Virginia Science Olympiad volunteer Claudia Meyer (left) discusses criteria for judging entries in the engineering category of the VASO event held last weekend at the University of Mary Washington. Lake Braddock Secondary School students Eliora Teshome (center) and Rebecca Huang spent months building a structure for the statewide competition. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Eliora Teshome held her breath while her balsawood bridge was put to the test. The Lake Braddock Secondary School student from Burke, Virginia, had worked for months – in her school’s testing lab, during library hours and late at night – with fellow eighth-grader Rebecca Huang to build the miniature model into a winning weight-bearing structure.

“It’s a lot of fun testing it out and seeing it improve,” said Teshome, whose engineering-category entry claimed no construction-parameter violations but collapsed under the weight of added sand. “We have a lot more events coming up so we’re going to give ourselves some grace with this one.”

The middle-school team members were among hundreds of competitors from across the Commonwealth to converge on the University of Mary Washington this past weekend for a Virginia Science Olympiad (VASO) regional competition. A celebration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning, the tournament brought fifth- through 12th-graders together to battle it out in nearly 50 contests covering anatomy, meteorology, water quality and everything in between.

“This tour brings together the best schools in the state,” VASO State Director Emily Owens said of the event, with challenges fanning out on all four floors of the Jepson Science Center, as well as the Goolrick Fitness Center and Hurley Convergence Center. “It’s an amazing opportunity for our students to share their work, and the best part is it’s collaborative.” Read more about the Science Olympiad.

UMW’s College of Business is taking its annual Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition to the next level this year with the addition of the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund. Photo by Norm Shafer.

Plenty of promising business ideas have been floated and funded at the University of Mary Washington’s annual Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition – a kid-friendly dental flosser, a mobile coffee café, an all-in-one wellness app.

The new Eagle Egg Innovation Fund promises to take this spring’s event to the next level, with a top prize of $10,000 to help the winning team get its proposed venture off of the ground. The increased monetary support for the pitch competition – which also includes cash prizes for second- and third-place finishers, plus four $500 Concept Awards – is designed to pump up the entrepreneurial spirit on campus and bring more students’ business ambitions to life. And the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund is expected to continue to grow as it attracts additional supporters.

Applications for the $500 Concept Awards, giving four student teams a financial headstart on perfecting their business plans, are due by midnight on Friday, Feb. 27. First held in 2019, the Eagle Innovation Startup Pitch Competition is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, from 5 to 8 p.m., in the Hurley Convergence Center’s Digital Auditorium. It’s open to Concept Award-winners and all full-time UMW students across disciplines.

“Small awards create excitement. Larger awards create traction,” said Filiz Tabak, dean of the College of Business, which hosts the competition. “For many UMW students, even a few hundred dollars for prototyping can be transformational.” Read more about the Eagle Egg Innovation Fund.

The University of Mary Washington’s Maker Mindset Conference highlights the importance of project-based, trial-and-error-style learning that ties STEM-related lessons together with collaboration and critical thinking.

For University of Mary Washington junior Jamie Sherman, a sign on the Seacobeck Hall Makerspace door says it all.

“It reminds students to make mistakes and think about things before trying again,” said the historic preservation major who is also minoring in education studies.

That philosophy underpins the University of Mary Washington’s Maker Mindset Conference, which highlights the importance of project-based, trial-and-error-style learning that ties STEM-related lessons together with collaboration and critical thinking. Packed with breakout sessions on everything from 3D printing to marketing principles, the conference gives current and future educators the tools they need to spark innovation, agency and purpose in K-12 classrooms and prepare students to thrive in today’s unpredictable world.

The fourth annual event – themed “Beyond the Build: Empowering Creative Problem Solvers” – is set to take place Saturday, Feb. 7, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Academy of Innovation and Technology at UMW (ATI-UMW). The deadline to register is Wednesday, Feb. 4.

“The idea was to offer an affordable professional learning opportunity for educators in our area,” said College of Education Director of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships Kristina Peck, who launched the event in 2023 with Assistant Professor of Education Danielle Ott. “So many conferences are so expensive that many teachers are unable to take advantage of them.” Read more about the Makerspace Mindset Conference.

A $3 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will help fund the completion of ‘The Papers of James Monroe,’ a project of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library.

A $3 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will accelerate the completion of The Papers of James Monroe.

The funding will allow the 10-volume series, an expansive resource on America’s fifth president, to be completed early – in 2031, rather than 2035 as previously slated – in time to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Monroe’s death.

The five-year grant was awarded under the NEH’s Scholarly Editions in American History: Chairman’s Special Initiative program. It will fund personnel and other expenses related to the completion of the final three volumes of The Papers of James Monroe project, administered by the University of Mary Washington’s James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library in historic Fredericksburg.

