ORLANDO, Fla. — Four Southwestern Michigan College students presented research at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Expo in Orlando over spring break.

Chemistry instructor Dr. Douglas Schauer’s students Anaya Roschyk, 17, of Granger; Audrey Bakerson, 17, of Niles; Jacob Campbell, 20, of Edwardsburg; and Natalie Adams, 18, of Edwardsburg, participated in the undergraduate research poster session at Orange County Convention Center.

Roschyk, who evaluated maple leaves for removing toxic heavy metals from water, has also been accepted for the Yale Young Global Scholars program, which runs July 28-Aug. 10.

She will spend two weeks in New Haven, Conn., attending lectures and seminars while completing a collaborative project in biological and biomedical science. Participants hail from more than 100 countries. Sessions can accommodate 220-250 students. Last summer, just 24 percent of applicants made the cut.

“I have a huge passion for both chemistry and music,” she said. “If I go into chemistry, I’d like to research how music affects your brain. Music therapy is a fascinating subject” she’ll tackle April 17 at SMC’s NoTED Talks. “The instructors here at SMC are incredibly supportive, encouraging and really want you to succeed.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Yale,” Roschyk added.

She played electric guitar in the “Scenes from the Station” variety show last October, acted in the spring musical “Sweeney Todd” and soloed on “Minnie the Moocher” in March at Dowagiac’s Beckwith Theatre. Roschyk began writing songs at 8 and released her first album, “Catching Stars,” at 9. Her songs tackle topics from bullying to war in Syria.

Bakerson, who wants to be a doctor, attends the Berrien Springs Math and Science Center. Though graduating from SMC May 4 with an associate degree, “I’ll be there for another year and will work on my bachelor’s degree while finishing my senior year,” he said. “This will allow me to work on research at Andrews University and possibly do an internship. After this, I plan to continue my education and receive my medical degree.”

Bakerson’s project tried to create a super plant to remove pollutants from the environment by mutating ryegrass seed with ultraviolet C radiation and starving the grass from cations with a potassium nitrate buffer.

“The experience was awesome,” Bakerson said. “I’d definitely recommend it to other students. A bunch of other people presenting were in graduate school. It’s awesome to see my work holds up to those standards.”

Her FIRST Robotics team made it to state finals April 10-13 at Saginaw Valley State University.

“At our last competition, I was live on ESPN for an interview! After this weekend, we are hoping to have enough points for world competition in Detroit,” Bakerson said.

Audrey, who lives in Niles, is Miss Apple Festival. Her sister, Aliea, is Miss Niles.

Campbell, a pre-med major, studied a rare disorder that causes certain amino acids to be filtered into kidneys, but not back out, crystallizing into stones. It’s rare, affecting one in 10,000 people, so little research data existed.

Campbell aspires to be a medical research doctor. He is weighing the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University and Alma College to study biochemistry.

Campbell found the ACS experience “exciting. You spend so much time on something and finally someone’s watching you explain it. You could ‘nerd out’ and nobody stared at you because everybody there knew what you were talking about. What makes SMC kind of unique is how diverse its teachers are with their interesting backgrounds. They didn’t go to school to learn a subject to teach. They went out and did it, then decided to teach.”