Over the past weekend, the Student Showcase took place; an event where students on campus are able to display their recent research work in poster format.

Students from across disciplines have spent the past few weeks creating posters of their of the research they have been doing over the past few months. This weekend these posters went up for display in the ballroom while prospective students were on campus for an event held by the Admissions Office.

The poster creators, current USAO students, presented their work at the event on campus. They also stayed and answered questions any of the prospective students might have about their research or USAO more generally. This gave the would-be freshmen a chance to interact with current students here as well as demonstrate to them the caliber of work USAO students achieve regularly.

The array of topics represented current students’ interests accurately: they were individual and interdisplinary.

For example, Alexis Avery, senior sociology major, presented her research on birthing practices across different religious traditions and how those practices change within different communities. Avery became interested in the topic during her study of religion at USAO; particularly last fall when she was enrolled in Comparative Religions, a class which compares the five major world religions more generally. She used her individual interest in birthing practices alongside both sociological and religious concepts to create a unique research project.

Also on display this weekend was Chad Eggar’s research. Eggar is a junior art major and his research project is the first at USAO, to knowledge, about art. His focus was on abstraction and realism: which is ‘more’ real? Staying true to USAO’s mantra of interdisplinary studies, he also employed some psychology to help him with his project.

Additionally, this year’s Student Showcase boasts yet another first: Cody Coponiti and Anne Tsnoestokoy are the first research duo on campus. Usually research projects are done single individual who reaches across multiple disciplines to accomplish their work, however, these two teamed up from separate disciplines to help each other create one research project.

All in all, prospective students had an ideal opportunity this weekend to imagine all they could accomplish at USAO following the footsteps of the fantastic students who were there displaying their work.