Apr 23, 2025
Group of student winners in the auditorium.
From left: Dalel Serda, COM Professor and GCIC Symposium co-chair; Dr. Helen Brewer, Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs; Temiloluwa Lewis; Nova Dowdell; Maddy Snow; Madison Howell; Maci Allen; Gwendolyn Barbee-yow, COM Professor and GCIC Symposium co-chair.

College of the Mainland (COM) hosted the eleventh annual Gulf Coast Intercollegiate Consortium (GCIC) Academic Symposium on Friday, March 28. This event featured more than 80 presentations from students representing Gulf Coast community colleges, universities and high schools.

This year’s symposium theme was “Subverting Greed: Living Not on But in Communion with Earth.” The event is held annually to help students grow as scholars by enhancing students’ communication skills, facilitating networking across the disciplines and colleges and helping students build self-confidence and feel ownership of their work. College of the Mainland faculty and staff served as judges and moderators throughout the day-long event.

COM student Maci Allen won first place for her project “Societal Misunderstandings of Mental Health Disorders.”

“Winning first place meant a lot to me because it made me feel like people really enjoyed what I was doing and what I was talking about,” said Maci. “It [GCIC Academic Symposium] just creates awareness about a variety of things happening in the world. There are so many different topics — so many people care about so many different things.”

Symposium winners were as follows:

  • First Place: “Societal Misunderstandings of Mental Health Disorders” by Maci Allen, College of the Mainland, advisor Monique Suarez
  • Second Place: “The Quality O’ Th’ Climate:” Ecological Relationships in Shakespeare” by Madison Howell, University of Houston, Independent Scholar
  • Third Place: “Disparity in Access: The Impact of Library Availability in Houston Independent School District” by Maddy Snow, Lone Star CyFair, advisor Aurora Lugo
  • Fourth Place: “Unearthing the Past, Shaping Our Future: How Geoarchaeological Findings in Central and South America Can Help Us Rethink Human-Environmental Relationships” by Nova Dowdell, University of Texas at Austin, Independent Scholar
  • Honorable Mention: “Dominion Over the Earth: A study on Colonial America's Fishing Industry” by Brynna Malley, Galveston College, advisor Debra Ramsey
  • Honorable Mention: “The Function of Diet in Healthy Living” by Temiloluwa Lewis, Houston Community College, advisor Toni Holland

The symposium’s keynote speakers were Dr. Kimberly Garza, who presented “Tell Me Where You’re From and I’ll Tell You Who You Are: Uplifting Identities and Places from the Margins,” and Amelia White, who presented “The Karankawa of Coastal Texas.” Funding for the keynote speakers was provided by the GCIC and COM’s Title V.

To learn more, visit www.com.edu/symposium/.