If you’re in the honors program, each year you get a chance to present research on a project that you feel passionate about and relates to your major to an audience of like-minded students and staff who are willing to check out what you’ve created.
The annual Fall Forum took place on Dec. 6. Each year, the forum features posters created by honors students that relate to their major and are something the students are interested in. Anyone ranging from first-year students to seniors can submit a poster to be showcased.
After the poster-viewing session is over, students and staff can then watch senior honors students present their honors capstone projects in the JVH auditorium, which are a requirement for the Honors 499 class.
Evelyn Andrews, a senior history major, made her poster on the religions that could be found in the Inca and Aztec civilizations. Andrews said that she decided to take on this type of research because religion was prominent in both societies.
With her research, Andrews said that the Inca seemed to have a bigger focus on community and keeping people together, whereas the Aztecs were focused mostly on war and battle. The poster that Andrews made included details about her findings presented like a research paper except with pictures and colorful visual elements.
She said her favorite part of her findings was that religion seemed to be the reason for both civilizations separate demise.
Like several other students present at the poster session, this was Andrew’s first time presenting for people and not just being among those walking through and observing other’s work. The majors of students that presented ranged from political science, journalism to creative writing. Multiple students with history majors presented as well.
Kyle Maclaughlin, a senior political science major and president of SGA, made a poster about private security companies being used as military contractors. His poster featured specific instances of where these security companies are stationed as well as general defense topics, such as the Budget Control Act of 2011, which Maclaughin said was in response to U.S actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
After the poster viewing session, spectators were encouraged to go to the JVH auditorium to watch senior honors students present their honors capstone projects. Most projects were a version of a capstone project that they had created for their majors with an additional element to qualify it as an honors project, such as additional research or incorporating their specific major to a project required for a school, such as the school of business.
Each capstone presentation had visual elements and the student talking about the steps they took for their project and why they decided to take on the project they did. The presentations were divided into four one-hour long blocks where all the students who presented during their given block held a discussion with each other about their projects.
Sydney Frencho, a cinema production major with a minor in photography, made her capstone presentation about the process of combing her majors by explaining the creation of her Production 4 (P4) thesis film “More Than You Can Chew” and taking behind the scenes photographs of the filmmaking process with an analog camera.
Frencho said that the photos she took were used to promote the film on IndieGoGo, a crowdfunding platform where she raised money for the film. Frencho explained the development process of the photos which involved soaking the undeveloped rolls into lukewarm water, exposing the roll to several chemicals and agitating it every five to 30 seconds for nine minutes and 45 seconds.
As for the honors portion of their capstone project, she said that it was an inspiring experience to look back on what was happening during the filmmaking process.
“This project truly made me realize that I need to be present and in the moment more,” Frencho said. “A lot of the times on set I’m just lost in the chaos and by the time I get home, I don’t even remember what happened and I don’t think I appreciated the time on set.
Michael Soto, the former Provost, was present during the first presentation block and talked about the purpose of capstone projects.
“One of the goals of the capstone course is to reorient the individual student to, per his prior course work, hopefully allow students to gain insight about what they increasingly learn,” Soto said. He then asked the presenters if their capstones shed light on their previous experiences at the university.
The honors program also hosts a similar forum session during the spring semester which takes place in April. The exact date for the spring forum has not yet been announced.
