Formerly known as the Student Scholarship Symposium, the Illumination Symposium at Mercyhurst is a way for students to submit their scholarly works and gain recognition for them.

The Student Scholarship Committee invites students to submit their scholarly works including research, service, artwork, internships or performances completed during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Derek Beeler, clinical education coordinator and assistant professor, said that the committee is hoping to branch out from the usual set of submissions.

“We are hoping to have a diverse set of submissions to showcase the variety of experiential learning projects that students are engaged in at Mercyhurst,” Beeler said.

In the past students have submitted research projects; however, the group hopes to expand beyond that, since many disciplines employ different types of experiential learning.

“We welcome submissions that highlight research projects, scholarly activity, performances, and community engagement that students do as part of their educational experience” said Beeler.

By diversifying submissions, the Illumination Symposium opens the door for students in the arts to also show off their works, as opposed to only focusing on those majors that require

an examination of knowledge in the forms of papers, research, etc.

As far as the process of submission goes, Beeler said that it is easy and painless.

“Students can submit an abstract to us, which briefly describes the overview of their project/experience. There is no structured format for this, given the variety of possible applications,” said Beeler.

This abstract is due by Wednesday, April 5. For the Illumination Symposium on Tuesday, April 18, students should prepare a poster, which again, could take a few different forms.

The poster should be printed format (no digital formats), but students are free to design it however they see fit to describe their project/experience/ research.

“On April 18, students will be assigned an approximately 30 minute time slot to stand with their poster and discuss/answer questions with attendees, much like a professional conference poster presentation session,” said Beeler.

This Illumination Symposium is a great opportunity for many reasons, but specifically, it gives students the chance to discuss their work in a professional setting which is great practice for life after graduation.

A student must have confidence in their work in order to answer whatever questions people might give them during their time slot, which is why you should choose a particular piece

of work that you are fond of. Consider submitting work for this annual Illumination Symposium to showcase your accomplishments and for a chance to work on professional communication.

It is common for post-grad jobs to require you to pitch certain ideas or projects that you have completed, so it is a good idea to get some experience with that sort of presentation.

It is also important to be very familiar with whatever work you submit, because you must be able to answer whatever questions might come your way during your time slot.

If you have any questions about this, contact Derek Beeler at dbeeler@mercyhurst.edu.