An Insider’s Look Into CUI’s Presidential Showcase of Undergraduate Research Part 1
Concordia holds an annual competition to showcase undergraduate students’ research. Students partner with faculty mentors across all disciplines to produce a paper, a poster, and a presentation of their work in one semester. The submissions are graded by a diverse panel of faculty, which challenges students to write and present a relevant topic that is worthy of their field as well as accessible to an educated audience.
It has been my dream to enter into the showcase since the moment I heard about it. In fact, my first semester, I was asked to expand my Core Philosophy paper into a showcase. Unfortunately, I was not able to compete the task my freshman year due to circumstances surrounding the intensity of planning and working towards the Around-the-World Semester (R). The next year, I was recovering from my previous semester abroad. Somewhere before the end of that semester, I saw that my time at Concordia was slipping away, so I vowed to enter the next year, no matter what. I figured that my schedule wouldn’t slow down, but that was no excuse for abstaining.
So, I hunkered down, talked to a few professors, and settled on topic. I made room in my schedule, just like I would for a regular class. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3:10-4:00pm I was researching, writing, or expressly focusing on my project. The more I researched, the more I changed my mind. I changed the topic. I read more books. I visited my faculty mentor, who suggested I broaden my research and focus on what I was passionate about. So, I started going to the Langston Library at UCI. I closed the library a few too many times, scanning endless pages of anthologies on topics relating to my general interests, gaining more and more items on my reading list.
As the deadline approached, I began to get anxious. It seemed there was not enough time in the world to finish the research I had begun. I journaled a lot during that time. I wrote out frustrations I had with research, the paper writing process, and my topic in general. I wrote speeches, pleaded with invisible audiences, focused strictly on research, and wrote so many drafts. In the days prior to the deadline for the final paper I spent over 24 hours editing, formatting, and finessing the paper. I churned out at least 2 drafts everyday, each of which contained major revisions. In short, I poured myself into the work.