Fall Symposium Gratitude

by Michael Marsiske, PhD, Program Director, Graduate Education

Greetings all:  On behalf of our Program Office, I want to thank you all for our incredible Fall Symposium last week.  As I said in the meeting, this remains the one time a year that people are nervous, excited, celebratory, and share space for an extend time. It’s a cohort formation experience that older students have told us to maintain, and I am glad each year when I have the opportunity to attend. An event like this is not possible without your collective participation, so thank you so much for spending a big part of your day with us.

1. Thank you Amanda DiTrapani. Experience is a great teacher, and now – after her fourth Fall Symposium with us – Amanda DiTrapani has demonstrated her real mastery over the event logistics. From helping keep everyone on the same timeline, producing the terrific abstract summary book, making room, technology and food arrangements, to handling the logistics of awards, Amanda had her steady hand guiding everything. We are deeply thankful!

2. Thank you to the rest of the CHP front office staff. As I commented to Karen Billings, the staff amassed more teamwork this year than I remember seeing in a long time. From helping get the food out fast-and-furious to helping us prepare award certificates at the last minute, lots of folks made the day a success.

3. Thank you to our presenters, labs and mentors. I lost count of the number of people who commented on the professionalism and clarity of the many talks, and we know it is the skill of our student presenters and the feedback they incorporated that produced such fine, succinct presentations. I was struck by two things: (a) Often really complex concepts, measures or analyses were explained in ways that even I could understand. Our presenters were also masterful teachers, and did a good job of telling their stories to a broad audience; (b) There was a really outstanding use of presentation tools – I don’t think I saw a single presentation that was just an unending array of text bullets. I personally noted many presentation tricks, and I am thankful for the effort that went into the slides. (As a side note, I *think* this might be the first year I saw not a sign of SPSS – and if anyone used it, they did a good job of hiding it 😊. I appreciate the efforts students made to conduct often-sophisticated analyses and to present them in easy to understand ways).
4. Thank you our awards committee and our student Cohort Reps. Together, they reviewed many applications for each of our awards, and made the difficult selections from strong candidate groups. This year, folks had too short a timeline, so I appreciate everyone rolling with the quick deadlines!

On the topic of awards, I’m not sure everyone got to see the award winners, so I’m listing them below. Please extend your congratulations?

For a list of the 2024 Fall Research Symposium presenters, their titles and other pertinent information, check out the 2024 Symposium Booklet.

Photo Gallery

Photos provided by Amanda DiTrapani, Academic Coordinator