Knightly codes of chivalry. Australian rainforest fungi. Harry Potter’s mass popularity. The biomechanics of a golf swing. All of these topics, though diverse in nature, share a common link: they were all discussed at the 2010 Guilford Undergraduate Symposium (GUS). Junior Tyler Warburg, a history major, began the morning as one of many students to present the research they had conducted the last semester. He read a paper he had written for class on the medieval knight William Marshall, who helped forge the code of knightly chivalry.

“‘He who achieves more is more worthy,'” Warburg read from his paper, quoting the old codes of chivalry.

This mentality describes the knightly chivalric codes that Tyler Warburg studied, but also describes the GUS mentality. The best work Guilford students have done is worthy of being displayed, so that students might champion their hard work for others to see and learn.

During the course of the symposium, students were grouped together based on similar disciplines, or on the academic or artistic outlets through which research was presented. The aim was to keep students of familiar academic focuses together, and thus increase interest and understanding within a group.

Biology majors presented to students familiar with biology, English majors read papers to peers from the English department, and students with poster board displays stood in a room full of other students displaying projects.

Tyler Warburg was grouped with others who had studied the humanities, and presenters in his group read papers ranging from such diverse topics as the Welsh origins of King Arthur to the reason for Harry Potter’s marketability. The paper on King Arthur’s Welsh origins, by senior Jesus Hills, served as earlier research for what has since evolved into his senior thesis.

Presenters in other groups had very different focuses. Senior Nathan Coppock spoke as part of a group of science-based researchers. His research focused primarily on fungi in Australian rainforests. Rather than a paper, he shared a PowerPoint presentation.

In his group, sports enthusiasts Andrew Johnson and Jacob Bright shared their own PowerPoint presentation on the biomechanical effects of a golf swing.

While papers and PowerPoints premiered on one end of campus in King, across the lawn Dana Auditorium used its theatrical setting to house more creative demonstrations of Guilford students’ work.

In Dana, echoes of guitars, saxophones and voices rose to the high ceiling as students let their musical mastery speak for itself with a clarity words could not quite capture. Meanwhile, the Hege library was used for an altogether different batch of projects. In the Carnegie room, many students presented posters, with graphs and visual displays of their hard work.

In the library, the presenters with posters could share their research with graphs and diagrams on concise display boards to help convey their findings as they shared their discoveries with fellow peers, staff, and board of trustees members.

Students also came to support their friends who were presenting, to mixed results. Some presenters felt a group of peers watching was comforting, while others felt more nervous.

“It was really unnerving to have a bunch of people I don’t know, sitting there, staring at me,” said Warburg, on the number of students watching him speak.

Many of the speakers were charged with emotions as they spoke. Some seemed nervous, with a shudder in the voice or tension in the hands. Others, like Coppock, spoke with enthusiasm, conveying their personal passion for their areas of study with each word.

First-year Adrienne Mattson-Perdue spoke with fond reflection, recalling the research she had conducted, step by step. Others asserted a conviction for future research endeavors, like senior Muhanji Afanda, who studied radiation treatments for cancer and expressed hopes of continuing the work as a potential career.

First-year Paula Skandis found the experience exemplified the profound diversity of passions and interests among Guilford students.

“This was my first time participating in the undergraduate symposium, so I didn’t really know what to expect of it,” said Skandis. “I had read through a draft of the program before the day of the symposium and I was surprised at the range of topics and types of presentations there would be.”

Though some students seemed nervous or tense about presenting at first, the ability to share the mastery of their research with others was transformative and absolved them of any anxiety.

“I have to admit I was half hoping that people would just walk by my poster without stopping to ask questions,” said Skandis. “But people did stop by, and after the first few questions I was asked I started looking forward to more. I really enjoyed sharing my poster and the findings my group and I found in our research.