All over campus spring has sprung and so has the season for regional conferences and presenting senior research projects in front of the U.S. Congress.
During the months of April and May three different student groups have been scheduled to attend several different conferences, competitions and meetings to showcase various projects and pieces each group has been working on throughout the year.
Members of the three groups — Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) and a trio of senior biology majors — are going to their respective events hoping to represent Ouachita well and, of course, to get rewarded for their hard work.
Phi Alpha Theta traveled to University of Arkansas at Monticello on Saturday, April 4 to the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference.
Senior history and secondary education double major Rebekah McMillan traveled with the group to Monticello.
“I presented a piece that I wrote in Dr. Motl’s Holocaust class last semester,” McMillan said. “The conference was good practice for me when I go to graduate school and have to attend bigger conferences.”
Senior history major Kayla Wicker presented a paper at the Monticello conference as well.
“I presented a paper that I completed for Dr. Kevin Motl’s Research Seminar titled, ‘The Town that Dreaded Sundown: The Lingering Fear of the Phantom Killer of Texarkana,’” Wicker said. “It was a look at the actions of a serial killer in Texarkana in 1946 and what the effects of his presence there have meant to the town.”
Phi Alpha Theta is not the only club on campus excelling, however. Ouachita’s SIFE students traveled to Dallas for an April 3 regional competition where the team “emerged as champions in their league,” according to Dr. Bryan McKinney, dean of Hickingbotham School of Business.
The SIFE regional competition consisted of various teams from around the country that presented their projects in front of a panel of judges. Each team was allotted 24 minutes to set up and deliver their presentation.
Ouachita’s presentation was a compilation of many different group projects, but each member of the team presented a particular project for the panel of judges.
Junior business administration-finance major Kendra Pruitt certainly did her part in helping her team to the victory line.
“I spoke about our Financial Literacy project in which we teamed up with the KIPP school of Helena-West Helena in the impoverished Delta Region of our state to teach fifth graders ‘Financial FUNdamentals,’” Pruitt said. “This project was extremely significant because we reached beyond our campus and community to an area known for its impoverishment … to help with children’s education.”
Since achieving champion status at the Dallas competition, the team now has the opportunity to go to the SIFE National Exposition in Philadelphia May 10-12.
“I’m excited about Philadelphia,” Pruitt said. “I’m also thrilled about networking, meeting accomplished students and employers and competing at the SIFE Nationals for the first time in Ouachita’s history.”
On May 5, three senior biology majors — Heather Ferguson, Adam Hurst and John Sims — will have the opportunity to present their research data titled, “New Hope for the Treatment of Ewing’s Sarcoma and Related Cancers,” to the United States Congress.
The research data collected under the direction of Dr. Lori Hensley, assistant professor of biology, shows “a compound called resveratrol leads to significant cell death in PNET (primitive neuroectodermal) tumors,” Ferguson said.
The “Posters on the Hill” research conference will allow these three students, along with Hensley, to present a “poster presentation that highlights multiple areas of research that several students participated in,” Hurst said.
Dr. and Mrs. Rex Horne will be accompanying the students and Hensley on trip.
“But they didn’t do any research,” Ferguson said with a laugh.
The three seniors going on the trip also have more on their mind than just delivering a well-structured presentation.
“I hope we can show the congressmen the overwhelming benefits of funding undergraduate research programs,” Ferguson said. “I hope that, after meeting with them, they will have gained a better understanding of how undergraduate research is … an opportunity which contributes a great deal to a student’s undergraduate education, as well as opens them up to new experiences and provides inspiration for future career paths.”
While some of the trip’s attendees are ecstatic to be going, others just hope they do not mess up their presentation.
“I would just love to not be embarrassed in front of Congress,” Hurst said. “These people are going to be extremely smart and challenge us to know our information. I want to represent Ouachita well.”
