Grace Reyes presents at regional conference

2016 Mar 14

Grace Reyes of Kenosha presented at the Midwest Institute for Students and Teachers of Psychology.

The regional conference was held Feb. 26 at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. The group presented a panel discussion titled, "Student-Faculty Partnership in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning."

Prof. Leslie Cameron described the program, and Prof. Cornelia Zerban reported what the students got out of the partnership. The students were responsible for reporting the data they collected throughout their partnerships.

Students on the research team - all psychology majors - were given a list of research topics in September and were given the opportunity to choose whatever topic interested them, according to Prof. Cameron. The students worked with psychology classmates and faculty members over the course of several months to build their own research and gain experience in the field.

"Being a part of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) team was a great experience for me. I was able to work closely with both a fellow student and faculty members over the course of five months and do some of my very own research from the ground up," Michael Von Borstel '17 said.

Besides being able to conduct their own research, students said work leading up to the conference allowed them to fully realize what was involved in psychology research and presentation. Plus, it solidified that this is the field they truly want to pursue.

"This conference was a great experience for anyone who is looking to have a chance to present research in the field of psychology," said Kiran Sehgal '18. "Doing research for the conference was a lot of work, but it was definitely worth every minute."

Prof. Cameron received positive feedback from both the students and other attendees of the conference. She hopes to attend the conference and present again next year.

"This has been an amazing opportunity to collaborate with the students. They all enjoyed working with other students and faculty members, and it created such a supportive and coherent team," said Prof. Cameron. "I've done research with other students in the past, but it has never had such spirit. These students really represented Carthage well."