The onset of Covid-19 brought with it a lot of setbacks and unanticipated rescheduling in its wake. For Honors students Taylor Bennett, Madison Deacon, Amy Frosch and Natalee Stinebiser as well as Dr. Bomberger, the pandemic completely changed the National Collegiate Honors Conference (NCHC) from an event based in Texas to one based on the computer screen. Leading up to this year, the Honors students worked extensively to compile and finalize research projects for their submission to NCHC. The competition was intense and the four students were accepted to present at the conference! In addition to sharing their presentations with professionals and fellow honors students, the group can use the conference as a means of networking and connecting with fellow Honors students across the country. With the switch to an online program, the students were asked to submit their presentations in a video format so that other students could watch them in their own time. The conference also held live events scattered throughout the week that included a variation of speakers geared toward student and faculty audiences and topics. Despite the switch up, the Honors team adapted seamlessly and thoroughly enjoyed their NCHC experiences. 

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Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the Honors attendees about their experiences. I asked them about their topics, their reasoning behind their choice in topic, how the switch to online went as well as if it provided the opportunity for growth and what their favorite part was. Here’s what they had to say:

 
“We presented an idea exchange which was focused on the Honors Intercultural Collaboration Committee. Madison and I chose this topic for multiple reasons. One, this committee just began a few years and is unique to Gannon. Second, I am the co-chair of the committee so I have a lot of passion about this topic. It was not difficult but it was different. I feel that I could have gotten the whole experience by being in person by meeting others, collaborating, listening to other ideas and connect with the presenters better. Well, having the conference online forced us to prerecord our speech. This allowed me to see the body language I use, how I present myself, and if I am too monotoned or do I seem energetic about my topic. This conference did allow me to grow and strengthen my speaking skills even when we were virtual. I still got to enjoy working on this idea exchange with Madison and also getting to hear what other students across the nation put together even though we are all not together in person”.

-Amy Frosch

“My topic was a case study of Erie on how water quality impacts the progression of city development and economic growth. I chose that as my topic because I see what erie is going through with the revitalization initiatives and I’ve always been passionate about the environment. It’s crazy to see how much our systems are interconnected, I never really thought about how urbanization and agriculture impacts the water system and how that ultimately impacts us until I researched this. In terms of the switch, this was my first conference that I would’ve been able to present at. I’m upset that we weren’t able to go to Texas like we anticipated. However, I’m glad that NCHC found a way to adapt to our crazy world and allow us to present and gain that experience still”.

-Natalee Stinebiser  

 

“Our topic was “An Intercultural Collaboration: A committee connecting honors students to international students”. We chose this topic because many universities don’t have committees that are dedicated to bringing international students together with honors students like our program does. We figured our topic would be accepted since this is the case. The switch to online was not difficult to do but it certainly was disappointing since we can’t travel for the conference or actually meet people in person. Having the conference online did teach me some things about presenting because it did provide me with the opportunity to watch how other students and faculty present their own topics on an online platform. Overall, my favorite part about this experience was collaborating with a fellow honors member to present something that we are both a part of in order to possibly see other honors programs across the country use this idea as well”.

-Madison Deacon

“The topic Dr. Bomberger and I presented was an idea exchange about student leadership development. So Dr. B actually approached me to join her presentation because we are both on the board of NRHC and had to go to the conference as part of our duties. She was already doing the topic, but, if it wasn’t obvious already, I really value student leadership and student leadership development. Basically we gave different ideas as to how we include student leadership into our program. For example, in committee chair meetings we put in short activities to help our committee chairs develop as student leaders. In the video we made, we went over different types of activities that we include and how and where we get our ideas from. So it was

 the perfect topic for me to co-present with her on. The switch wasn’t all that difficult but it was definitely not the way I would have wanted to present the idea exchange. The concept of the idea exchange is to allow other honors programs, students and professors to share ideas with one another to help further their own programs. It really helped me to see the different ways that one presents, especially now that we are moving towards a very virtual world. My favorite part was just being able to reflect on the different activities that we have done and to see the successes and failures in the different activities that I created. Overall, it was and is a great experience and something that I would recommend every honors student to try to be a part of. Conference presenting is an incredible way to be able to gain professionalism and meet other students in honors programs''.

-Taylor Bennett

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