April 5, 2011
Bryant students present work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research
Four honors members reflect on the opportunity to share their findings and network with student scholars from around the country.
From March 30 to April 2, four Bryant honors students and two faculty members are attending the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Ithaca College in New York. (Learn more about the conference.)
The students and their presentation topics include:
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Jason Fortin ’12 (Pomfret, CT) and Tom Pagliarini ’11 (North Providence, RI): “Wartime China’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression: Changing Interpretations and Perspectives.”
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Tom Pagliarini ’11 (North Providence, RI): “Rhetorical Democracy: An Examination of the Presidential Inaugural Addresses.” The presentation is based on Pagliarini's Senior Honors Capstone Project.
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Amanda Zagame ’11 (Bellingham, MA): “Keeping America Fed and Healthy During World War II: Sylvia Brooklyn Denhoff, Home Economist,” (Sylvia Denhoff is a Providence woman who wrote a food column for the left-leaning newspaper, PM, during World War II)
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Jessica Komoroski ’11 (West Islip, NY): “The Life and Time of Gertrude Meth Hochberg.” The presentation is based on Komoroski’s Senior Honors Capstone Project.
The students are being accompanied by History Professor Judy Barrett Litoff, Ph.D. and College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Lux, Ph.D. More than 3,500 people from around the country are attending the conference.
Honors Program coordinator Kenneth Sousa, Ph.D., believes that the most important skills students can learn are researching, writing, and presenting a paper on a topic that affects our world, society, and business today. “Students become ‘apprentice experts’ in a chosen field when they complete a project of this scope,” he says. “The poise and confidence they gain with this new knowledge adds a great deal of value to their education.”
Throughout the conference the students are blogging about their experiences presenting their research and interacting with other student scholars. Here is what they have to say…
Saturday, April 2
Traveling with students to help them showcase their academic work is always a rewarding experience. Attending the National Conference on Undergraduate Research was no exception. Indeed, the exceptionally high level of scholarship made this an especially exciting conference. Each session that we attended was marked by a genuine sharing of expertise and collaboration. The seriousness and dedication of the more than 3,000 students in attendance was most impressive. The level of the work we heard presented was quite high. Even the projects that might seem to be in their early stages of development are headed toward worthy ends.
Our students – Jessica Komoroski ‘11, Amanda Zagame ‘11, Tom Pagiliarini ‘11, and Jason Fortin ’12 – did us proud! They were engaged in their projects and expertly fielded knowledgeable questions from the audience. They also asked questions and joined in the academic discussions in the sessions they attended.
Jason and Tom’s work on the “New Remembering” in China on its War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression prompted a truly meaningful discussion of recent shifts in China’s “official” interpretation of what we in the West call World War II.
Amada did a superb job in presenting the work she and her co-author, Madeleine Lux, did in documenting the wartime journalism of Sylvia Brooklyn Denhoff. Likewise, Jessica gave a polished and well-rounded presentation summarizing her work documenting the life of Bryant’s own Gertrude Meth Hochberg.
In all of these presentations, our students did a terrific job of summarizing months of work and much longer and more extensive research projects. Bringing their work down to just 15 minutes for each paper was a real challenge – and they made it work.
Tom provided our final show-stopping presentation. His was the last paper of the last session of the day. He had some nerves going in, but put together 15 minutes on his research, “Rhetoric of Presidential Inaugural Addresses,” to explain the American concept of democracy. No one in the room left when he finished! It was late, but people had questions and comments that kept the session going well beyond the scheduled time.
We don’t know how we could be more proud of our students. They engaged. They shared. They appreciated what they heard and discussed. Then, in each case, they gave presentations that you’d have to say qualified for “best-in-show” ribbons. Obviously, they don’t give those here. The point is that their presentations were among the best that we heard. What a terrific conference! In fact, we found it more intellectually satisfying than many of the professional historical meetings that we have attended.
