Unique to a community college, the public seminar on Friday is modeled after those conducted by graduate students and research scholars
The Times
Bucks County Community College invites the public to its nationally-recognized biannual Student Research Conference from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, May 3 at the Newtown campus.
The event, which was a finalist for a national academic award, attracts more than 150 students from across several academic disciplines.
“It gives participants the chance to present their semester-long research projects in the same manner of graduate students and research scholars,” said Charlie Groth, a professor in the Language and Literature Department, who co-directs the program with professor Sarahlyn Bruck.
The conference, sponsored by the Language and Literature Department and organized by a campus-wide committee, is open to all students from all seven academic departments: Arts, Business and Innovation, Health Sciences, Kinesiology and Sport Studies, Language and Literature, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics), and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
The event is structured like a professional research conference. Participants convene into panels, meeting in classrooms across campus. Presenters each offer a five-minute overview of their findings, and then discuss those findings with one another and conference attendees.
The Student Research Conference was a top-ten finalist for a Bellwether Community College Award.
“We were selected as a finalist in the Instructional Programs and Services category, indicating that this is one of the top new innovative programs in the country,” said Groth.
The Bellwether Awards are given annually in three categories to colleges with outstanding and innovative programs or practices. The Bellwether College Consortium recognized Bucks as a finalist at its annual Community College Futures Assembly in San Antonio, Texas, in February.
The Student Research Conference, centered in the Gallagher Room of the Rollins Center on the campus at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Language and Literature Department at 215–968–8150 or visit bucks.edu/SRC
