The Week in UR - April 24, 2026

Happy Friday! Indeed, it is an especially happy Friday here at Tallahassee State College as spring semester classes come to a close and we all look forward to the slower pace of the summer months and, hopefully, a little time to rest, reflect, and recharge for the coming fall semester, which always arrives sooner than we ever expect. I always enjoy this season of commencement, when we all take a moment to look backward and celebrate the accomplishments of our students and our College, and join our students in looking ahead to the new possibilities their accomplishments have opened up to them. And so it seems like a fine time to do a little reflection on UR at here TSC, to look back at all that the UR Program has accomplished during the 2025-2026 academic year, and maybe to look ahead, just a bit, toward new opportunities that will be on offer for students returning in the fall.

One of the most consequential developments in UR at TSC this past academic year was the establishment, early in the fall semester, of OSPUR, our undergraduate research student organization. This is an idea borrowed from other higher education institutions in Florida, which has seen a sizeable network of similar such organizations emerge in recent years. Indeed, there is even an annual conference, the Florida Undergraduate Research Leadership Summit (FURLS), dedicated to UR student leadership statewide which, for the first time this year, TSC attended! These student organizations have become invaluable at higher education institutions across the state, with student leaders spreading awareness about research opportunities to their peers and, importantly, demonstrating how incredibly beneficial, engaging, and just plain fun a research experience can be. In short order, we got in place a highly active and ambitious cohort of student leaders, with President Moises Chacon, Vice President Sunny Thomas, and Secretary Mikayli Ingram serving as the founding officers of OSPUR. In February, they traveled to the Florida Undergraduate Research Leadership Summit at Florida International University, in Miami, that annual statewide conference of UR student leaders, to learn about best practices in UR student leadership and hone their skills as UR student leaders. Over the past year, they have led excursions to nearby research labs, including the High Performance Materials Institute and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, provided research workshops to their peers, and played an instrumental role in planning student travel to the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference.

Mikayli Ingram, Moises Chacon, and Sunny Thomas

TSC UR at the High Performance Materials Institute

Perhaps most important, our OSPUR leaders served something of a reconnaissance role by getting themselves selected as TSC’s very first presenters at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), held just last week in Richmond, Virginia. NCUR is the largest undergraduate research conference in the country, with just over 5,000 students presenting their research at this year’s conference. Presenters are selected through a blind review process carried out by expert researchers from colleges and universities throughout the country. Selection is highly competitive, and very few community colleges have ever been represented at NCUR. But with any luck, TSC will change that, becoming a permanent presence each year in this highly prestigious forum. Moises, Sunny, and Mikayli, I couldn’t be prouder of all that you have accomplished this year. There is little doubt in my mind that you have laid the groundwork for UR programming that will benefit generations of TSC students who come behind you. The three of you should feel incredibly proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Mikayli Ingram and a curious audience member

Moises Chacon, Sunny Thomas, and Mikayli Ingram

Moises Chacon

Another highly consequential development was publication of the first issue of the Tallahassee State College Undergraduate Research Journal (TSC URJ), the UR Program’s peer-reviewed journal of research carried out by TSC students. All articles published in TSC URJ underwent a rigorous peer-review process carried out by faculty with expertise in our student authors’ academic disciplines, so publication in TSC URJ represented a significant accomplishment for those whose articles were ultimately selected. And to celebrate that accomplishment, the UR Program hosted, on February 5, a Launch Celebration, where each student author was recognized with a certificate of achievement. We also had an opportunity to hear a brief synopsis of each student author’s research; recognize our faculty mentors, peer reviewers, and the TSC URJ Editorial Board; and enjoy some light refreshments at the end. If you haven’t had a chance already, I encourage all student researchers, faculty mentors, and friends of the UR Program to give the journal’s first issue a read at: https://journals.flvc.org/TSCURJ. As important, all TSC students who have completed a research project over the past year are strongly encouraged to write up their results and submit an article to TSC URJ. The deadline for submissions is August 30!

