How to Sponsor a York College Student Scholar
Information for Faculty Participants
What is Students’ Scholars Week?
Student Scholars Week is a celebration of student research, research that is often the result of collaboration with faculty members. It opens with Scholars Day, during which that rich array of research is articulated in poster sessions, oral presentations, artistic performances and exhibits, and much more. It is a chance for those who have done serious academic work to share it with others, and the chance for all of us to learn about the engaging scholarship being produced at York College.
For more details, read our brief History of Student Scholars Day
Why participate in Student Scholars Week?
As a faculty member, participation in Student Scholars Week has many benefits:
- It can foster the close student/faculty interaction that makes York College what it is
- It can help to make public the fine work that you and your students have produced
- It can inform the York College community about the types of research that are current in your field of study
- It can help professionalize your students, preparing them for graduate school and/or careers
- It can spur collaborative research projects with students that can benefit you both
How can I help my students participate in Student Scholars Week?
- Faculty should identify students who have projects worthy of recognition and ask students to participate. Faculty who agree to work with a student on a project should make sure the student work represents a level of quality and scholarship appropriate for the event.
- Faculty should oversee student progress and provide any assistance required by the student to translate scholarly work to a format necessary for presentation during Student Scholars Week.
- You can keep students aware of the deadlines for abstract submission and poster printing, though ultimately, that is their responsibility.
- Faculty who are not sponsoring a student poster or presentation can still help to make the event a success by informing students in all their classes about Student Scholars Week. If possible, incorporate class participation by dedicating time during class to view student work.
- Faculty should also assist their department in identifying criteria for selection of the best scholarly project for participation in the award winning ceremony.
How can departments work together for the success of the event—and to the benefit of the department?
Remember first that this is each department’s annual chance to show off the fine work going on in its classrooms, disciplines, and faculty/student interactions.
To help the event run smoothly, and to benefit your students most, here’s what you can do:
- Talk about possible inclusions in department meetings. Though projects from capstone courses are a natural for this event, there are many other classes that are likely to breed strong research projects. Department members should discuss the best way to showcase its work.
- Encourage students with a consistent message: tell them about the importance not only of participation as presenters, but how much they can learn by attendance. If the department faculty members univocally support the event, the students will hear it.
- Encourage the creation of assignments that not only give students the time to attend events, but ask them to respond to them. Find ways to build this event into your course schedules when appropriate.
Specific Tasks related to the event:
Beyond acting as faculty sponsors, departments as a whole should:
- Develop a fair and consistent procedure to pick a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning project. This may involve appointing a group of faculty members who will view each presentation and decide which represents the highest level work;
- Report these winners to Pat Poet (ppoet@ycp.edu) by noon on Tuesday, April 28th. The winners will be contacted and asked to attend an awards ceremony on Thursday, April 30th at 3:30 in Alumni Hall.
- The first place winners from each department are asked to present a 7-10 minute oral presentation describing their project. Computer access is available if needed. Friends and family are invited to come join the celebration, AND it is really important to students that their department faculty come to support them. Do your best to be there.
The deadline for submitting an abstract is April 1st.
Click here to view the abstract submission form