Ally Fletcher ’25 checks on the fish that are part of her research during this year’s Summer Science Institute at UMW. A long line of Mary Washington alumni have benefitted from experience gained through the 10-week program, now in its 25th year. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.
For a quarter of a century, UMW’s Summer Science Institute (SSI) has been a defining student experience. It’s in-the-lab, in-the-field, in-the-code, in-the-dataset kind of work. Students are fully funded during the 10-week program, earning a stipend, living on campus and staying on top of their research.
“The thing that stands out the most is that research is a learning process. The answer to your questions is not always exact, and sometimes it comes with a lot of trial and error, but that is how you learn,” said Ally Fletcher, a senior from Severna Park, Maryland, majoring in biomedical sciences with a neuroscience minor.
Fletcher studies the effects of environmental pollutants on neurotransmitters in the brain, specifically in fish. During the academic year, she focused on zebrafish – the subject of her senior capstone – and during the summer, it’s Japanese medaka fish. Both are model organisms for her project, which she works on with research partner Ashlyn Peszko ’26 during the Summer Science Institute under the guidance of Professor of Biology Dianne Baker.
Fletcher and research partner Peszko will join other SSI participants who will share their research at the Summer Science Institute Symposium on Wednesday, July 24, a full-day event with presentations between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Hurley Convergence Center.
For many students and faculty, the program has been a primary part of their experience on campus. Read more.