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On Saturday, April 11, senior English majors will have the chance to present their seminar projects to their professors, friends, and family. The presentations will take place between 9:00am and 1:45pm in the Fourth Floor Board Room.
Dr. Shannon Ambrose, Chair for the English and Foreign Languages Department, said, “The final forum presentation is a primary showcase of the intellectual work that students have done over the course of their senior seminar experience in ENGL 395 and ENGL 396. It is an important demonstration of how their projects, and their thinking about that work, have evolved over the course of the year.”
The presentations are open to anyone interested in attending. This year, there are many different topics that will be presented.
“My project is about young adult dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games and Divergent series. These are my favorite series so I actually enjoyed doing research on them and being able to voice my own ideas on them. Even though I love these stories, I criticize the authors about delivering the wrong messages to their young audience when they should be focusing on the real issues and politics of the stories,” said Nicole DeNello, one of the students who will be presenting her work.
Other than The Hunger Games and Divergent series, students will be presenting on many other topics, according to Ambrose. Project topics include “important issues in modern films,” “linguistics and language,” and “creative writing and the creative process,” just to name a few.
“In short, the students have come up with a diverse, dynamic program of presentations and there’s something for everyone to enjoy on the day,” Ambrose said.
Along with the myriad of different topics that will be discussed, these presentations benefit the students in more than one way. Not only will students gain confidence in their work, they will also be able to showcase their projects to their friends and families.
“It is also a wonderful opportunity for the students to share their projects with their families and friends, people who’ve not had a chance to get to know the students’ work, though they’ve undoubtedly heard a great deal about it over the last year. So while the presentations are a capstone experience—an important event that encapsulate what a student has come away with in her four years in the major—it’s also a public acknowledgement and celebration of the student’s academic achievement and development,” Ambrose said.
Additionally, senior seminar is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work, as Ambrose points out. The English professors hope that their students will gain experience with effectively sharing their work with the public.
“We hope that they will be able to offer an organized, thoroughly-considered project in a cogent way, determining which aspects of their larger projects are the most important to share and deciding how they can craft their messages for an audience not already familiar with their research,” Ambrose explained.
Additionally, Ambrose said that she hopes students gain confidence in their work and experience with “talking authoritatively about the issues and texts that matter most to them.”
This is also a time for reflection for those who are graduating in May. As the semester comes to an end, students are looking back on their time at Saint Xavier and, more specifically, their time in senior seminar.
“Senior seminar has been an experience. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging. And let’s just say ‘senioritis’ has really kicked in. But despite that, it has been very rewarding to accomplish a project this big… It’s been a long year with this project and I’m glad it is coming to an end, but I am also very grateful for the challenging experience,” DeNello said.
English students are the only ones who will present their work. Communications majors will also present their projects.Unlike the English presentations, however, Communications students will showcase their work over the course of three days.
According to Dr. Renee Robinson, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, the presentations will take place April 13-15 in McGuire Hall. The presentations will run from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.
“Senior seminar courses help students to prepare to meet a changing world that requires comfort with ambiguity, an ability to see the big picture and the skill of flexibility in an age of incredible access to information, technological growth and the changing nature of time as related to digital environments,” said Robinson, who has taught the course for the last several years.
Much like the English students, the Communications students have been working on a wide variety of projects.
“Each of the projects is unique and showcases the breadth and depth of our major as well as the students’ communication skills and talents. Our department is very proud of the work our students have produced and each of the faculty is excited to hear and see the finished project and presentation,” Robinson said.
Robinson said this experience provides students with the opportunity to prepare items for a portfolio for the future.
Katharine Arvia
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