Symposium highlights student research

CHENEY-Eastern Washington University (EWU) hosted its 25th anniversary of the Student Research and Creative Works Symposium last week to showcase the hard work and dedication of EWU student research.

Symposium committee chair and anthropology professor Julia Smith has been a part of the event for 15 years and was grateful to be back celebrating student success after a two-year break.

"Doing this research is important because it lets them do projects from first to last," Smith said. "It lets them learn how to take something, plan it out, do it, get up in front of people and talk about it - to build all of those skills that are going to do well for them no matter what they do next. It's a professionalizing kind of experience."

All academic disciplines were represented through interactive exhibits, oral presentations, and poster sessions at the symposium.

The creative work presentations began in the EWU art gallery on Tuesday night with digital/interactive art pieces and musical compositions, resulting in 24 creative works.

The event continued early Wednesday morning with 71 poster presentations and 33 oral presentations.

"My goal was to have over 100 and we did that," Smith said. "This is a celebration of our students' work."

There were a total of 190 students who participated in the symposium.

Madison Regel, Madison Lilleberg and Bashaer Abdushakour presented their research done for a healthcare research design and method class. Their topic was increased fentanyl use in young adults and its relation to mental illness.

"We wanted to show people that they should seek help when they start wanting to dabble in this substance use," Lilleberg said. "Substance abuse and mental illness just create one big circle-psychological treatment and substance abuse treatment should go hand in hand."

The symposium created a primary opportunity for students to dive into topics of interest and present in a professional setting yet comfortable setting and allowed them space to learn while practicing valuable career skills.

Faculty in the English department and a member of this year's symposium committee, Taylor Kensel, has participated in the event since 2019. She was excited to see everyone face-to-face and give students the opportunity to be supported in their academic endeavors.

"It was so delightful to see everyone in person," Kensel said. "It seems more celebratory and special to me as an attendee and I can only imagine that it feels more official to the presenter too. I think that it's really important to have the opportunity for students to be recognized and be able to interact with their audience."

Kensel also found the symposium serves as a resume builder and a space for students to practice presenting at academic conferences in a safe and financially free environment.

"It's hard to have the money and the funding to go to academic conferences and it looks great on resumes and things like that, so it's important that students get that opportunity," Kensel said. "It's important that they get it in a way that they don't have to pay for anything, they don't have to go anywhere, and they don't have to jump through all the hoops and barriers that it takes."

Alexia Howard-Mullins, a senior at EWU studying Pre-Law Political Science and Psychology, gave a social science presentation about the war on drugs as it affects Black Americans.

Although she was nervous during her presentation, she felt her professors had prepared her well.

"I feel like our department heads prepare us very well during our capstone projects," Howard-Mullins said. "This gives students a gateway to a more professional setting."

The event will be happening again next May on the Eastern campus.

Author Bio

Michaela Friedrich, Former intern

Michaela is a former newsroom intern at the Cheney Free Press. She covered stories on education, city government, cops/courts/fire departments and local businesses.