by Maren Ewertz–Students at Morningside can count on having their research appreciated by the university. The Palmer Research Symposium is a yearly event that shows off research done by many different disciplines.
While there isn’t a true “theme” to Palmer, there is the sentiment that anyone who submits knows that it is a place to show off the research they have done throughout their time at Morningside. There are a few people who present who have worked on their projects for a few months, and there are people who show off research that has been many years in the making.
The Palmer Research Symposium is also a majority student–led event. Rachel Spier, a junior, is on the board. Spier is from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and has spent lots of time at Morningside involved in many different groups on campus. She started with being on the general board for Palmer last year, and this year she is co-leading it.
Spier is currently in charge of organizing the submissions. Last year, they didn’t get as many submissions as they were hoping for, so she wanted to be an executive board member. “I wanted to be able to utilize leadership skills I learned on campus in something more educationally based rather than different events based on group work,” Spier stated.
She said that her main jobs include making sure Palmer stays on schedule, handing out roles to other board members, organizing and delegating jobs and tasks to other members of the groups, making sure Palmer runs smoothly, and keeping in contact with faculty advisors and the researchers themselves.
Asked how Spier envisions the Palmer Research Symposium contributing to research and academia, she made the point that all the presenters are Morningside University students. Some of the presenters are virtual as they are the graduate nursing students, but a majority of Palmer consists of in–person presentations. Those presentations range anywhere from a simple talk to a full blown paper presentation with poster board.
Each year students submit to Palmer through the simple process of filling out a Google Form. According to Spier this form outlines the title, abstract, what type of project they will be presenting (qualitative or quantitative), and if the project is a poster or a presentation.
Spier only has one main concern when it comes to Palmer. The one challenge is that people who submit, tend to submit more than once. It was hard to decide which one they wanted to present. The Palmer Committee had to reach out to the presenters to decide which one they were going to present. Spier said, “With my team we were able to reach out to everyone and have them decide what they want to present and how they want to present it.”
Spier also said that as long as a student has a faculty advisor to do research with them, they’re pretty much in. The only requirement is if the abstract is over 150 words, then it would be considered too long. However, the Palmer Committee tries to give those researchers that warning ahead of time. Palmer tries to make sure that anyone who submits is given a chance to present.
According to Spier there will be a keynote speaker, Dr. Rajasingh Johnson. He will be there to discuss stem cells in industry and medicine. The Palmer family, the people who sponsor the event, come as well. She also wanted to note that all the judges for Palmer are faculty and staff members.
Palmer typically accepts research about a month before the actual event. Palmer usually promotes the event halfway through the school year, but Spier is hoping to promote it earlier. “My big goal is to make sure we have the numbers. We have had a lot fewer submissions recently.”
This year Rachel Spier wanted to get her feet wet to see what the Palmer Research Symposium looks like as a co-leader. Spier said, “I want to see what goes well and what goes poorly and how best to go far for next year. I want to get more submissions next year. Last year we had a lot of oral submissions, but this year we didn’t get many.” She also hopes to promote Palmer earlier than they usually do. She wants to show that Palmer is a fun event, both professionally and as a college student.
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