Faculty and Staff Resources

Ways to Participate

Sponsor a Student Presenter 

If you have students from a Fall, Winter, or even a Spring course whose work is intriguing and presentation- or performance-friendly, please encourage them to consider participating in the Student Symposium. Reassure them that students of all ages and subject areas bring a rich diversity to the Symposium, and nudge them to submit an application. Support them in the application process by discussing and/or reviewing their project abstract. The Symposium Committee will keep faculty sponsors and applying students updated on the plans for Symposium Day, April 19^th. We look forward to seeing you at the Symposium to support your students and many others as they share their work. Classes are not scheduled on Symposium Day so that every member of the faculty may attend and celebrate students as they share their learning publicly.

Serve on a Committee

In addition to encouraging students to participate and sponsoring their applications, faculty and staff are welcome to serve on the Symposium Committee, its subcommittees (putting together the student panels), or at the Symposium as a moderator of one of the sessions. If interested in any of these activities, please email ctlr@middlebury.edu, attention Symposium Co-Chairs Mike Sheridan and Amy Morsman. 

Presentations

The symposium is open to students of all classes, and is intended to showcase all forms of student intellectual inquiry, including the following:

• Independent research with a faculty or staff adviser
• Individual project work within a course (Fall, Winter, or Spring)
• Classwide research or group projects
• Summer or winter internships involving the meaningful exploration of a topic
• Creative work, including studio art and dramatic or musical performance
• Research conducted while studying abroad

Most presentation formats include 15-minute oral presentations, 15-minute music, dance, film, and theater presentations, staffed poster sessions, and artwork displays.

Class Presentations

While most sessions will involve four individual, 15-minute presentations by students from different disciplines on a common theme, forming a 75-minute session, some sessions can feature an entire class or large group presenting on a collective project. Such presentations can fill an entire 75-minute session, with one presentation involving several voices or multiple individual 15-minute presentations on the shared topic.

Language Policy

Students are invited to submit presentations conducted in any language. We will, however, require that non-English presentations include English translations in a format appropriate to the presentation’s structure, such as slide subtitles.

Location

McCardell Bicentennial Hall is the primary event space for student presentations. Johnson Memorial Building will host art displays. Some students may elect to compose digital presentations or pre-record their oral presentations; those projects will be posted online at the Symposium website for Symposium Day, April 19^th.  

Deadlines

Students and faculty begin hearing about the Symposium in December and January, via email and posters. Students who wish to participate must complete the Symposium application, due on Wednesday, February 28^th at noon. Each completed application must include a designated faculty or staff sponsor.

See the current application deadline information. Students and their sponsors will be notified of their presentation time and grouping in late March.

Contact the Committee

Please feel free to speak with any member of our planning committee to share questions, ideas, or feedback.