Colonial Academic Alliance

Towson University in Maryland, April 3-5, 2009

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Dean Warren Frisina and Associate Dean Neil H. Donahue accompanied 10 students in 2 minivans to the Colonial Academic Alliance conference at Towson University, from Friday, April 3-5, 2009. The students came from very different disciplines, such as Philosophy (A.J. Durwin and Alex Ehrlich), Speech Language-Hearing Science (Jacqueline Schmieder and Alison Dreyer), English (Jenna Appelbaum), Political Science (Melissa Calderone), Spanish (Franshuas Rodriguez), Biology (Ariel Camp and Alexandra Amaitis) and Media Studies (Christina Reale). They got to know one another on the trip down and over dinner on the Baltimore Harbor on Friday evening. Towson University proved an able host: the Saturday night dinner was a particular success with Chesapeake Chicken (with crab on top) accompanied by a detailed and erudite, but also very humorous lecture by an accomplished biologist on the courtship rituals (and success rates) of peeper frogs, with many a useful, scientifically tested tip on dating practices for students. Our students were excited about their posters and presentations, and all very supportive of each other, showing great interest in their very different topics. Over two days, the students all performed very well, and showed great poise and command of their topics. One presenter said she was so thrilled by the experience that she now wanted to pursue her doctorate; in a "thank you" note to us, she said: "I would like to thank you for . . . your encouraging guidance. It was an experience that I will not soon forget. I was inspired by the amazing talent and dedication displayed by my colleagues [the other students] and the participant universities as well. I never expected to be a part of something so wonderful." It's poignant and refreshing to see what a powerful and validating impact the first academic conference can have on an undergraduate, the first chance to share the fruits of probably their first serious and original scholarly research with the larger academic community of others outside of their own family, friends and home department. We had the overwhelming impression, documented in many photographs, that they had made a lot of new friends, gained a wealth of new information and an appreciation of higher education across the disciplines, but also a new understanding of themselves and their own abilities and ambitions.

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