Winning Third Place at Millikin's 2019 Celebration of Scholarship Poster Symposium

The unbelievable happened! I won third place at the Poster Symposium, which was a first for the Political Science department at Millikin!

Despite being a little unprepared due to having to work and also having to present my senior thesis project that same morning I was able to impress the judges so much that they awarded us a third place ribbon and cash award prize!

I had an amazing time explaining to everyone that approached me what our findings were and the importance of the research matter. Most of the people I explained our research to were unaware of the countywide efforts the United States government has been funding since the early 2000s and I was proud to be able to provide them with that information. I felt as if I was extremely prepared despite not having any notecards to rely on because of the numerous presentations given before the poster symposium. My conversation with the judges was engaging and I could tell they were really interested in the research topic because of the number of questions asked and the extended amount of time spent on the discussion. I did not expect to win anything and didn't expect to have as much foot traffic as I did because of the neighboring project topics that were far more interactive than mine was, but despite that we won! I have had a great time presenting our research findings and am forever grateful for the opportunity and skills gained through this experience.    -Julisa