January 2020
This will be my first year attending Student Research Week. And needless to say, I am pumped. The countdown timer on the SRW website is ticking away, and has officially reached 96 days until the conference—marked March 16th-20th, 2020.
I am elated to be planning this conference, and a big part of me feels like the many students will be walking into the dim-lit ballroom in the MSC to present their very-first poster presentation—an emotional mess. We will be nervous and excited. These students will be taking the risk to show people what they have been working on for many tireless months. Then some time will pass, and they will look back at their research and say, “did I really write that?”
I remember presenting my first poster presentation on research that I did back in Georgia for my undergrad degree in Political Science. It was titled “Will Saudi Arabia Evolve?” That paper got so many red marks that it was ready for Christmas, and there plenty of citation errors that a friendly librarian pointed out.
After the conference, I pulled my paper up by the bootstraps and began making some small changes that I thought ruined my paper forever. A year and a half later, I turned in a thesis that, while not perfect, was a better than before.
That conference solidified what research conferences really meant to me. Now, I look back at that initial question with a chuckle. Yes, I really did write that. Research conferences are meant for failure. They are meant to be an opportunity to get your ideas out into the open.
Those small moments of “failure” result in growth. That moment is what I’m striving here when planning SRW. While I am both excited and nervous to be planning this year’s SRW, I will know that Student Research Week is going to make its mark.
Whether your paper gets a good amount of red marks or not, I encourage you to challenge yourself and get out there and let people know what you’ve come up with. Student Research Week is a great opportunity to do just that.
You are guaranteed feedback on your research from judges, could meet some great mentors, attend panels, win monetary awards, and most importantly, grow as a researcher. To gain even more feedback on your research, you also have the opportunity to attend presentation workshops. If you are a graduate student, you can even register as a judge to provide feedback to undergraduate students.
You can register for Student Research Week at: srwonline.tamu.edu. The conference will take place, March 16-20th at the Memorial Student Center, and registration closes February 15th.
If you have any questions, please reach out.
--------Emily Krout
ekrout@studentlife.tamu.edu
I am elated to be planning this conference, and a big part of me feels like the many students will be walking into the dim-lit ballroom in the MSC to present their very-first poster presentation—an emotional mess. We will be nervous and excited. These students will be taking the risk to show people what they have been working on for many tireless months. Then some time will pass, and they will look back at their research and say, “did I really write that?”
I remember presenting my first poster presentation on research that I did back in Georgia for my undergrad degree in Political Science. It was titled “Will Saudi Arabia Evolve?” That paper got so many red marks that it was ready for Christmas, and there plenty of citation errors that a friendly librarian pointed out.
After the conference, I pulled my paper up by the bootstraps and began making some small changes that I thought ruined my paper forever. A year and a half later, I turned in a thesis that, while not perfect, was a better than before.
That conference solidified what research conferences really meant to me. Now, I look back at that initial question with a chuckle. Yes, I really did write that. Research conferences are meant for failure. They are meant to be an opportunity to get your ideas out into the open.
Those small moments of “failure” result in growth. That moment is what I’m striving here when planning SRW. While I am both excited and nervous to be planning this year’s SRW, I will know that Student Research Week is going to make its mark.
Whether your paper gets a good amount of red marks or not, I encourage you to challenge yourself and get out there and let people know what you’ve come up with. Student Research Week is a great opportunity to do just that.
You are guaranteed feedback on your research from judges, could meet some great mentors, attend panels, win monetary awards, and most importantly, grow as a researcher. To gain even more feedback on your research, you also have the opportunity to attend presentation workshops. If you are a graduate student, you can even register as a judge to provide feedback to undergraduate students.
You can register for Student Research Week at: srwonline.tamu.edu. The conference will take place, March 16-20th at the Memorial Student Center, and registration closes February 15th.
If you have any questions, please reach out.
--------Emily Krout
ekrout@studentlife.tamu.edu