By Courtney Cole/ Delta Staff Writer 

Missouri Valley College will once again be hosting its Student Research Symposium giving scholars the opportunity to showcase their academic pursuits, but the deadline for submissions is getting close.

Students have until March 29 to make their submissions. In order to register, students will need to submit a title and a hundred-word abstract to the committee. The submission form can be found at by following this link.

The symposium will take place on April 26, a day set aside with no classes to maximize student participation. The event will be socially-distanced and masks are required.

The student symposium enables students to show off  their educational talent to more than just the people in their classrooms. 

Dr. Claire Schmidt, an associate professor at Missouri Valley College, is one of the event coordinators and has been with the program since it started back in fall of 2016. It was at this time that Dr. Diane Bartholomew, vice president of academic affairs, asked Schmidt and other faculty and staff to streamline honors events and senior thesis presentations in a way where faculty and fellow students could go to both. Schmidt and Jennifer Livengood, Associate Professor of Psychology
Instructor of the MACC Program, came up with the idea. 

The student symposium is an all-day event with three categories (presentations, posters, and performances) that are judged by a team including symposium committee members, students and volunteers. In total there are about 50 judges for the event. Schmidt said Eric Mueller designed the judges’ rubric to be as unbiased as possible.

Schimidt said she enjoys seeing students share the work that they have put in the effort on. It is thrilling to see the work students have started in a class made it into something professional, she said. Students should be recognized not only by one faculty member and their class, but also by everyone since MVC is an academic community. It is also a huge professional opportunity where it shows employers or even future graduate schools that the individual is engaged and contributing in ways that are above the bare minimum. 

“The student research symposium is our flagship academic event and students use this to professionalize and show their excellent work to build connections across campus.” Schmidt said.

Lea Filali, an adviser in the Student Success Center, said when she was a student, she was a part of the committee. After she graduated, she still wanted to be a part of the student research symposium. Her favorite part is actually seeing the students’ work come alive in front of everyone. 

Filali’s personal goal for the student research symposium is to help create an event for the entire campus to enjoy. Last year, she was a part of the judging panel where she had the opportunity to judge about five presentations. When judging it was based on five factors focusing on organization, depth and complexity, use of audio and visual, engagement of the audience and the ability to answer questions about the research topic. 

Filali fully recommends students to be involved with the symposium, especially since it is great on a resume and broadens one’s experience for new things. Since the students talk in front of a group of people, it is always a great way to get practice in public speaking, she said.