National Conference of Undergratuate Research

One thing that most people don't know about the Miss America Organization is that we are a scholarship pageant, not technically a beauty pageant. This means that all prizes go directly towards education, and education is a focus for all of the title holders. My most recent scholarly adventure was to the National Conference of Undergraduate Research held in Ogden, Utah this year at Weber State University. On arrival I was astounded by the gorgeous campus! They have beautiful state of the art buildings, a park like front yard, and their student union is fabulous! In this student union there is a Starbucks, Jamba Juice, a bookstore, a general store, a bowling alley, a pool hall, several ballrooms, and a cafe! It was amazing!

Then it was time for business! All though Dominican University of California was one of the smaller schools at NCUR, we were one of the best represented with 39 students! NCUR provides young researchers the opportunity to showcase their research in two different ways. The first way is through an academic poster that is displayed for an hour and a half that the student stands by and answers questions from viewers, which is what I did. Another option is to give an oral presentation in a panel with other students who researched similar topics.

My research is on science education. Basically my project is to make threatened and endangered species, like the northern sea otter, a personal issue instead of a solely legislative issue. My job is to show community members that if everyone makes little changes in their lives, it can effect the lives of these delicate populations. My favorite part of the project is that I get to talk to high school and elementary school students about what they can do to help, and I sure lucked out at NCUR in that department! The presentation time I had also happened to be the time an elementary school was touring the poster ballroom, after the first group of students approached me I had a pretty steady stream of little ones listening to my speech about the thirteen species we're focusing on, and asking questions. It was so much fun to get to spread my knowledge over state lines all the way to Utah!

I was also able to do a lot of networking at NCUR because they had a graduate school fair with many of my top med-school choices available to talk to! One school, that was previously my last choice, quickly became my top choice when I met with a professor there who is doing research on Dystrophin ( the gene that causes many forms of muscular dystrophy). He told me that if I get into the school I can help out in his lab which would be such a blessing. 

We also had a lot of down time available to explore and meet people from all across the country. I can now proudly say I have new friends in New York, Idaho, Vermont, Montana, Indiana and much more! After the conference had come to a close we still had several hours before our bus to the airport arrived, so of course a group of young responsible researchers chose to use our time wisely and go play in Toys-R-us! I have only been into a toy store of this size a few times in my life, but this was definitely the most fun time!

Being a Swede I had to call dibs on Thor!

Power Ranger Masks were so much fun!

Overall it was a really great trip with so many fun and educational opportunities! Now all I have to do is come up with some more great research so I can return next year!