The annual Liberal Arts and Sciences Symposium (LASS) celebrates students’ exemplary academic work, which they’ve invested time in researching with faculty mentorship, and their commitment to service.
This year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Alexandria Ree Hadd ’13, returned to Oglethorpe as an alumna who embodies the spirit of LASS, discussing how her liberal arts education shaped her research career. She shared how skills she developed at OU, like systems thinking, communication and critical thinking, guided a recent project focused on bias, data collection and analyzing reliable data.
The week-long event of LASS, which ran from April 13 to 17, invited the Oglethorpe community to engage with student work, including oral and poster presentations, papers, art exhibitions and musical performances. Each session offered insightful discussions on engaging topics and highlighted students’ passion for their areas of interest.
For many student presenters, LASS is their introduction to undergraduate research and their first experience presenting academic work.
Adir Ali Yerima ’29 is a first-year mathematics student minoring in computer science. Under the guidance of Dr. Bill Shillito, instructor of mathematics, Ali Yerima has spent several months researching and perfecting his Sparse Ruler Game.
“Conducting research in impartial combinatorial game theory allowed me to learn from Dr. Shillito and become familiar with a field of study that was new to me,” says Ali Yerima. “It also gave me the opportunity to apply what I learned in my Python programming class and my mathematical proof class. Presenting at LASS helped me improve my presentation skills and receive valuable feedback from my upper‑class peers.”
Ali Yerima also presented earlier in the day alongside his Serve for Good partners on their service project. Student leaders who participated in the Intercultural Center’s Serve for Good initiative gave back to the local Atlanta community in different ways and presented their work at LASS.
This year’s event also featured a new session dedicated to the Writing Center, led by Writing Center tutors who discussed the center’s pedagogy and the obstacles students face. Iris French ’26 presented on the impact that racial and language barriers have on the center’s experience.
“As a student in the humanities department, this type of research is completely unfamiliar to me,” wrote French in a LinkedIn post. “This has been a great opportunity to learn new skills under Dr. Courtney Mullis Sridharan [Writing Center Director].”
The Liberal Arts and Sciences Symposium offered engaging conversations, panels and presentations on specialized topics, displaying the academic excellence and critical thinking that are core to an Oglethorpe education.
View photos of the week’s events below:
