Arizona Western College’s General Education Curriculum Committee and the Office Of Assessment hosted its annual Student Showcase, which consisted of presentations, performances and praxis. The showcase was on May 9 in the 3C Schoening Conference Center-North Wing.
Students encouraged to participate showcased their outstanding achievements from across the disciplines in search of a scholarship. The Gowan Company donated $5,000 to be awarded to Showcase participants in the AWC General Education Focus Areas: Digital Literacy, Communication, Scientific Literacy, Quantitative Literacy and Civic Discourse.
There were 60 presentation titles and 64 presenters in attendance. Seven students met the criteria the judges were looking for through presentation and project, and they were awarded the $5,000 in scholarships combined – three of them $1,000 and four of them $500. These scholarships show proof of the recipients’ knowledge in General Education and Critical Inquiry.
Throughout the Showcase, piano was being played smoothly in the background by self-taught musician James Telford, an AWC student who is taking theory of piano and who also plays a little guitar. He was referred to the Showcase on the day of the event by his choir professor because of a remarkable performance done at St. Paul’s church.
Performances and readings were held beginning at 12:30 p.m. by Christian Negrete, Fawn Iaccio and Joel Macias.
Just Desserts
At 1:00, the 2018 Showcase scholarship award recipients were announced: Jasmine Miranda, Hector Rubio, Sisko Stargazer, Juan Guerrero, Andee Lynn Oberosler and Lily McNair. Also chosen as finalists were Juliana Razo Lugo, Khang Van Pham, Alexi Gardner, Makaylla Reveles and Adam Timothy Camarena.
Jasmine Miranda won a $500 scholarship for her project titled “Prevention of Stress for Students.” Miranda's’ presentation covered what stress was, and risk factors for stress, preventative measures for stress and resources to confide in when it comes to coping with student stress.
Hector Rubio won a $500 scholarship for his project on Graphene, a semi-metal material first theorized in 1947 and isolated in 2007 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, more conductive than silver, and it’s flexible, biodegradable, biocompatible and transparent.
Sisko Stargazer won a $1,000 scholarship for their presentation titled “The Path To inclusivity: Past, Present, & Future of Queer Representation in Mainstream American Cinema." They commented that “the student showcase is a great opportunity to get your artwork recognized.”
Juan Guerrero won a $1,000 scholarship for his project on scientific literacy, called “The Perfect Heart.” Guerrero is a Biomedical Engineering major and hopes to one day work with and create transplants, and he is also interested in making artificial prosthetics like knees, hands and artificial organs.
Andee Lynn Oberosler won $1,000 for her project in the category of quantitative analysis, called, “Exploring Gabriel’s Horn.” Obersoler said she participated in the Showcase because a professor mentioned it and she thought it would challenge her. “Today’s theories are tomorrow's’ realities,” she quipped.
Lily McNair won a $500 scholarship with a presentation of a Medical Provider Burnout, titled “The Leading Causes of Medical Provider Burnout,” which summarizes a syndrome that causes loss of interest in medical providers, having a direct effect on job performance and on patients.
The Will to Learn
Dr. Ellen Riek, a professor of English at AWC and chair of the General Education Curriculum Committee, is one of the people to thank for this event going so well. She hosted the event and also helped vote for the winning presentations.
She said the reason why she does projects like the Student Showcase is because 11 years ago, a year before she came to work at AWC, the event started out at NAU just as a science showcase and then grew from there. Riek said she saw the growth, and was inspired by the community and students’ will to learn.
AWC believes that students are best able to demonstrate their acquisition of General Education outcomes through application. The Student Showcase provides students with the opportunity to share some of the ways they have applied their critical inquiry across disciplines and areas of knowledge, and Dr. Riek encourages all students next year to come and participate.
