Students prepare for seminar
Undergraduate Research Symposium welcomes academic achievements
Liberty University is preparing for its 4th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, which is just a few weeks away. The faculty administrator heading up the symposium is Dr. Carey Roberts, associate dean for the College of Arts and Science.
Opportunities — Students are able to connect with fellow classmates during academic research symposiums. Photo credit: Kevin Manguiob
The Undergraduate Research Symposium will take place Saturday, April 11, from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Jerry Falwell Library. The event will feature different sections of work, including presentations on research, poster projects, historical documents and marketing strategies. Students will be given the chance to show their own work and learn from and critique each other. The deadline for submissions for the symposium is March 28. There will be awards for presentations, $100 for each, in the categories of best arts and humanities, physical and life sciences and social sciences presentations.
According to Roberts, the Undergraduate Research Symposium began four years ago when Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Roger Schultz realized there was a gap in the research agenda for most of the university’s departments.
“He realized that students needed an outlet through which to present their research in a public forum that was both friendly and encouraging,” Roberts said. “… This actually began at the college of arts and sciences, … and over the past four years, it has grown into a university-wide event.”
Although students are generally allowed to present as long as there are openings, they must have a faculty member or faculty mentor recommend their participation in order to qualify. Roberts believes students who participate have an advantage when it comes to applying for graduate schools and jobs.
“This is an excellent opportunity for students to present, to actually add an important and critical part to their résumé and applications for graduate school,” Roberts said. “It allows them to prove to prospective graduate schools that they are a researcher, that they have conducted public presentations, they have filled the questions on those presentations and that they can hold their own in an academic environment. And these students then go on to use this as a way of increasing their chances of getting into their graduate school of choice.”
Students are also being given the opportunity to have their research published in the new undergraduate research journal, The Montview Liberty University Undergraduate Research Journal. The submission date for the undergraduate journal is April 25.
“The expectation is that by March 28 (the students) may not have their project finished yet, but they know what they are doing,” Roberts said. “They have an abstract, and they send that in to us to be included. On the day of the presentation, during the symposium on April 11, they will present their main conclusions, but then again, it may not still be a perfectly complete and final project. But they will then have the opportunity after the symposium to submit the final version to be included in the journal.”
Roberts was adamant about continuing the growth of the symposium as the school continues to expand.
“We are actually now turning it into Undergraduate Research Week,” Roberts said.
The symposium will be taking place during the University’s College for a Weekend, one of the busiest and most packed times on campus. This was done in an effort to promote students’ hard work even further and help continuing to recruit students that want to further their education. The event schedule begins Tuesday, April 7 and will run through Saturday, April 11 with different events each day.
“There will be events including Dr. Beisner speaking on (climate and energy policy, the poor and biblical earth stewardship), an Honors Student Research Symposium, events in Appomattox for the 150th anniversary of General Lee’s surrender and a Family and Consumer Sciences Fashion Show,” Roberts said.
For more information on the Undergraduate Research Symposium, visit digitalcommons.liberty.edu/symp_undergrad/2015.
Voss is a news reporter.