The Whalen Symposium for Undergraduate Research

By Kim Wunner, April 8, 2026

An annual tradition worthy of a campus-wide celebration of shared intellectual discovery

Students learning from their peers at the Whalen Symposium. Photo Credit: Robert Daniels '27

A flautist, a comp sci major, an environmental scientist and an accountant walk into Emerson Suites…

One of the benefits of an Ithaca College education is the opportunity for students to learn from and explore disciplines and interests beyond their own. Clubs, classes, and even living environments are intentionally structured to support the exchange of ideas and perspectives. The result is the potential for innovation, understanding, and empathy to emerge on our campus and beyond.

Ithaca College embraces this philosophy so fully that it has established an annual tradition: the James J. Whalen Symposium. For an entire day, classes pause as undergraduate students step into a professional spotlight to present original research, creative work, and performances that reflect the depth of their curiosity and the power of their ideas.

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Melanie Stein kicks off The Whalen Symposium. Photo Credit: Noah Darling '26

For the first time in the event’s history, regularly scheduled classes were canceled for the day. A message to the campus community from Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Melanie Stein explained the significance of this decision:

“The Symposium is not just a break from routine; it is a showcase of the rigorous inquiry, discovery, creativity, and exploration pursued by our students under the mentorship of our faculty and staff that defines our institution. By pausing our formal curriculum, we create a space where the community can celebrate the diverse creative and intellectual achievements that take place in our labs, studios, classrooms, and other campus spaces.”

One of the presenting groups at Whalen this year was the 2026 University Innovation Fellows (UIF), a cross-disciplinary cohort of four students. The goal of the UIF is not unlike that of Whalen: to discover and learn from one another through exposure to diverse perspectives.

Paul Martin, a lecturer in the Department of Management and the UIF’s advisor, reflected on the Whalen Symposium and why it is an ideal venue for the cohort’s presentation. “It is a celebration of all the things that our students are doing—the learning and the doing,” he said. “They go together. We’re an experiential school—we give students many hands-on opportunities in addition to learning theory."

“It is a celebration of all the things that our students are doing—the learning and the doing,” he said. “They go together. We’re an experiential school—we give students many hands-on opportunities in addition to learning theory."

Paul Martin, lecturer in the Department of Management

Faith Owino ’27, Madilyn Connor ’26, Josh Bourdoulous ’27 and Ty Sayahi ’28 present Design Thinking at the Whalen Symposium. Photo Credit: Ben Braverman '26 | Park Promotions

Four Minds, One Cohort

The UIF is an international program designed to teach students the tenets of design thinking—a human-centered problem-solving approach that emphasizes empathy, creativity, and iterative testing to develop solutions. While often applied in business contexts, the program exists on campuses throughout the world, empowering students to act as change agents by creating new learning opportunities, innovation spaces, and initiatives grounded in interdisciplinary collaboration. This is Ithaca College’s second UIF cohort. (More on the first year of UIF at IC can be found here).

Continuing on the themes of learning and doing, Martin elaborated: “The goal is to move forward through experience—not only the textbook. That’s what UIF is all about. It’s experiential learning at an elevated level, because students receive six weeks of foundational training originally developed by Stanford. It’s a crash course in design thinking and responsible futuring, and from there they take what they learn and apply it to creating a new project—doing something on campus.”

Each UIF cohort collaborates to identify challenges on their campus and design, test, and implement initiatives—such as new programs, spaces, or events—that foster innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and student leadership.

Martin explains that when Michael Johnson-Cramer, dean of the School of Business, brought UIF to Ithaca College, he encouraged faculty to reach beyond the business school so that the entire college community could benefit.

They succeeded in that mission.

Madilyn Connor ’26 is one of the four 2026 Innovation Fellows—she is a senior majoring in performance (flute) who “really believes in the multidisciplinary.” Her interest in arts administration brought her to the School of Business to enrich her education by taking courses there. She enrolled in Organizational Behavior and Ethics with Martin. He encouraged her to apply to the fellowship, and she was accepted.

Connor is joined by Ty Sayahi ’28, an environmental science major with a computer science minor who is involved in Student Governance Council; Faith Owino ’27, a computer science major with a data science minor who works in IT and serves as a resident assistant; and Josh Bourdoulous ’27, an accounting major and a member of the men’s soccer team.

The project they chose to develop is the Idea Generation Lab, a college-approved club where they will bring design thinking to students, regardless of their major.

Faith Owino '27 addresses the audience at the Whalen Symposium. Faith and her cohort are the 2026 University Innovation Fellows. Photo Credit: Ben Braverman '26 | Park Promotions

Owino explains that its goal is to “promote entrepreneurship and innovation with a focus on sustainability and ethical thinking. “How is your project going to impact people when you look at it from a sociological lens, an economic lens, an environmental lens—not just from a profit lens?” She further explains: “We want to provide interdisciplinary space that welcomes students from across multiple disciplines and schools on campus—anyone can be involved.”

When asked why this project, the four students talked about enriching community by looking at what was important to them. Sayahi makes it a point to say, “The skills that UIF has built up can apply to pretty much any type of problem solving. So, the Idea Generation Lab is giving people skills that will help them throughout any career.”

There is also a theme of trusting their own innovation and ideas that developed.

Bourdoulous says, “We are given the backing and support to do whatever we want to do. It instills confidence in us our advisors truly believe in the change that we can make on campus and are willing to support us in whatever way they can. It's just a really great feeling that we can essentially do whatever change we think we can.”

This mentorship, pursuit of intellect, curiosity, and learning is what IUF, Whalen, and the ethos of Ithaca College is about.

A Whalen of a Day

The Whalen Symposium has been an Ithaca College tradition since 1997. That year, approximately 100 students presented their work through posters and presentations. Last year, the symposium featured 250 presentations. This year, 524 students delivered 350 presentations.

Not only has the number of students participating in Whalen grown, the Symposium itself has outgrown its original campus location in Emerson Suites. This year, the symposium has expanded to include additional spaces across campus, including the Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise, the Center for Natural Sciences, and the Whalen Center.

Taken together, the University Innovation Fellows and the Whalen Symposium reflect the promise of a liberal arts education at its most dynamic—where ideas move across disciplines, collaboration fuels discovery, and students engage deeply in both theory and practice. By creating space for interdisciplinary exchange, Ithaca College affirms that meaningful learning often happens at the intersections of fields, perspectives, and experiences. In presenting their work alongside peers from across the institution, the UIF cohort not only contributes to a tradition of shared inquiry but also demonstrates how curiosity, creativity, and collaboration prepare students to thoughtfully shape the communities and systems they will one day lead.

Finding Yourself Curious?

The Whalen Symposium is a hallmark to the multi-facted thinking Ithaca College encourages. Here, your passions and interests are encouraged to be explored.