The University’s first ever Scholarship Week is a week-long conference designed to showcase and celebrate the academic achievements of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Scholarship Week began Monday April 18 and will run until April 24.
Scholarship Week is an idea that came out of the strategic planning process. The main goal of the week is to give students and faculty the opportunity to see the variety of projects being organized all over campus.
“There are a number of departments and schools on campus that have students undertaking research projects or other creative projects like the annual Art and Design student show or presentations from the Music and Theatre Arts students,” said Dr. Robin Mama, Dean of the School of Social Work who helped plan Scholarship Week. “Many people thought that it was time that we showcased this wonderful work in one week, both for all of us and for the community.”
Events will be occurring throughout the week all over campus and vary from school to school. These events include highlighting students’ scholarly contributions in research, writing, service learning, musical and theater productions, art exhibits, and more. One of the most prominent events will feature Keynote Speaker, Elizabeth Ambos, the Director of the Council on Undergraduate Research in Washington D.C., taking place on April 22 in the Young Auditorium in Bey Hall. The title of her speech is “Opening the Door: The Long Term Benefits of Undergraduate Research” and RSVP is required to attend.
Erin Hughes, a senior psychology student, is involved with Scholarship Week and will be presenting her thesis at the social sciences symposium and she looks forward to sharing her research. “I am very involved in my major and the research being done in the department. I hope to get to see what other majors are doing and how that has influenced them. I think this week will give us the opportunity to see across schools what students are involved in,” said Hughes.
“I am really looking forward to seeing all the amazing work MU students are doing. Even in the social sciences symposium alone, you can see how varied and important the research is that students are conducting. I think this week will make me very proud of Monmouth,” Hughes continued.
Another student, Kathleen Piccoli, a senior studying psychology, is also presenting her original research conducted for her senior thesis during the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) symposium. Her research is a qualitative study on the role of the father in cases of mother-daughter sexual abuse. “I’m looking forward to hearing student’s research from all different majors,” she said. “I hope to learn more about how students develop their research questions and how the approach to research is similar and different in other majors.”
Scholarship week was planned by an interdisciplinary committee. This committee included Staci Andrews, Assistant Professor of Health & Physical Education, Rekha Datta, Professor of Political Science, John Henning, Dean of School of Education, Gary Lewandowski, Chair of the Department of Psychology, Robin Mama, Dean of the School of Social Work, Jaime Myers, Assist Professor of Health & Physical Education, Mary Anne Nagy, Vice President for Student Life & Leadership Development, John Tiedemann, Interim Co-Dean of School of Science, Katie Urmey, Executive Assistant to the Provost, Rich Veit, Chair of the Department of History and Anthropology, and Lennon Cooper, junior art and design student.
Other examples of events include, the Honors School is having a Think Tank event on Tuesday, the School of Science Student Research Conference is also Tuesday, the Department of Communication research poster session is on Wednesday, a presentation on Service Learning in Cadiz, Spain is on Thursday, and graduate social work students who have completed 10 week internships overseas in Ireland, Costa Rica, Bangladesh and Vietnam will take place on Friday. Saturday is the annual Department of Psychology undergraduate research conference and Sunday is the annual senior art show. There is so much to come and see and listen to! Michele Norris will be speaking about the Race Card Project on Monday from 3 – 6 p.m.
Mama is looking forward to hearing as many presentations as possible during the first year of Scholarship Week. “We hope that students and faculty will attend sessions across the week, and not just in their own discipline, said Mama. “This is an opportunity to learn about what a colleague or a friend is doing in another major. It is also a way for our freshman and sophomore students to see what they will be doing in their majors as they get to be juniors and seniors or as graduate students and to get excited about what lies ahead of them.”
A full list of Scholarship Week events can be found at https://www.monmouth.edu/scholarshipweek
