Undergrads act like grads at symposium

Practice makes perfect, especially if you’re an undergrad preparing for graduate school.

At… Practice makes perfect, especially if you’re an undergrad preparing for graduate school.

At a research symposium presented Friday by the Center for West European Studies/European Union Center and the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, undergrads from six universities practiced presenting research — a task usually reserved for graduate-level students.

Participants in the symposium submitted research papers that they had written for any class dealing with Russian or European topics of interest. Papers chosen for the program were divided into six categories.

Steve Lund, assistant director of CWES and member of the Symposium Organization Committee, believes the event is invaluable to undergraduate students.

“Undergraduates do not have many opportunities to present research in front of an audience, especially in front of people, some of whom are judging you,” Lund said. “Most students will not have the opportunity to present until they are at the graduate level. This gives them that much more poise for their first presentation.”

Pitt student Andrea Patterson submitted her paper focusing on Holocaust poetry to the symposium at the suggestion of her teacher. Patterson didn’t expect her paper to be accepted into the competition, and was very excited to hear that she would have the opportunity to present her research.

“I did it more for practice with presenting and defending a thesis,” she said. Patterson plans on attending graduate school for psychology. For her, the most beneficial aspect of the symposium was that it gave her “practice with presenting ideas to a group of people effectively.”

Steve Salas, outreach administrator for CWES and member of the Symposium Organization Committee, believes that the students’ research helps to give undergraduates a better understanding of what graduate school is like.

“I had no idea as an undergrad about what graduate school was about,” Salas said. “I would have liked to have known this is something that is a part of grad school.”

For some students participating, the symposium may actually have helped them get into graduate school. Timothy Krysiek, a senior at Mercyhurst College in Erie, plans to attend the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland in the fall on a Marshall Scholarship.

This is Krysiek’s second year participating in the symposium. Last year, he delivered his honors thesis to a board of esteemed judges, and was able to receive positive feedback on the presentation.

Krysiek won an award for that presentation and had his paper published as a result — something that he said was great for his resume.

“This forced me to articulate my ideas for a knowledgeable audience,” Krysiek said. “It was like I was the lecturer, teaching Ph.D.s something new.”

Pitt student Daniel Armanios conducted his research on the differences between European Union and United States economic policies. Armanios was also encouraged by his professor to submit the paper to the contest. Upon discovering that he had been selected to participate, Armanios was “surprised because it was the first time that [he] did real substantive research.”

Armanios is a mechanical engineering and political science dual major who has an interest in both the natural and social sciences. While excited for the actual presentation, he was most looking forward to seeing the research critiques.

“I am hoping to see the difference between research in the sciences and research in International Affairs,” Armanios said. “I want to see what I need to work on, what is required to do research in International Affairs.”