Noah Seim

What began as a music project for Noah Seim has grown into an ambitious research effort to bring the music of composer Rossetter Gleason Cole — his great-great-great uncle — back into the public eye.

“My dad is really into genealogy, and he said to me, ‘Oh, you know you have a composer on your mom’s side?’” Seim said. “I didn't think that this would blossom into the massive project it's become.”

The connection became more meaningful after Seim's grandmother heard one of his performances and texted him about the familial connections to Cole. 

“That’s when something clicked,” Seim said. 

Born in Oakland County in 1866, Cole was a professor and director of the schools of music for Ripon College in Wisconsin and Grinnell College in Iowa. By 1902, he had moved to Chicago, where he built his career as a teacher and composer. 

Cole died in 1952, composing more than 90 pieces of music. While most of his work was published decades ago, most of it has remained in libraries and collections around the world. 

Seim hopes to bring his relative’s work back into the spotlight.

“Nobody has access to his work nor the ability to play them because they're almost all hidden away in libraries or niche corners of the globe,” Seim said. 

“So, nobody even knows about his music, let alone him.”

Under the mentorship of Sookkyung Cho, associate professor of piano, Seim has scoured libraries, like Chicago’s Newberry Library and the Library of Congress, in search of Cole’s manuscripts.

He’s focused on not just finding these documents, but transcribing and arranging for performances on the Valley Campus for the upcoming year. 

“The most surprising thing was how willing other people were to help me,” Seim said. “I thought this was a niche subject, but so many librarians and performers were on board.

"Never in a million years did I think that all these other people would be willing to work with me and be excited about it.” 

Majoring in music, international relations and French, Seim continued the project while studying abroad in Morocco.

After spending his days in class and at work, he devoted evenings and weekends to formatting Cole's compositions and contacting libraries and conservatories around the world in search of additional works.

“The end goal is I'd like to publish his works in the public domain,” Seim said. “I’m making my own recordings, and we’re planning about six performances over the next school year. I’m also planning lecture recitals as well as speaking at conferences.” 

For Seim, the project has become much more than a study of family history. He said it has transformed both his academic experience and his confidence as a researcher and musician.

“There are so many opportunities for those who want to pursue them,” Seim said. "I never would have thought I would have done half the things I've done.”

Micah Dykhuis

Micah Dykhuis plans a future in mathematics, but it was their experience as an emergency room technician that inspired their research for the Summer Scholars Showcase.

Working with mentor Laura Bailey, assistant professor of mathematics, Dykhuis is developing mathematical models that track how vaccination rates and public commuting patterns influence epidemics, specifically measles.

One specific model, with the ominous anagram, VIPERS — vaccinated, infected or symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, exposed, recovered or susceptible — measures the vaccination percentage and commuting rates within a specific city and how they affect disease transmission, Dykhuis said.

“If we can create a model for it, or a better understanding or structure for how that works, then we can test if strategies like wearing masks or increasing vaccination rates can be effective for commuting and specific layouts of cities,” Dykhuis said. 

Their research has also called upon Dykhuis to incorporate another skill set. 

In addition to majoring in mathematics, Dykhuis is also earning a minor in computer science, an essential skill for overcoming one of the project’s biggest challenges.

Dykhuis said the intensive labor that’s involved with scripting the model can be all for naught if one line of code is incorrect or out of place. 

“It gives me a lot of control, but because of that, if I have one small thing off, it cannot work at all,” Dykhuis said. “So, the majority of the time that I've spent on this isn't setting up, writing and running the code. 

“It's after I have all that set, fixing the code for like five hours."

Finding reliable data was another struggle, Dykhuis said. However, a 2025 measles outbreak in Texas presented the parameters and real-world data for them to test, configure and validate their model. 

“It was really rewarding to figure out how I can create the math, and what it needs to analyze,” Dykhuis said. “And then, checking to see if it's accurate and failing, and then creating a new model, checking that and failing, and then finally, having a model that makes sense and is relatively accurate.” 

Angel Hughes

Spend a few minutes talking with senior Angel Hughes and her passion and enthusiasm for her summer research project quickly becomes apparent. As a peer mentor in GVSU’s Structured Learning Assistance program for four semesters, Hughes has a vested interest in helping her fellow students.

Under the guidance of mentor Courtney Kowaczyk, affiliate professor of psychology, Hughes is surveying students who have participated in the SLA program to St understand their experiences.

“I talk to Dr. Kowaczyk about everything, about advising, about my future,” Hughes said. “She’s been a mentor to me, and I absolutely adore her. She is a walking ray of sunshine and always helpful.”

Drawing from responses from nearly 500 students, Hughes has identified patterns that could strengthen the program for GVSU’s peer mentors and students seeking academic support. 

"We have data and research from SLA showing it works, but we're always looking for ways to make it better, to understand what helps students and what doesn't," Hughes said.

Many of the students who participate in the program are first-year or first-generation college students who may need additional academic and social support as they adjust to college, Hughes said.

“Our research is implementing interventions that are meant to help students not just from an academic standpoint, but a social one, too,” Hughes said. 

“That transition to college isn’t easy, and this might be their first time taking college courses, so they have to adapt, and we help facilitate that process.” 

Through her research and personal experience, Hughes has found that peer mentoring plays a critical role in helping students build confidence and independence as they navigate the college landscape.

"We found having an SLA peer mentor does not directly affect grade point average, but having an SLA peer mentor increases self-efficacy and what students can do on their own, how confident they are in their abilities, and then that in turn affects their GPA," Hughes said.