Posted: 05/02/07

VAAS at St. Michael's
Student symposium celebrates student achievement

Colin Vallance | photo editor
cvallance@smcvt.edu

On Saturday, April 21 students from around Vermont gathered for the 41st annual Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences intercollegiate Student Symposium held at St. Michael’s College. The event provided students with an opportunity to showcase works of scholastic achievement as well as discuss other students work in a cross-subject dialog.

A scholastic success

St. Michael's Professor James Conley, this year’s event coordinator, says he was very pleased with how this year’s symposium turned out.

Professor Conley administered this years student symposium. (photo, Colin Vallance)

“It was a great day. People from different fields were able to interact and cross boundaries that they otherwise wouldn’t get to explore," Conley says. “This kind of event promotes dialoge and pride in students’ work.”

Aside from a venue for students to present their work the event also encourages dialogue that the students might not otherwise enter, Conley says.

“I like the way provost Bill Wilson described the event; it is the intermingling of ‘circles of scholarship and circles of acquaintance working in similar fields,’” says Conley.

In terms of attendance, Conley says he is happy with the turnout but that more people probably would have liked to come if not for the timing.

“We had a pretty good turnout overall with St. Michael’s students as well as students from Norwich psychology department,” Conley says. “It was exciting and inspiring. A little more advertising would have brought more people out but there are only so many weekends in April and there a lot of events so people have to pick and choose.”

An academic tradition

The Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences (VAAS) rotates the symposium's location to different Vermont schools from year to year, the last time St. Michael’s held the event was in 2002. For senior Katelyn Parhiala, this is her second VAAS symposium. As a first-year in 2004, she was nominated by her professor to travel to Norwich University to read a paper she had written. As a second appearance veteran, Parhaila was able to evaluate the differences in the two events.

“It was pretty low key, there were less people there than the one I went to at Norwich but the atmosphere was more casual and that led to a lot more discussion,” Parhaila says. This year Parhaila presented her senior thesis on “Ancient Imperialism: The Athenian Empire as a cause for the Peloponnesian War.” One of the beneficial things about this year’s event, Parhiala says, was being able to delve into other people’s areas of study as well as explaining your own.

“The project I presented was my senior thesis and since there were no other history majors there I had explain it in layman’s terms,” Parhaila says. “It was as if I was explaining my project to a bunch of friends. I enjoyed the event because it was a chance for everyone to participate in sharing their academic achievements.”

Passing on the reigns

Joan Wry, current coordinator of academic programs, was a member of the VAAS board of directors prior to her administrative appointment in 2005. As someone who has been involved with the symposium in the past she was approached by Conley to moderate the event.

“I enjoyed doing it. It was limited to one room with five or six presentations but it was a pleasure to help administer the event,” Wry says.

During her time with VAAS, Wry hosted the 2002 symposium as well as other symposia with a St. Michael’s scope.

“In the years that St. Michael’s didn’t hold the intercollegiate symposium, we held a family weekend student symposium that consisted of only St. Michael’s students,” Wry says. “It is a good event that lets prospective students and families see the work that our students do in different areas.”

Although the symposium did not have as many projects as the 2002 event “Professor Conley hosted a small but high-quality symposium,” Wry says.

The content of the affair was not the only positive factor that came from the event. “Students did an excellent job of asking questions outside of their respective fields. The Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences does a good job of bringing that out in students,” Wry says.