3rd Annual At the Core Conference Recognizes Freshmen and Sophomore Undergraduate Research Across Disciplines

Jannette Emmerick

Wed. April 24, the Department of General Education celebrated student academic research and projects across different subjects in the Campus Center. The theme of this year’s conference centered on the title: “What’s Your Problem?” Proposed by Dr. Sal Peralta, the theme was aimed to umbrella all the academic, professional, and critical thinking not just inside the classroom but also as it applies to life in general.

Student research, presentations and posters definitely encouraged thoughts, questions and conversations around various topics. Amongst the variety of panels were: AI in Finance, Marketing, Data Analytics, Research and Education; Cults and Culture; AI and Healthcare Research & Practice; An Exploration of the Horror Genre through Jason Rekulak’s “Hidden Pictures;” The Entertainment Industry & Physical and Mental Health; and many, many more.

“At the Core Conference is dedicated to celebrating the type of work and acknowledging the type of work the students can do early in their academic career— in their first year or two in their core classes,” said Mathematics Professor Brian Brodsky, who is credited as creating the whole event three years ago.

“The idea started off as something I was just doing with my own students, trying to make an event, you know, to that end, and it just grew from there” said Brodsky.

Every year, the conference has expanded to include more disciplines and more kinds of projects, including multimodals which could be students creating their own websites or demonstrations.

“It’s been a learning process for us all, since it’s the third year, each year has gotten progressively better as we’ve learned more about how to engage our students in participating and how to organize the event,” said Brodsky. “Melissa Jackson’s leadership this year has really been spectacular.”

Professor of English, Melissa Jackson, has been pivotal to the conference’s organization along with colleagues Carrie Carmack, Brittany Beth Baxter, and several other committee members. 

This year, the conference decided to swap out the usual key-note speaker for Lunch Break with a student centered debate. Jackson’s student Leonard Bowles at Newnan Campus came up with the idea and proposed the topic: “What has influenced Gen Z more: Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon?”

“The conference is about these students. It’s not about trying to meet this theme or be within this particular discipline or whatever,” said Brodsky. “So with ideas like doing a debate, instead of like a keynote speaker, it’s like, it’s almost so obvious to me.

“Anything that we can replace from something that’s less student engaging or less student focused to more student engaging or more student focused, that’s the whole spirit of the event in a day,” continued Brodsky.

The debate featured Team Nick Knockouts, composed of Newnan students, versus Team Cartooner Boomers, composed of Carrollton and online students. Coached by a senior UWG student, the teams organized arguments and presented them to an audience of over 60 viewers. At the awards ceremony, the winner was announced to be Team Nick.

On top of a trophy given to the winning team, the students also received gift cards to Underground Books. The Awards Ceremony also honored several students, acknowledging exceptional projects and research, who also received gift cards. Underground Books generously donated a total of $275 in gift cards in support of the conference.

The debate has no doubt become a new tradition, and Brodsky has high hopes to grow the conference more. He hopes to bring more disciplines, like sociology or psychology, among many others to truly celebrate students beginning their college journeys.