Â鶹Çř, Seal Court transforms from a cozy spot for a Motley coffee to a full-scale student research showcase. Held during Scripps’ weekly afternoon tea, this year’s event included a spectacular range of interdisciplinary topics.
“The Research Tea represents what makes Scripps special—undergraduate students pursuing answers to bold questions with clear methodology and academic rigor,” says Associate Dean of Faculty Warren Liu. “Funding these projects empowers students to see themselves as scholars in action—people who both skillfully apply and create knowledge.”
Denison Library: The heart of humanities research at Scripps
Denison Library served as a research hub for several students this summer, including Arthur Vining David Foundation intern, Jo Erikson ’27.
Jo Erickson ’27
An anthropology and ethnomusicology double major, Erikson delved into the archives and oral histories of Scripps’ music department to discover its impact—like how its campus-wide “Music Convo” competition produced Scripps’ Convocation song, “Thy Many Gifts.”
“A lot of files have been lost over the years, so the music department’s history was not well documented,” Erikson says. “I learned how the department members have contributed to the collaborative social and academic community at Scripps.”
Collaboration led Nicole Teh ’27 and Jannat Verma ’26 to their summer as Ellen Browning Scripps interns at Denison, an opportunity funded by the Josephine Stedem Scripps Foundation.
The pair investigated the College founder’s influence, traveling to San Diego to gather historical photos of major places in Ellen’s life to juxtapose against present-day sites. The journey gave them a keen appreciation for her philanthropy.
Nicole Teh ’27 and Jannat Verma ’26
“We were really drawn to Ellen Browning Scripps’ legacy in La Jolla, California, especially her women’s club,” Teh says, Verma adding she was “caught off guard by how politically motivated she was—all the way to the end of her life.”
Grace Valashinas ’26, a foreign languages major in Spanish and French, also found her muse at Denison thanks to a research internship created by Scripps alum .
“Rogers’ life’s work was collecting needlework artifacts. She’s an excellent stitcher and designer who donated more than 400 items from her personal collection to Denison,” Valashinas says.
Grace Valashinas ’26
Cataloguing rare pieces of needlework, sewing, and textiles, the senior questioned the hidebound division between art and craft. She included her findings in a microsite built for the collection.
“Craft is often considered a lesser subject relegated to women’s work. My research solidified that it’s not only an artform, but also an economic resource—especially in the 17–20th centuries when women had less access to formal employment,” Valashinas explains, noting her own love of crochet and cross-stitching. “Even today, craftwork represents economic access for a lot of people.”
STEM students’ insights to improve public health
Across campus from Denison, pre-med biology major and Johnson Summer Student Research Grant recipient Quinn Katayama-Stall ’26 was in hot pursuit of answers to a pharmaceutical riddle.
Inspired by a class with Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Biology Sandra Watson, Katayama-Stall spent the summer in a lab with Watson and classmate Lia Fox ’28 to track the effects of a Parkinson’s Disease drug.
“I found it fascinating that we can model human diseases with fruit flies,” Katayama-Stall notes.
Research from fellow Johnson Grant recipient Esther Kang ’26 also focused on how to increase human thriving. Prompted by her own immigrant upbringing, Kang peeled back the layers between food insecurity and adverse health outcomes for US-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and immigrants.
Esther Kang ’26
Her current analysis has found that immigrants are 24 percent more likely to experience food insecurity and 28 percent more likely to get diabetes. These outcomes, Kang reflects, make resources like CalFresh vital to public health.
“We spend millions a year on food stamps and other programs,” says the senior, who’s majoring in human biology, cross-cultural health and healing. “I wanted to see if these policy programs are effective—and it not, how can we improve them? That doesn’t mean cutting costs entirely, but seeing where the money is going to make the best use of our dollars.”
Undergraduate research is critical to the Scripps experience
Scripps’ impressive portfolio of research-oriented grants, internships, and fellowships does more than just fund academic inquiry. It helps students add meaningful scholarship across fields; snag competitive post-graduate opportunities; and think bigger than their senior thesis.
In short, student research fuels the lifelong learning Scripps graduates are known for.
“It’s important to make independent research available to undergraduate students at Scripps because there are so many careers and interests,” says Valashinas. “I’m so grateful I got to study my passion of women’s needlework, history, and labor—I never would have had this exact opportunity at another college.”