“Mentored research is just one of many ways—but an important way—that our students are able to engage in inspiring learning,” said Dean Laura Padilla-Walker at the April 2025 Mary Lou Fulton Mentored Student Research Conference. “We feel that the opportunities students have to engage with faculty research are a real strength of the programs that we offer.”
On the last Thursday of fall and winter semester classes, students from across the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences gather in the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom for the poster conference.
Students work with mentors throughout the year to apply research methods to social science questions. They then present at the semiannual poster conference, where they may receive awards for their work.
Aaron Skabelund, a history professor, has mentored student research for almost every conference since the program began in 2005 with funding from the Mary Lou Fulton Chair in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. “It’s amazing what a team of capable, hard-working, well-mentored students can do in one semester or one year,” he says.
Not only does the experience boost student learning, but it also prepares students for graduate school and their career fields. “Students must apply research, thinking, writing, visual design, and oral presentation skills as part of the project,” explains Skabelund. “I encourage all of my research assistants to present their work at the conference.”
The conference supports graduate school entry in more ways than one: In April 2022, the college added a program to allow conference participants to apply for a grant of up to $250 to offset the cost of graduate school application fees. Nearly 200 students have already taken advantage of this benefit.
In December of the same year, the college began hosting fall semester conferences to allow more students to participate; originally, the conference only took place during winter semester. The December conference now averages 200 posters from 300 students and about 75 faculty mentors. The April conference has grown to nearly 400 posters presented by about 550 students with over 100 faculty mentors.
The college’s computing services team regularly updates a custom web app to simplify research submission, poster printing, judging, and student sign-in on the day of the conference. The app also incentivizes students to interact with presenters. This technology helps improve the experience for everyone involved—in April 2025 there was no registration line and students hung 385 posters in record time!
Top research posters from the April 2025 conference included titles such as “Social Gaps and Urban Divides: How Social Factors Shape Economic Disadvantage in American Cities,” “Digital Pacifiers: The Longitudinal Influence of Using Media to Regulate Children’s Emotions,” “The Effects of Awe and Wonder on Well-Being: A Pilot Study,” and “Petals of Resistance: A Florist’s Fight Against Wartime Bias.” View these and other posters at fultonconference.byu.edu under “Past Conferences.”
