The Bay Honors Consortium held its annual Honors Research Symposium at the UC Berkeley Campus April 26th, 2025 in Dwinelle Hall. This conference is a chance for community college honors students to share their research.
The opening ceremony kicked off with a keynote speech at 10 a.m. Sessions began shortly after, giving attendees the option to attend whichever they were most interested in. Three different presenters were designated to each session, with about 80 presenters in total.
“Words have power,” was Los Medanos College student Colin Peacock’s main point in his presentation. His research topic on blind spotting delved into how individuals can examine how prime-time cable news can give viewers tunnel vision.
In Peacock’s presentation, he discussed the Israel-Gaza conflict and how news creates bias. It’s important to always fact-check news to make sure they are telling the full story.
LMC nursing major Sean Gutierrez shared why he attended the conference.
“I came to see my fellow honors students and see their research. It was also an excuse to tour UC Berkeley’s campus.” said Gutierrez.
Former LMC Experience Graphics Editor Alexis Ramirez shared how each session that she has attended centered around a specific theme.
“The first session I joined was on Asian American Identity. It’s cool because you can immerse yourself in that topic — and not everything is the same — but everything is connected by theme somehow,” said Ramirez.
Honors Director Jennifer Saito highlighted the importance of attending conferences such as these.
“For the students who are presenting, this conference validated what they know matters and that other people care about what they know,” said Saito.
The conference concluded with awards being handed out with a maximum of three awards allowed to be given to students — the Heslet Scholar Award, the Katherine Award, and the Klaschus Honors Faculty Award.
The highest award — the Heslet Scholar Award — was presented to Angelo Gutierrez on his project titled “A New Ontology of Music: An ontological defense of marching percussion as music.”
Angelo Gutierrez shared his experience on winning “Immediately upon winning I felt like they had chosen the wrong person. I felt like there were so many amazing presentations it couldn’t possibly be true that my research stood so far apart from the rest,” said Gutierrez.
He continues to say “it is such an honor and quite surreal to be selected for such a prestigious award and I truthfully couldn’t have done it without the help of so many people.”
Gutierrez also gave thanks to everyone who supported him in his research, and said that he couldn’t have done it without them.
“Honestly, I couldn’t have done this without LMC and the immense sense of community and care I have I have received here.”