College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Lux and History Professor Judy Barrett Litoff
Friday, April 1
Today, I had the first opportunity to present some of my research findings from my Honors Capstone Project, “Rhetorical Democracy: An Examination of the Presidential Inaugural Addresses.” I was eager to present my findings, and it did not help that I was the last presenter at the last session of the day. I have been thinking about ideas for my Honors capstone ever since I was a freshman at Bryant. The project gave me an opportunity to explore any topic that interested me; however, it was very difficult to narrow myself to one topic, given the variety of ideas that I had in mind.
Ultimately, I decided to look at how the Presidents of the United States used the word “democracy” in their inaugural addresses as a rhetorical device. My project allowed me to explore the manifestations of American political ideology through the mouthpiece of the Presidents in their inaugural addresses.
All the seats in the room where I gave my presentation were taken; the room was so crowded that people were standing up in the back and even sitting on the floor! I had to wait through three presentations, ranging from a very statistically driven analysis to a discussion of happiness and its relationship with different forms of government, before my time finally came.
Although limited to an eighth of the time of the presentation I will give at the Honors Capstone Colloquium, I was excited to share my research with an audience for the first time. While I had to hurry through some of my conclusions due to time constraints, I felt relieved that the presentation ran smoothly.
The most exciting part was the discussion that was generated after my presentation. Immediately after I concluded, hands shot up across the room as members of the audience wanted to ask me questions about my research. I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing that the audience not only understood my analysis, but wanted to know more about my project. I was especially glad to hear a question about the rhetorical presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Having devoted so much time and energy into my work, it was an amazing feeling to hear others take an interest in what I had done. I am now even more excited to present my full project at the Honors Colloquium on Research and Engagement Day.
Tom Pagliarini ’11
Friday, April 1
Today’s presentation, “The Life and Times of Gertrude Meth Hochberg,” was my third opportunity to tell the story of Gertrude’s life and work. The paper is for my Senior Honors Capstone Project. It tells the story of Gertrude Meth Hochberg, arguably the most important woman in Bryant’s history. She was a woman decades ahead of her time. In 1975, she was appointed Vice President for Public Affairs at Bryant College, which made her the first woman at Bryant and in Rhode Island to be named a vice president at a college.
The format of this conference was different from the other presentation venues. Reducing Gertrude’s story to fit the 15-minute time limit was a difficult task. Additionally, after I saw my fellow students present yesterday, I knew we were surrounded by intelligent academics who expected a high quality of work.
Although I practiced multiple times before today, and each practice session fit within the 15 minute time limit, I found that when I was in the presentation environment, things can turn out very differently. I was forced to think quickly and narrow down the final slides of my presentation in a way that kept the conclusion strong.
Luckily, I was able to highlight the most important and pioneering elements of Gertrude’s life to the NCUR participants. Surprisingly, no questions were asked of me afterwards. I attribute this to the fact that I pushed the time limit in order to ensure that justice was given to Gertrude.
In retrospect, I do regret not being able to prepare my presentation to fit the requirements of my session at NCUR. However, I realize now that I have a large personal investment in this project, and it is the full story that showcases how Gertrude tirelessly promoted the status of women throughout her career.
It requires a lot of personal discipline to be able to take such a detailed research project and present your most important points in only 15 minutes. I really give credit to my fellow researchers. We have seen a variety of interesting presentations, and it is clear that much work went into each project. Still, many of the presenters seamlessly fused large research papers into informative 15-minute talks.
My presentation at NCUR was a unique academic experience. I was able to showcase my research to a wide variety of students from across the United States, all of whom specialize in different subject areas. Recognizing the diversity of the audience was very important in the preparation of this speech as not all students know about Bryant or its history, not all students were knowledgeable in history, and a wide majority of the audience had never even heard the name Gertrude Meth Hochberg.
Although the participants may have never known about Gertrude, I hope they came away from my presentation with a new appreciation for this remarkable woman. From the comments I received after the session, it was clear they were captivated by the visuals that I used in my PowerPoint presentation, which is a very rewarding feeling.
Jessica Komoroski ’11
Read earlier blog entries from the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