“This transformative grant is a testament to the excellent work done by staff of The Papers of James Monroe over more than three decades,” said University Museums Executive Director Scott Harris. “We are grateful for the opportunity this presents to complete the project much sooner than would have been possible otherwise.”

Read more about the NEH grant.

UMW seniors Karla Bonilla Lizama (center, left) and Evelyn Centellas (center, right) pose with Andrew Blate ’04 (far left) and Craig Schneibolk (far right) after their $1,500 first-place finish in the Fall 2025 College of Business Case Competition. Blate and Schneibolk led the way in creating the competition and the endowment for the prize money it awards. Photo by K Pearlman Photography.

Five teams laid out plans to save a cinema giant, but only one could claim top billing.

University of Mary Washington seniors Karla Bonilla Lizama and Evelyn Centellas won the Fall 2025 College of Business Case Competition – titled “Reel Choices: The Crossroads of a Movie Studio’s Destiny” – for their ideas, presentation and polish.

Now in its ninth year, the biannual contest, held last month in Lee Hall, pits teams from UMW’s 400-level Strategic Management course against one another in a quest to sort out a “case” of a struggling business. Participants tap into the concepts and skillsets they’ve collected in class to analyze issues, plan a path to success and impress a panel of judges. The challenge gives students the type of real-world experience they’ll likely encounter in their careers, plus the top three contenders walk away with cash prizes totaling $3,000.

“All the groups were professional, prepared and had well thought-out presentations,” said Andrew Blate ’04, who owns Beautiful Home Services with business partner Craig Schneibolk. The two led the way in establishing the Case Competition and the endowed fund for its annual awards. “The students were impressive and are excellent examples of the quality of students UMW’s College of Business produces.”

Read more about COB Case Competition.

UMW junior Mohammad Ali Hassan explains his work investigating the effects of immunogenic chemotherapy on triple-negative breast cancer during the sixth annual Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia Conference. Hosted by the University of Mary Washington on Saturday, Nov.1, the daylong event welcomed student researchers from across the Commonwealth. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

For University of Mary Washington junior Mohammad Ali Hassan, Saturday’s presentation was personal. Standing in front of a poster representing his work in the lab, the biology major spoke of his family’s experience with two different types of aggressive cancer.

Hassan’s research employs mice to test the effects of immunogenic chemotherapy on triple-negative breast cancer, a similarly illusive and fast-growing disease. “I was grateful for the opportunity to study something I’m interested in and develop my skills in a laboratory,” he said of his recent stint in UMW’s newly named Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 Summer Science Institute and the work he’s completed with fellow Mary Washington students.

Guided by Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Laura Sipe, Hassan’s project was one of more than 80 displayed and discussed during the sixth annual Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia (NURVa) Conference. Marking its début appearance at the University of Mary Washington, the event turned the Hurley Convergence Center into a repository of scholarly exploration, with posters on view in the downstairs Digital Auditorium and oral presentations taking place on the upper floors. More than 100 students came from schools – large and small, public and private – across the Commonwealth to share their work, including about a dozen from UMW.

“Mary Washington was thrilled to host the NURVa annual conference this year,” said Director of Undergraduate Research Elizabeth Lewis. “Not only do students get to showcase their hard work, they also have a chance to interact with peers from other institutions in the state. I was really proud of their great work and the hospitality of our faculty and students.” Read more.

In his book, winner of UMW’s 2025 Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize, Daniel Campo highlights the unique revitalization the movement is bringing and the people who are making it possible.

A lecture by the winner of the University of Mary Washington’s 2025 Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize will be presented on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 5:30 p.m., in Combs Hall, Room 139. Daniel Campo will speak about his book, Postindustrial DIY: Recovering American Rust Belt Icons.

Once bustling with more manufacturing jobs than anywhere else in the country, the Northeastern Great Lakes region hit its peak in the late 1940s. As the economy changed, cities like Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh closed factories, and the American Rust Belt began to take hold.

Now, as the area dusts off the rust, communities have begun to see beauty in the abandoned and reward in restoring once-meaningful structures. It’s a bottom-up renovation phenomenon that’s catching hold across the globe. Campo’s book digs into grassroots urbanism, as sites – iron mills, train stations, grain elevators – are renovated.

“The work calls attention to the power individuals have in shaping their environments … while the DIY era may be shifting, it is not yet over,” said jurors, who deemed it an exciting and empowering approach to historic preservation. “The book serves as a valuable roadmap for those interested in preserving sites that have historically been seen as liabilities – factories, silos, furnaces – and the innovative strategies that can drive change.” Read more.