On April 11, the Academic Affairs office held their annual Celebration of Scholarships Day, providing students with a day off classes. However, the day also consisted of student presentations.
Jeff Tabone, the director of Programs and Student Formation, said that the day is more for common learning and focusing on undergraduate students’ research.
“A lot of the projects that are presented are just independent research projects undergrad students have been working on,” Tabone said.
Tabone said that there are a lot of students who participate each year and can highlight their information through posters and oral presentations.
“We, on average, have about 100 students participating,” Tabone said. “That’s between poster presentations and then also oral presentations.”
With the different presentations presented, many of them came from different research lab findings in the science department.
Tara Renbarger, division chair of natural sciences, said that most of the student presentations were gathered from research labs and Senior Seminar classes.
“Students had to submit a research abstract a couple weeks in advance,” Renbarger said. “Their research data is collected from labs they have personally performed hands-on.”
With the different presentations scattered throughout the day, many students got to learn more
information about topics they did not know about from their peers.
Abbey Zuzelski, a freshman biochemistry major, said she really liked the different projects and learned more about what she would eventually do.
“It was cool for me to see the kind of projects that my peers were working on and the stuff that I’d eventually be able to do,” Zuzelski said.
Zuzelski said that this event is a great way for students to showcase their strengths and knowledge over their perspective research.
“It kind of created like a sense of awe in me to see how smart the people around me are,” Zuzelski said. “I feel like it kind of deepens the community because it like shows our different strengths and our own knowledge with our work.”
The Celebration of Scholarship has provided students with many different perspectives and opportunities for new knowledge in different research.
Renbarger said that the projects are a wonderful opportunity for students and have excited faculty.
“The Celebration of Scholarship has been a wonderful opportunity for students to reflect on, organize and showcase their research,” Renbarger said. “It is so exciting for faculty to be able to see how much students have learned.”
