Welcome back! Sorry for not writing for the entire last month. Who knew that one's last semester of college would be so crazy? You probably all knew that . . . but it's my first time, so give me a break.
I'm happy to report that I finally completed the last requirements for my Leadership Academy thesis project; undergraduate research conferences! Last Thursday, April 26th, I presented a poster at Fitchburg State University's third "Undergraduate Conference on Research and Creative Practice" to chronicle my experience on this year-long project. I reeeally regret not getting a picture of my poster on that conference, as it was very well received and won an award for best poster! That's right, the faculty gave out 3 best poster awards out of 40ish at the conference. I then had to attend the convocation ceremony that afternoon, where President Antonucci couldn't find my award on stage, and my classmates had to pass it back to my seat crowd-surfing-style. That little certificate in it's padded case got a lot of action!
The next day, Friday April 27th, my mom and I drove to UMass Amherst for the statewide undergrad conference. It was very big, with 5 different poster sessions and 5 oral presentation periods. By sessions, I mean hour-long blocks of time when you hang your poster on a display board and people look thoughtfully at it as they walk by. I tried to engage everyone, but I still had a lot of down time. Since my display board was in the opposite corner of the room as the door, most people never made it far enough to see me. I think I talked to a whopping 5 or 6 people. And then after 50 minutes, someone tells you it's time to take down your poster so the next group of 50+ presenters can hang theirs up. It wasn't an unpleasant experience. In fact, I'm impressed at how smooth the entire event ran, considering the immense amount of student presenters (probably many hundreds) and faculty visitors. It was well staffed, the students/people in charge were all well informed and very helpful, and all the events ran like a well-oiled clock.
Now, the only thing left to complete my Leadership Academy Honors Thesis is a presentation to my faculty advisors during finals week. It's so close! And I have to decide on an internship site by the end of next week. And I leave for Italy in 22 days! Stay tuned. There's lots more excitement to come!
