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8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. Various venues across the Beloit College campus
* * * * * Free and open to the public. |
Months of intensive research and preparation will come to fruition when 70 Beloit College students make presentations at the 32nd annual Student Symposium on Thursday, April 10, from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m., in venues across the Beloit College campus. Like most events at Beloit College, the symposium is free and open to the public.
A highlight of the academic year, the symposium unites students, faculty, staff and the community in an exploration of issues, ideas, and experiences. Individuals and small groups of students make 20-minute presentations about topics that they have been researching throughout the academic year. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions after each presentation. Classes are suspended for the day so that campus-community members have an opportunity to join the proceedings.
Presentations in the 2008 symposium will cover a broad range of disciplines. Student participants will outline their work on such diverse topics as the depiction of women in ancient art, the status of Roma communities in post-Communist-era European countries, mental health programs in urban schools, and traits of yellow-bellied marmots.
Linda Sturtz, a professor of history at Beloit College, serves as the coordinator of the event. She believes that it builds on the college’s mission to engage the intelligence, imagination, and curiosity of its students. “In the symposium presentations, we see evidence of how this happens as students engage in a wide variety of sustained intellectual and creative pursuits, usually in close consultation or collaboration with faculty members,” she says.
The first Beloit College Student Symposium was held in 1976. Modeled after professional academic conferences, it proved very popular and has subsequently grown in stature and participation. In 2001, the college built on the success of the spring Student Symposium by establishing a similar forum that focuses exclusively on students’ research interests on international issues and their experiences abroad. The fall 2007 International Symposium at Beloit College featured more than 50 presentations by undergraduates.
The program for the 2008 Student Symposium can be viewed online at www.beloit.edu. For details about the symposium, contact Sturtz at 608-363-2316 or sturtzl@beloit.edu.