BEMIDJI, Minn. (March 23, 2011) — Bemidji State University’s 12th Annual Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement Conference will showcase the varied works of nearly 200 students during presentations, performances, exhibits and poster sessions on Wednesday, April 6.
The conference begins with an 8:15 a.m. continental breakfast in room 100 of Memorial Hall, leading into an 8:45 a.m. opening ceremony featuring a keynote address by Alan C. Miller, founder and executive director of The News Literacy Project and winner of a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Miller’s presentation is entitled, “Teaching the Next Generation How to Know What To Believe in a Digital World.”
Miller was a reporter with the Los Angeles Times for 21 years before leaving the paper in March 2008 to establish The News Literacy Project. He spent nearly 19 years in the paper’s Washington bureau, the last 14 as a charter member of its high-profile investigative team. His work prompted investigations by the Justice Department, Congress and inspector generals in federal agencies and led to congressional hearings, reforms and criminal convictions. He received more than a dozen national reporting honors for breaking the 1996 Democratic National Committee campaign finance scandal. His series on the Marine Corps Harrier attack jet won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Before joining the Times, Alan worked at The Record of Hackensack, N.J., as a state and county political reporter and at The Times Union of Albany, N.Y. as a political and state investigative reporter.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., Alan received a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Hawaii. He lives in Bethesda, Md. with his wife, a public relations executive, and their daughter, a high school student.
Following the address, student presentations and performances will be held from 10:30-11:50 a.m. and 1-2:20 p.m. in Bridgeman Hall and Hagg-Sauer Hall. These will see 100 students make more than 50 presentations on a vast array of topics, including a study of the renewable energy policies of various countries; levels of aggression of male bettas; a comparison of three recovery methods on the performance of female soccer players; a feasibility study on a commercial kitchen in Bemidji; and a computerized donor tracking system for the Boys and Girls Club of Bemidji.
Poster sessions, which enable participants to explain their work in a display setting, will be held in Bridgeman Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with students at the posters from 11:55 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. A total of 38 displays will represent the work of 68 students on a diversity of topics including the balance of social networking and stress; mental health care access in the upper Midwest; and an analysis of Korean artillery shelters.
Three art galleries on the Bemidji State campus will also be open with exhibits supporting the conference. The Talley Gallery, located in the Education Art Building, the Touché Gallerie and Gallery X will feature an exhibit by BSU students entitled “Contrast.”
Other events surrounding the conference include a mock trial by the BSU Pre-Law Society, an exhibition and sale by the BSU Ceramics Club and the annual Beaver Film Festival. The Ceramics Club sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Scandanavian Room of the lower Hobson Memorial Union and will be open through Friday, April 8. The mock trial will be held from 12:30-2:30 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer 107, and the Beaver Film Festival will be held in the Hobson Memorial Union’s Beaux Arts Ballroom beginning at 7 p.m.
The conference’s closing celebration will begin at 2:30 p.m. at the American Indian Resource Center. The closing ceremonies will feature a panel and open forum on the topic of news literacy.
All components of the Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement Conference are open to the public at no charge.
More information on the conference is available by contacting the Academic Affairs Office, located in Deputy Hall on the Bemidji State University campus, at (218) 755-2015.
ON THE WEB
• conference website: http://www.bemidjistate.edu/conferences/scholarship_achievement/