As semester-long classes come to a close and finals week approaches, many students of the class of 2025 checked off yet another to-do item on the morning of Friday, May 9: Scholars Day.
Scholars Day at Newman is an opportunity to showcase research projects, papers and presentations to faculty, staff and students of the Newman University community. For the seniors who present, it marks the culmination of hard work and personal growth throughout their undergraduate journey.
Read on to hear from eight Newman students about the most interesting concept they learned from their research.
Austin Trujillo
Trujillo, an accounting major, said he has always had more of a mathematical mind.
“I just see numbers and patterns throughout everything,” he said. “So I felt like accounting kind of lined up perfectly with the way I thought.”
He created a poster presentation titled “Tax firm internship” for his senior Scholars Day.
“I pretty much did taxes for everyone,” he said. “It was surprising how easy it was. A lot of people worry about taxes and numbers, but normally, you’re not doing all the work. It’s a software that does it. I thought I would be doing a lot more math in my head, but as long as you understand the software, you’re in good shape.”
Trujillo sees himself working at a smaller tax firm in the future.
“I feel like I could do well,” he added.
Camdyn Kindred
For Kindred, her mother was a big inspiration for studying elementary education at Newman.
“She’s a teacher, lots of people in my family are teachers and I’ve just seen the impact that they can make on students’ lives for years and years to come,” Kindred said. “I’m just so excited to build a safe community for my students and be a person who always celebrates them.”
Kindred presented her project, “Building foundations of multiplication in second-grade math,” describing it as “eye-opening” to teach simple skills effectively.
“It may seem simple to teach multiplication skills, but it’s so difficult because for us adults, we learned that 15 years ago at least. Breaking it down and being able to get to the student’s level and scaffold it for them was a challenge. But it’s something I’ve grown from my student teaching experience.”
Kaylyn Disbrow
For senior biology major Disbrow, researching her topic “Under the surface: Unveiling the link between antiperspirant and cancer” had a personal connection.
“My aunt had breast cancer, so growing up, she always said, ‘Don’t use deodorants that have aluminum in them,’” Disbrow said. “When I started learning about it, I realized that benzene is also a chemical that factors into cancers with deodorants and antiperspirants.”
Research led her to the natural alternative used in several other countries: essential oils.
“Lavender, lemon and eucalyptus oils are the three that seem to be the most successful and help with the smell and sweat,” she said.
Madison Canez and Hayley Bonython
Bonython grew up playing sports and attributes years of softball to her desire to work in the sports media and promotion world. Jets teammate Canez has also grown up around the game. Canez shares a love for social media, graphic creation and photography, which create “the best of both worlds” with her double major in sports media and promotion and marketing.
“Through this project, I learned how much of an impact social media can make,” Canez said. “We all know that professionally, female athletes are not going to make as much as men. And through these NIL deals, they get that money. They’re also becoming influencers on social media, going to like the Kentucky Derby and setting riders up. So I think it’s really cool to see all they can do just because of the sport that they’re in.”
Bonython’s internship with Newman Athletics helped her look deeper into the female vs. male interactions of social media posts.
“It was interesting to see how the female athletes and female coaches interact a lot differently with the posts than the male side of things,” Bonython said.
Corbin Molina, Angelica Rodriguez and Cassie Moeder
Molina, Rodriguez and Moeder researched the topic “Detecting arsenic in drinking water” and presented their findings during Scholars Day.
“Arsenic is very scary because it loves different oxidation states,” chemistry major Molina explained. “That’s why it binds to water. Different cells cause problems in our body. It was interesting to see that it can go to a five plus so easily with some acid, then bind and that’s how we can detect it. We drop some acid in there and drop some molybdate and boom. It turns blue.”
Rodriguez, a biology major, said what interested her most was learning how many third-world countries are affected negatively by drinking water where arsenic is present.
“It was very rewarding to be a part of this research group and be a part of a project that’s been going on for years,” she said.
Moeder, who studies biology, shared how lucky she felt “to have the resources we have.”
She continued, “What we can do to help people who don’t have those resources is kind of amazing.”
Well wishes to the class of 2025
As Newman seniors finish out their undergraduate journey, all staff and faculty wish them luck in their bright futures. We can’t wait to see how they’ll help transform society for the better.
Congratulations, graduates!
View the graduation webpage
Find important events and opportunities for graduates and their families as we look ahead to commencement weekend.
