Student Research Day Highlights Student Achievements

Wilson College seniors are getting ready to take one of their final steps towards graduation. On Friday, April 28, members of the graduating class of 2017 will present at Wilson College’s annual Student Research Day. Student Research Day is a day in which students can demonstrate everything they have learned throughout their college career. Members of the Wilson College community come out and support the presenters during this anticipated day. Wilson’s seniors have spent multiple months researching and preparing presentations for this day.

The presentations include art exhibitions, dance performances, literature reviews, case studies, scientific research, and more.

Brant Swartz ’17 will present on the concept of home rule and autonomy of cities and municipalities within the state of Pennsylvania. Swartz expressed feeling nervous about presenting in front of a large group of people, but is confident that his presentation will be informative and well prepared. Other presenters also express the same feelings of nervousness and anxiousness.

The thought of standing at a podium and presenting to a large group of people makes most people nervous. However, the presenters would agree that there is more to Student Research Day than the presentation. Many of them said that they really enjoyed the research.

Stephanie Marshall ’17 will have two presentations, one for History and Political Science and one for her Global Studies. For her Global Studies, Marshall is exploring Holocaust memorialization and collective memory through case studies of three different groups. Due to the nature of her topic, some part of her research was not particularly enjoyable. However, Marshall did enjoy other aspects of her research.

“What I have enjoyed is providing insight into areas that not everyone is knowledgeable so that they might increase their awareness surrounding past and current events,” explained Marshall.

Every presenter enjoyed different parts of their journey towards Student Research Day, like the data collection or being able to learn new things.

As Wilson’s class of 2017 gets ready for Student Research Day, the class of 2018 begins thinking about their presentations for next year and the class of 2019 might be thinking that they still have a while until they need to begin thinking about their presentation. The seniors presenting this year agree that it is never too early to begin thinking about a topic.

The day can seem scary for some students, however Heather Jordan-Clapsaddle ’17 would like to remind future seniors that they should enjoy the experience and not fear it. “Yes, there are going to be times when you feel frustrated and feel like crying,” Jordan-Clapsaddle expressed, “but that makes the good moments feel so much better.”

The presenters of Student Research Day agree that choosing a topic of interest is key to making the experience more enjoyable. Thinking about presenting at Senior Research Day can be overwhelming. However, many seniors would agree that time flies by and it is never too early to begin thinking about a topic.

Best of luck student researchers!