Welcome to Gustavus Adolphus College’s Student Stories Series!
American Geophysical Union Conference Presenter
Major: Physics; Political Science
What was your career opportunity/experience (i.e. internship, shadowing experience, research)?
I was given a chance to attend and present my research at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference that was held in New Orleans.
How did you get the opportunity? What steps did you take to achieve this?
Throughout these past two summers, I have been conducting research here at Gustavus for Dr. Darsa Donelan. After reaching a stage in our project where we felt ready to begin sharing results, we decided to submit an abstract of the research to AGU. After review, the abstract was accepted, and I made a professional-quality scientific poster to present.
Tell us more about your accomplishment.
The conference was a week-long, with over 20,000 people in attendance. I was scheduled to present my poster during the multi-hour poster session. My poster was moderately well-attended, and I had several good conversations with graduate students and professors. The rest of the week, I attended talks, viewed other posters, and networked with various graduate schools and labs.
Who were some of the people who helped you most at Gustavus to get this opportunity? What did you learn from them?
My research mentor Dr. Darsa Donelan consistently encouraged me to put my work out there and taught me just about everything I know about how to conduct research. Dr Erik Gulbranson gave me advice about how to design my poster and what to expect from the conference as a whole. I was also helped out by the other two students who attended, Kendall Wiggins and Bradyn Nordeen, who coordinated the logistics with me.
How did the Engaged Learning Funds help you be able to complete this experience?
The Engaged Learning Funds made it possible for me to have this experience by covering the cost of the flight to New Orleans, the room where I stayed for the week, and my conference entrance fee. The Career Development Center was very responsive to my questions, and was always eager to help in any way I needed.
