In one of New York’s largest events dedicated to women in the sciences, nearly 300 Barnard students gathered to share their findings in fields ranging from geology to genetics at the Lida Orzeck ’68 Poster Session on July 30. As scholars in Barnard’s Summer Research Institute (SRI), they’ve received a combined $1.75 million this summer to pursue independent research advancing knowledge in STEM fields.
Expanding on Barnard’s commitment to uplifting high-achieving young women regardless of financial status, SRI offers rare opportunities for paid undergraduate research under the mentorship and supervision of a faculty member. This year, 25% of SRI participants are the first in their families to attend college.
SRI can be a life-changing experience that empowers students to take on bigger and bolder projects — like it has been two times over for Nya Hitchman ’27, who spent this summer researching silkworm-parasite interactions in Barnard’s Snow lab.
“Last summer I also participated in SRI and I got to get a little bit of a taste of wet-lab research. But I wanted more,” Hitchman said. “Last summer was great as well. But specifically this summer, the mentorship has been really incredible.”
After ten weeks of dedicated study in and out of the lab, Hitchman and the rest of this summer’s scholars had the chance to share their takeaways at the Lida Orzeck ’68 Poster Session. The Barnard community came out in full force to hear their findings and to cheer them on — from professors to parents, roommates to research partners.
Since 2019, SRI has been generously supported by Orzeck. While she’s known to the world for co-founding and leading the iconic lingerie brand Hanky Panky, in her undergrad years, Orzeck was a psychology student researching white rats in Barnard’s labs. Orzeck earned a doctorate in social psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University before turning to entrepreneurship, and the value of the research experience remains close to her heart.
To Orzeck, the poster session showcases everything the students have learned in SRI: not just their research findings, but newfound clarity, creativity, and confidence.
“In addition to the learning that they get through the specific research endeavors, their ability to communicate concisely and clearly their research ideas—to really communicate so that people who are not involved in their fields can understand—that's also a skill that's wonderful to see them develop,” Orzeck said.
The show of support at the poster session was indicative: relationship building is at the heart of SRI. With mentorship built in, SRI takes an approach to opening doors for women in STEM that goes above and beyond financial accessibility.
To Kaiya Simmons ’26, that support is exactly what makes the SRI experience stand out.
“[SRI is] an amazing opportunity to take advantage of. I've done other programs in the past, but on this project, since I knew my mentor, and I already had a close relationship with her before SRI, it’s been a totally different experience,” Simmons said. “I was also with two other Barnard students [this summer] and we formed a strong friendship. I really learned a lot of teamworking skills.”
Simmons spent SRI putting her urban ecology coursework into practice by using both anthropological and scientific methods to study the connection between urban childhoods and adult environmental stewardship.
Engaged not as an independent researcher, but as a member of a thriving community of scholarship, SRI participants can take the leap to apply knowledge from the classroom to pressing real-world problems, as biochemistry major Madeleine Day ’26 emphasized.
“From the get-go, my mentor was very open about me being independent in the lab. I know it's common in labs for undergrads to just do grunt work and not actually work on science. But because it was a new lab, she made so much space for me to contribute to the research,” Day said.
Day’s work in SRI addressed long-range interactions in the human genome. At the poster session, she discussed her work manipulating the regulatory elements in fly genes to examine how they guide genetic expression.
It’s work that goes beyond what Day learned in the classroom – breaking new ground in our understanding of the causes of genetic diseases and developmental disorders, rather than studying genetics in a textbook — and it’s work that she’ll be involved in long after SRI is over.
“This is probably something I'll work on throughout the rest of my college career. I really enjoy what I do,” Day said.
Breaking Barriers
Since SRI began in 2014, more than 1,700 Barnard students have been supported to pursue summer research in the sciences. Forty percent of those students have gone on to pursue graduate-level work in science.
But Barnard students ultimately become leaders in STEM because they approach science from a liberal arts perspective, with creativity and compassion at the forefront.
About half of Barnard students now graduate with STEM degrees, compared to just 15% of women pursuing bachelor’s degrees nationally. Following SRI’s tremendous growth—going from about 100 students in 2019 to about 300 today—the future of research at Barnard looks bright, said Orzeck.
“I'm so, so proud and pleased to be able to play a role in this,” Orzeck said. “It's just amazing what these women are accomplishing in ten weeks.”
With the steadfast support of Orzeck and all the faculty, staff, and community members who make SRI happen, Barnard will uplift student research for years to come, President Laura Rosenbury said.
“Together, we will continue to support SRI and carry on Barnard’s legacy of producing STEM leaders for tomorrow,” President Rosenbury said.