Iowa State University honors students gathered in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Wednesday to present their final projects.

The presentations took place between 3-5 p.m. and the event was open to the public. Among attendees were family, friends, professors and project advisers.

Gesila Macek, senior studying English and sociology, presented her project entitled “Grief Poetry Chapbook.”

Macek created a chapbook of 10 poems about the losses of her mother and father. Her mother passed away on January 9, 2015 from cancer and her father passed away on April 20, 2017 from a heart attack.

“I wanted to show what grief and loss are actually like, not the romanticized version that you see in movies,” Macek said.

During her presentation, Macek explained some trials that she faced after the deaths of her parents, such as figuring out how to pay for school or do her own taxes.

Macek’s career goal is to work as an editor for a book publishing house. In the meantime, she will be studying abroad this summer in Italy.

Jamie Steyer, senior in journalism and mass communication, presented a project entitled “Theater in a Digital Age.”

Steyer’s research topic was how social media affects the way audiences are captured.

To answer her question, she attended 15 Iowa State productions and observed the correlation between social media engagement and attendance. Her findings show that engagement and attendance are not correlated.

Steyer then looked to how other colleges manage to pull larger, more engaged crowds than Iowa State. She found that the advantage other schools have is that they have a larger group to broadcast to, or in other words, people who are actively following their university’s theater accounts.

After graduation, Steyer will be working at an agriculture company where she will be doing marketing and social media work. She will also be working towards a masters from the University of Iowa.

Natalie Vance, senior in biology, presented a project entitled “Climatic and Human Impacts on the Sycamore Fig.”

“My goal was to learn more about the history and origins of the sycamore fig,” Vance said.

Vance started her project in the fall, and through research was able to find five origins of the sycamore fig: Algeria, North Egypt, South Egypt, Lebanon and Cyprus.

After graduation, Vance plans to pursue medical school or become a Ph.D student.