It was standing-room only at Thursday's Eighth Annual School of International Service Undergraduate Symposium, which included 23 undergraduate panelists. More than 40 students put the symposium together, serving as panelists, moderators and analysts, according to Ben Sander, SIS undergraduate president, who called the event a "huge success ... overflowing with observers."
One administration employee agreed. "Our SIS student researchers exemplify the distinctive strengths of AU," said Nanette Levinson, senior associate dean of SIS. "They are crafting and disseminating new knowledge, and in each case, that knowledge informs policy and practice.
"The presenters gave amazingly professional presentations," she said. "What especially impressed me was the number of family members and alums who came and who afterward asked individual presenters for copies of their paper - a terrific mark of success."
Students conducted research in their SIS classes and collected field research from studying abroad, said Levinson.
Topics ranged from "Church-State relations in Cuba" to "The Correlation between IMF Post-Conflict Emer-gency Assistance and FDI."
"It's a great experience," said panel moderator Nawal Mustafa, a freshman in SIS. "It was a challenge [to be both a chair and a moderator], but it was amazing to see such wonderful research. I would love to do research and be a panelist next year."
Mustafa was a moderator for students whose research involved "Social Reform."
"It was interesting because there were a variety of topics that weren't issues that you talk about every day or in class," said Erin Kelley, a panel analyst and sophomore in SIS. "[The topics] were much more unique"
