Young minds, big ideas: students showcase cutting-edge research

“Learning Beyond the Classroom” wasn’t just a slogan; it came to life at the 2025 Summer Scholars Institute Symposium, where a group of standout students demonstrated the power of hands-on learning and research.

Twenty-seven high school and college students, including University of South Carolina Aiken (USCA) participants, presented research spanning diverse fields from psychology and biology to public health.

Among them were Casey Vojcek, a senior psychology major at USCA, and Breanna Schults, a senior at the Aiken Scholars Academy. Together, they explored The Effects of Acute Mindfulness on Emotion Regulation and Theta Power in Parents. Guided by USCA faculty members Dr. Laura Swain and Dr. Bridget Cho, the pair investigated how brief mindfulness practices might help parents manage emotions, using electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure neural responses.

“We were interested in whether a short, targeted mindfulness session could create real-time benefits for parents under stress,” Schults said.

“You don’t always have time for a full yoga session, but something quick and effective could make a difference in a parenting moment.”

Another standout, Brenden Bogar, a junior biology major at USCA, presented research on transposable elements, segments of DNA that can move around within a genome. Working in Dr. Nathan Hancock’s lab, Bogar contributes to the ongoing effort to understand better how these elements affect gene expression and mutation.

“I love the process,” Bogar said. “The methodology, the lab works it’s very therapeutic for me. And this is something I want to keep pursuing, especially with yeast and plants.”

Gillian Gregory, a senior majoring in Clinical Laboratory Science at USCA, took on a challenging project involving HIV-1. Her research focused on how the HIV Tat and Rev proteins influence the expression of GFP (green fluorescent protein), with potential applications in gene therapy.

“HIV remains a critical area of study,” Gregory noted. “This project could help in targeting infected cells while sparing healthy ones something that’s essential for the future of HIV treatments.”

Download the complete  SSI 2025 participants list 

For more information, contact USCA Marketing & Communication at news@usca.edu.