At Florida Southern, research isn’t reserved for graduate students. You’ll design your own questions, choose your methods, and work side by side with professors who know your name, starting as early as your first year.
Whether your field is science, business, health care, education, the arts, or the humanities, you’ll leave with original work to show for it and the experience of sharing it with an audience.
Awarded each year to support student-faculty research projects.
Present at professional conferences and meetings each year.
First-year biology students all conduct original antibiotic research.
Students from every division attend Fiat Lux each year.
Your project is real research on questions without answers yet. Students here have studied coral reef restoration, how people perceive AI-generated content, and how land use affects wetland health, with results that shape conservation decisions, classroom curriculum, and patient care.
Small classes lead to close working relationships. Your faculty mentor guides you through research design, data collection, and analysis. Many of those relationships continue as references, co-authorships, and professional connections long after graduation.
Research experience shows graduate programs and employers that you can manage a long-term project, work with data, and communicate your findings. You’ll use those skills whether you head to medical school, a lab, a classroom, or a corporate office.
Each summer, faculty and students across disciplines team up through the Faculty-Student Collaborative Research program. Students work alongside faculty mentors in labs, community settings, and the field, and many projects continue into the academic year as senior research: the Hansen Science Scholars Fund, the Reuschling Scholars Endowment, and the Office of the Provost support projects.
Through the Tiny Earth Network, first-year biology students search for new antibiotic sources in soil samples from their own backyards, taking on one of the most pressing global health challenges of our century.
Students lead research that puts them at the center of the action, working alongside professionals in labs, courtrooms, classrooms, analysis centers, and corporate offices.
Research can take the form of choreography, poetry, design, or art-informed writing therapy. Wherever your creativity leads, you’ll find room to push your field's boundaries.
Wendy Kiesewetter designed a case study in which she explored how having an intentionally designed personal brand - akin to a fleshed-out corporate brand like Apple or Nike - can help someone get a job. Wendy interviewed experts in design, professional development, psychology, marketing, and more as preliminary research. Afterwards, she designed three brands for three individuals with varying career goals and identities. She met with them throughout the year and designed an in-depth, personalized brand for each of them that reflects their personalities and professional desires. Wendy designed three sets of logos, color palettes, brochures, booklets, business cards, envelopes, letterheads, and social media accounts, each one specifically designed for each person. In addition to this, she painted a wall in the Melvin Fine Arts Gallery which involved hanging large vinyl signs, posters, shelves, and much more hands-on practical gallery installation work. She presented her findings in front of the entire FSC Art Department in front of a creative director judge from Publix.
Ariana Harris was nominated for the 2023/2024 EMERGE Scholar award by Dr. Patrick L. Smith for her 6 research projects that investigated pedagogical techniques to improve science literacy in adolescents and young adults. These techniques have included content-targeted memes, multisensory learning blocks, trading card games, and modified board games, all of which served as supplements to improve memory retention for various anatomical and physiological materials. Ariana served as a primary investigator on all of these projects and has presented her scholarly work on campus at the Psychology Research Expo, and at off-campus meetings that have included Central Florida Psychology Summit, Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC), and at the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) meeting. Ariana is also an author on a manuscript that is under review by the North American Journal of Psychology while preparing two additional peer-review manuscripts for the Florida Literacy Journal and the Teaching of Psychology journals.
Devin Mantei was nominated for the 2023/2024 EMERGE Scholar Award by Dr. Charles Allen for her research examining the Landmine Rotation exercise, its proper techniques, variations, and programming recommendations. Her research alongside Dr. Allen has demonstrated that the Landmine Rotation exercise and its variations would be beneficial for use in strength and conditioning coaching, especially its rotational, total-body, sport-specific movement pattern. This research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Devin has also examined nutrition literacy in dancers through both a review of literature and her own research with the Florida Southern dance department. This research demonstrated that dancers both at Florida Southern College and worldwide exhibit unexpectedly low levels of knowledge regarding appropriate nutrition, highlighting a need for nutrition interventions in dance programs. From these results, future research should be done to examine the most effective intervention programs to enhance dancer longevity.
Demitra Sejka’s honors and senior research is on Disability and Physiognomy in long 19th century history, laws, and literature. In it, she analyzes the characters of Erik and Frankenstein’s monster from the novels the Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein as characters with disability.
By outlining the way in which these characters are mistreated by their society, as well as the challenges people with disabilities have faced throughout the long 19th century, she calls to attention the problematic and ableist roots of stereotypes still present today.
For more than 20 years, FSC students have gathered at the end of each semester to present the scholarly and creative work they’ve done in and beyond their courses. Fiat Lux, which means “let there be light,” fills campus with oral presentations, performances, and poster sessions, giving students a platform for their ideas and the wider community a window into campus intellectual energy.
The day also recognizes standout scholarship, including the Ann and Grant Hansen Awards, the introduction of the year’s Emerge Scholars, and awards to top presenters sponsored by FSC’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
Provost Dr. Tracey Tedder welcomes students, faculty and guests to Fiat Lux and previews a full day of student presentations, performances and poster sessions.
A team of students presents their work on convolutional neural networks to a classroom audience, walking through their model's architecture on dual projection screens.
A student presents her research on contrasting fur patterns in nocturnal mammals, including the badger, palm civet, and raccoon, to attendees.
Student researchers explain their computer science poster on the Traveling Salesman Problem and route-finding algorithms to visitors during a poster session.
Once your research is complete, you can take it further by presenting at regional and national conferences in your field. FSC students have shared their work at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference, the Southeastern Psychological Association, and the Central Florida Psychology Summit, and some have seen their research published in peer-reviewed journals.
Follow the latest discoveries, projects and achievements from Florida Southern students and their faculty mentors.
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