Lauren Goossens (Psychology) has presented twice at URCA. In 2011, Lauren was part of a group of students that presented "Weight Changes in First-Semester University Students" as a poster. In 2012, Lauren and colleagues presented "The Influence of Context and Color on Memory" as an oral presentation.
Here's what Lauren has to say about her experiences with URCA:
"My sophomore year, we worked on a project titled "Weight Changes in First-Semester University Students," and I presented this research at the URCA symposium with Niki Valentine and Jessie Bates. URCA was an excellent way to gain experience in how to prepare for presenting research, as well as how to actually present research while at a conference. We did a poster session, and this gave us a chance to interact with our professors and fellow students and explain our research. URCA also helped prepare us to do a poster session at the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) conference in Chicago sophomore year.
"Junior year, I was in PSYC 310, the Advanced Research Methods course. Rachel Carson, Sarah Guarino, and I designed and conducted a study titled, "The Influence of Context and Color on Memory," and we presented this research first at the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) conference in Pittsburgh. We presented a poster session, which we were comfortable with since we had all presented a poster previously. Then, for the URCA symposium, we decided to do an oral presentation. Although we were nervous at first since we had not done an oral presentation before, once we got up onto the stage, we did fine and had a great experience. We practiced our presentation beforehand and were comfortable with our material, and the presentation could not have gone better. This gave us the information and practice we needed with giving oral presentations, and we now feel that we are prepared to continue to give other oral presentations, as well as poster presentations in the future."
