Summer Research Symposium highlights student scholarship while keynote speaker Tomeika Bennett challenges researchers to ask not what they want to become—but what problems they want to solve

The most important question posed during Presbyterian College’s 2026 Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium wasn’t about chemistry, biology, history or engineering.

It was far simpler.

“What problem do I want to solve?”

That challenge, posed by Tomeika Bennett, director of Presby First+, the college’s program for first generation college students, became the thread connecting a summer’s worth of undergraduate research as students presented projects ranging from cancer biology and environmental science to linguistics, robotics, chemistry and historical scholarship.

Addressing students during the symposium’s keynote luncheon, Bennett encouraged the young researchers to think beyond grades, presentations and résumés. Their work, she said, represents something much larger: the beginning of lives devoted to discovery, service and meaningful change.

“I say future, but I really think about the solid efforts that y’all have put in this summer,” Bennett told the students. “You are already stepping into those roles.”

The symposium showcased research completed through Presbyterian College Summer Fellows, South Carolina IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (SC INBRE), the South Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities undergraduate research program and the South Carolina NASA Space Grant Consortium. Throughout the day, students shared original research with classmates, faculty mentors and guests, demonstrating the breadth of scholarship taking place across the college.

• Veby Youssef (SC NASA Space Grant Consortium) — Magnetic Manipulation of the Granular Jamming Transition