TSC URJ 1.1 authors, faculty mentors, and attendees

In yet another first, the UR Program served, alongside Florida State University’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement, as co-host of Posters at the Capitol, a statewide event sponsored by the Florida Undergraduate Research Association (FURA). Over two very cold days in January, students from higher education institutions across Florida traveled to Tallahassee to present research posters in the Florida State Capitol rotunda, demonstrating to state legislators, legislative staffers, and state agency personnel the substantial benefits that accrue to students who participate in an undergraduate research experience, particularly as it relates to developing the technical skills needed to keep our state’s workforce competitive. TSC fielded four presenters at this year’s Posters at the Capitol, one of just two community colleges ever to participate in the event. After their presentations concluded, the nearly 100 student researchers braved some positively biting winter winds to take a lovely photo on the steps of the Historic Florida Capitol before making their way across S. Duval Street to TSC’s downtown campus for a very fine luncheon provided courtesy of Tallahassee’s own Hopkins Eatery. The participation of TSC as both a participating institution and a co-host serves as one of the surest signs that community colleges can, and should, be the site of undergraduate research programming that is on a par with that offered by our university counterparts. Indeed, what surer sign is there when our students are presenting side-by-side with their peers from some of our nation’s great research institutions? Those who know our program well should spot a few familiar faces amid this crowd.

FURA Posters at the Capitol Presenters

But as exciting as firsts can be to report, in many ways, it’s every bit as important to hear about things that have become established and ongoing, and one strand of UR programming at TSC that we can now place firmly into that category is the opportunity for TSC students to present their research at the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC). For the second time this year, the UR Program sponsored seven students to participate in what is now the second largest undergraduate research conference in the country. This year’s conference was held at the University of North Florida, in Jacksonville. A record 11 TSC students in total were selected to present at FURC this year, though we were able to sponsor travel for just 7, the rest having transferred to our university partners before the conference. Our student researchers presented their research alongside students from colleges and universities throughout the state of Florida, including Florida State University, Florida A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, the University of Miami, and other research-intensive institutions. The opportunity to present at FURC is one of the most significant benefits that we can offer to our student researchers, and I regard it as one of the most consequential developments in TSC’s scaling of UR over the past three years. Students who intend to be enrolled at TSC in Spring 2027 should be on the lookout for upcoming announcements about the opportunity to present at FURC 2027!

TSC FURC Presenters and Faculty Mentors

Capping off the 2025-2026 academic year for the UR Program, as always, was our very own campus-based Undergraduate Research Symposium, our seventh annual! Our annual symposium serves as a joyous celebration of the substantial efforts undertaken by our student researchers who, in most cases, work for an entire academic year on their undergraduate research projects, under the supervision and guidance of a faculty mentor. What is most gratifying to see is that, with each passing year, the work that our student researchers produce increases in its depth and quality, and this year’s symposium certainly saw the highest quality work on display. Without a doubt, this year’s symposium was distinct for the exceptionally high quality of student research that was on display, the result of an especially rigorous abstract review process implemented this year. Of the 110 students to submit abstracts, just 78 were ultimately selected, resulting in a field of presenters that was unparalleled for the sophistication of the work they presented. I invite all friends of the Undergraduate Research Program to give this year’s symposium program a careful read. It serves as a testament to the high quality of research mentoring to which TSC students have access, and to the exceptional work that TSC students routinely produce. Readers will also find a list of our award winners on page 3 of the event program.

Omar Canales and Audience Member

Colby Hayden

Dr. Anthony Jones and Amber Aguirre

And with that, having recapped the entirety of a most peripatetic and eventful year in UR, and spilling more than my allotted measure of pixelated ink, I do believe it’s time to lay this edition of the Week in UR to rest. Indeed, it is the season of rest, according to the rhythms of academic life, and so the Week in UR will take what I suppose is now its regular annual hiatus. But it won’t be that much of a break. Look for the next edition in early August, maybe even late July, if I get ambitious. Without a doubt, however, the UR Program will be back in full force come mid-August, with a high priority placed on getting every aspiring student researcher matched with a faculty mentor, so that every TSC student has access to every one of the incredible opportunities offered to student researchers at TSC. With that, I bid all current, former, and aspiring TSC student researchers; faculty mentors; and various and sundry friends of the UR Program at TSC a pleasant and restorative summer season, and I can’t wait to see, and share, what the 2026-2027 academic year brings for UR at TSC.