By Sierra Plese 04.11.2014

Last weekend, five students and five faculty mentors from Milligan’s 499C research program attended the 2014 National Conference on Undergraduate Research at the University of Kentucky.

 

Every year, Milligan students conduct research and write papers relevant to their degree to be entered into conferences. This year, four posters and an oral presentation were accepted for the 2014 NCUR.

 

Meagan Smith, a senior psychology major, presented a poster on the prevalence of drug and alcohol use by adolescents in the Johnson City School System.

 

“The whole experience - conducting the literature review, entering data, seeing the results, presenting findings at a conference - was phenomenal,” said Smith, “and presenting at NCUR was just the cherry on top.”

 

Smith also said that this type of research is beneficial to graduate school applications. Any student who has taken Comp 211 can start this process by signing up for the first research course, 499A, in which you and your faculty mentor decide what you will research.

 

“Undergraduate research gives one the tools to ask questions about different occurrences in the world, and find a way to the answer, whatever it may be,” said Smith.

 

She also encouraged students to sign up for this course by talking to a professor currently working on a research project or by contacting Dr. Joy Drinnon, the director of undergraduate research.

 

The other students that presented at NCUR were Megan Guerra, Anneka Snyder, Dani DeSousa Aroucha and Nate Andrew. All five students will be presenting their research at the first annual RISE Above Research Conference next Tuesday, April 15 in the Gregory Center.