Students present work at spring symposium

Last week, 270 Middlebury students across disciplines and class years came together to present the culmination of months of research in what has become an annual celebration of academic exploration at Middlebury — the student spring symposium.
Now in its first year as a multi-day event, the symposium began Thurday with what Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) Director and Symposium Committee Co-Chair Kathy Skubikowski described as “a festival for the arts,” including music and dance performances as well as film and theater pieces. The decision to schedule these performances on a separate day was made with the hope of increasing attendance — according to Skubikowski, last year’s symposium lasted until 6:15 p.m., and the audience dwindled as the night went on. In addition, Bicentennial Hall was not at all conducive to music — with its lackluster acoustics — or dancing, with its hard, wooden floors.
“This year the arts department [was] really intent on there not being any distinction between the morning and evening presentations,” explained Carla Cevasco ’11, student project manager for the symposium. “They want the arts to be taken seriously and seen as an academic thing.”
To accompany this homage to art academia, the committee selected Brad Corrigan ’96, a member of the bands Dispatch and Braddigan, as keynote speaker. This was a rather unconventional choice, given that in the past two years, the speakers have been academics; Gruia Badescu ’07, who did work for National Geographic and the United Nations, spoke last year, and the year before, marine scientist Cinda Scott ’99 gave the keynote address. Skubikowski, however, felt Corrigan was a good fit for the position.
“We saw how well Midd had prepped him for what he later did in founding three or four charitable foundations — he put together his music major, environmental ethics minor, lacrosse, french — to help other people,” said Skubikowski. “It struck us that he took the skills and passion he acquired here and put them together in interesting ways.”
“He showed there’s more to a Middlebury education than what you learn in the classroom or what you write or what you learn in the lab,” said Cevasco.

While some were unimpressed with Corrigan’s speech, others were moved by the work he has done since leaving school.

“He showed that what he learned at Middlebury, he was able to apply to the rest of his life and that’s what a lot of people are insecure about with the liberal arts. They go to college and they do something [t]here and they don’t know how to apply it necessarily later on,” said Cevasco. “So the fact that a music major could go on and do something beyond music … I think it was a really good thing for students to see.”
The Friday presentations featured poster representations of research as well as short lectures given by students on their findings. The lectures were organized into themed groups, giving each speaker 15 minutes to share what they learned through their research. Attendees were able to move among groups to enjoy individual presentations, allowing them to hear about a wide variety of topics and not be confined to one grouping if, for example, “Intersections and Evolutions of Identity Politics” was being presented at the same time as “American Travel Writing Projects.”

Presentation topics within each category were loosely related, to “allow viewers to look at one topic from a variety of directions,” said Skubikowski.

“A lot of the presentation groups are trying to find connections that even the presenters hadn’t thought of initially,” said Cevasco. “I think it can be illuminating even for presenters to see their work being interpreted just by these groupings.”

In what seemed a stroke of good luck, the symposium coincided with preview days for prospective students. However, this setup was not entirely a coincidence. According to Skubikowski, after last year’s symposium, Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett requested that some of the student research posters be placed in the admissions office for preview days. But what he really wanted was for “students and parents to experience the buzz” — that is to say, the high-energy excitement of academia that was tangible throughout the day. So preview days and the symposium were organized for the same weekend, allowing prospective students to experience the opportunities Middlebury can offer them.


“I think its important that prospective students see — especially if they’re deciding between a place like Middlebury and a bigger university — that here at a liberal arts college you have more of a change to do these kinds of things, to do research directly with professors instead of having grad students,” said Cevasco.
While student participation is growing every year, the question as to whether canceling Friday classes increased attendance is still up for debate. Even with a successful turnout, it seemed as though many of students present were seniors watching their friends present and other presenters moving around between presentations.

“Because there are so many seniors presenting senior work it’s harder to get underclassmen to come for example because they don’t personally know people who are presenting,” said Cevasco. “They’d have to come there out of pure academic interest, which not everyone is going to do. But we’re a pretty nerdy campus and there were a lot of people there who were genuinely interested.”

Others felt a strong student interest present in all years, and not just among the senior class.

“I’m so glad they canceled classes so students who were not presenting could see the amazing amount of original research that students do on this campus,” said Assistant Professor of Political Science Quinn Mecham. “I had a number of students come up to me afterwards and say how the symposium inspired them to make sure they do an independent research project while they are here.”

The symposium was, all in all, a resounding success, received very well by presenters, attendees and moderators alike. For seniors, it was a chance to show the fruits of their labors as well as to see the result of their classmates four years at Middlebury.

“I think the symposium was a tremendous success for the College, exhibiting its encouragement of student activity over and above classroom performance,” said Evan Masseau ’11. “I enjoyed seeing culminating projects in many disciplines that really displayed just how diverse Midd Kids’ interests are.”

For underclassman, it encouraged and inspired future participation and promoted independent research projects as an academic avenue.


“Overall I was really impressed with the students’ knowledge of their topics. Obviously they had all done significant amounts of research for their subject, and it showed,” said Leslie Reed ’14. “During several of the presentations I felt like I was hearing from a guest speaker or professor more than a student. For me, it was motivating to see that all of the hard work really does pay off.”

For underclassmen it was an opportunity to revitalize their interests through research and student interactions.

“I did the symposium because I want to let people in Middlebury be more exposed to the art of porcelain as well as Chinese history,” said Wenbo Zhang ’13, a first-time presenter. “I really appreciated the amount of freedom the symposium gave me so I didn’t feel pressur[ed] in any way … I had fun talking to people about my poster and sharing some stories about the emperors.”

The symposium offers a brief moment for students, so focused on their own work and their own classes, to take a step back to appreciate and celebrate the successes of our student body in independent research.

“Remember that the people you see around every day in the dining hall — we’re all academics,” said Cevasco.