Isabel Wojcik (A Scoping Review: Associations Between Mindful Eating, Body Image, and Disordered Eating Among Adolescents)
As a junior student majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to present a poster at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate Research Symposium on behalf of the Family Resiliency Center. I first learned about the symposium through an email research advisor, Dr. Jennifer Barton, who encouraged me to submit my research for consideration.
Initially, I was nervous about presenting my work to a large audience of fellow researchers and academics, but I was also excited to share my findings and receive feedback from others in the field. What I was looking forward to the most about the symposium was the chance to connect with other researchers and learn about their projects. I was also eager to attend the symposium, which featured experts in various fields of research. The opportunity to network with other scholars and gain insights from their experiences was invaluable.
Presenting at the symposium at first glance does feel daunting, especially when I was most concerned about the clarity of my presentation and whether I would be able to effectively communicate my findings to others. However, the guidance and assistance as well as the feedback I received from my peers and mentors was immensely helpful in improving my work.
One of my biggest takeaways from this experience was the importance of collaboration and networking in the research community. Through my interactions with other presenters and attendees, I was able to learn about new approaches and perspectives that I had not considered before. Additionally, I gained a deeper appreciation for the process of conducting research and the impact it can have on communities and individuals.
Overall, my experience of presenting at the undergraduate research symposium has greatly impacted my thoughts about research. I now have a deeper understanding of the importance of collaboration, communication, and networking in the research process, and I am eager to continue pursuing opportunities to engage with others in the field.
Sloane Ward (Centering Youth Voices about Their Experiences with COVID-19)
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium and am grateful for the support I received in participating in the symposium by everyone in the FRC. I chose to work on research projects at the FRC this year because when I found out the FRC was doing a COVID study I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to learn more about the pandemic that impacted not just me, but my close community as well as the entire world.
I learned about the symposium through one of the supervisors on the project who encouraged me to sign up and from then on I thought about possible topics for my presentation. Through participating in various interviews for the study I took interest in the youth aspect and found what the youth had to say about their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic to be fascinating. I then chose youth experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic to be my presentation topic.
After many weeks of coding meetings, write up processes, creating my presentation slides, feedback and encouragement from the team, and a dry run presentation, I was then ready to give my oral presentation at the symposium. I was most nervous to present in front of my peers because this was my first time ever being involved in research as well as giving any sort of research presentation. I felt so much support from my peers, members of the team who came to see me and everyone who watched my presentation.
The experience of the symposium has further encouraged my desire to conduct and present research to others which I never would have discovered had it not been for the FRC. I’m grateful for this opportunity and for all the support I received from every member of the FRC for supporting me throughout this journey.