Undergraduate Student News

A scene from the documentary short “Eyes on Me.”

Recent VCU graduates to be featured at Washington West Film Festival on Saturday

Oct. 8, 2026

Their five documentary shorts, which will be screened in Reston, were created through Robertson School professor Robert Milazzo’s capstone course.

Five questions with African American Studies and English double major Zaniah Blakely

Sept. 24, 2026

Reading, writing, and community drives Blakely’s academic pursuits

Blakely Wright combines history and anthropology to better understand the past

Sept. 22, 2026

Wright focuses on marginalized and underrepresented Indigenous histories

Ben Rekosh has thrived as a storyteller in sports media, including during recent summers with the Charlottesville Tom Sox of the Valley Baseball League. (Contributed image)

When the game changed, Ben Rekosh found a new way to stay in it

Sept. 15, 2026

Supported by VCU's Internship Funding Program, the VCU mass communications student told the stories behind the Charlottesville Tom Sox this summer while preparing for a career in sports media.

Ray Ifanga, a junior majoring in political science and African American studies, said, “I genuinely enjoy meeting people, building connections and being involved in different spaces on campus, which is definitely a shift from how shy and reserved I was when I first came to VCU.” (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Ray Ifanga sharpens his worldview at VCU

Sept. 9, 2026

In classes, research and student leadership, the junior and aspiring lawyer keeps Black communities in focus.

This summer, Aarushi Rao worked with Guangwei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Medicine, to develop a tool that helps researchers analyze screening images from experiments more efficiently. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

In VCU neuroscience lab, undergraduate Aarushi Rao brought brainpower to new software

Aug. 27, 2026

The sophomore Honors College student and biology major spent her summer with researcher Guangwei Zhang, developing a tool to improve analysis of images.

The entrance to Auschwitz I. As an intern with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Michael Farfan worked in Block 24, the brick building directly to the left. (Photo by Michael Farfan)

Michael Farfan explores history in the heart of inhumanity at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Aug. 25, 2026

The VCU senior embraced his summer internship at the Holocaust memorial and museum in Poland.

Melody Ngo with medical student Sarah Lewicki and Adolfo Mauro, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. Ngo worked on a research project this summer with Lewicki and Mauro. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

VCU summer program propels undergraduate student's research

Aug. 18, 2026

Biology major Melody Ngo embraces how the Honors College and Wright Center offer ‘a crash run in what it is like to work in a lab day to day.’

Physics major Jazlyn Lopez Silva spent her summer learning how to manufacture and 3D print a new material for biomedical devices. (Jake Burns, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Undergraduate researcher Jazlyn Lopez Silva targets better medical implants

Aug. 14, 2026

The physics major is developing a 3D-printed, conductive polymer in the lab of VCU nanoscientist Daeha Joung.

Five questions with health, physical education, and exercise science major Maya Cureton

Aug. 13, 2026

Cureton wants to take a holistic approach to her health science career