Student scholarship is among the core educational endeavors at Northern Michigan University and those efforts will be recognized at the 22nd annual Celebration of Student Scholarship on Thursday, April 13. This event allows undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to publically display and discuss posters and give presentations explaining or demonstrating their work.

About 100 students participate in the event. It features a poster contest, judged by faculty volunteers from multiple disciplines across campus, as well as a full schedule of presentations from students throughout the day.

Posters will be displayed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the lobbies of Jamrich Hall. An opening ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. in Jamrich 1322, and presentations will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in 1322 Jamrich. An award ceremony and luncheon will begin at noon.

“These hands-on learning opportunities related to research and scholarship offer students the opportunity to learn discipline-specific skillsets like data analysis, writing, interviewing, data gathering and professional conduct,” said Heather Pickett, event organizer and director of the McNair Scholars Program. “It is important to celebrate their work and facilitate this opportunity for them to publically present and discuss their work.”

Sharing work in such a context is vital to the students’ academic careers. Poster development and presentations are common components for all disciplines in academia, and to garner experience at such an early career stage is hugely beneficial.

The celebration will culminate with a keynote event, inviting two interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students to the stage of Jamrich 1100 to discuss their projects. Featured talk, “DNA and Diversity: Zambia, Blue Wildebeest, Bioinformatics and Computer Clusters,” will begin at 5 p.m., followed by  “What’s in your nose? A study of nasal colonization of Staph and Strep in Marquette”

Additional details can be found at www.nmu.edu/studentcelebration. Contact Pickett at 227-2538 or hpickett@nmu.edu.