Grady students present at 2018 CURO Symposium

The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities invites students to be involved in the annual CURO Symposium, an event that highlights excellence in undergraduate research at UGA. At this year’s Symposium, 14 Grady College students will present their research.

The CURO Symposium allows undergraduates to showcase their research and creative works through oral and poster presentations. The presentations will take place at the Classic Center on Monday, April 9 and Tuesday, April 10.

This year’s Grady students have been mentored by the following Grady faculty: María Len-Ríos, Juan Meng, Taylor Cole Miller, Ivanka Pjesivac, Leara Rhodes and John Weatherford.

“For my undergraduate students, designing and conducting research pushes them to develop problem-solving skills at a practical level,” Meng said. “It is critical for students to understand how to use research to solve communication problems, improve the effectiveness of communication or open up new opportunities for future communication. Attending the CURO Symposium to showcase their original research helps them understand the role of research in developing communication strategies and see that their research efforts have been valued.”

The Symposium begins April 9 with four concurrent oral sessions at 11:15 a.m. followed by a welcome and keynote address. The Monday session ends with the poster session and reception. On Tuesday, the Symposium concludes with five concurrent oral sessions.

Olivia Tompkins, a fourth-year public relations major, will showcase her work at the poster presentation.

“I am very appreciative of being selected and thank CURO for giving research opportunities to every college at UGA and giving undergraduates a chance to showcase their work on a higher platform, not limiting us to just the classroom,” Tompkins said. “Sometimes people’s attention gets caught up in scientific research and they forget that there are so many more types of research out there. Research feeds into the reason why UGA prides itself in being an institution representative of higher education. I enjoy being able to represent the effort of hard working Grady undergraduate students.”

The Symposium includes presentations from 575 undergraduate students who are conducting research with 330 faculty members from 78 departments.

UGA buses marked “Special Event” and with a “CURO Symposium” signs in the front window will provide transportation to the Classic Center with stops at the Georgia Center, the Tate Student Center and the Arch.

Below is a list of Grady College students and when they present their oral and poster presentations.

 Oral Presentations

Presenter	Title	Date/Time	Location
Mauli Desai	Preventing the Arbitrary Killing and Kidnapping of Journalists	Tuesday 12:30-1:45	Room A
*Shannon Duffy	Reese-Hancock Housing Research Collaboration: Documenting Displacement in the Reese-Hancock Corridor	Monday 2:30-3:20	Room A
Allison Krausman (primary presenter) Wellie Delmer (secondary presenter)	Who’s We: A Documentary Study on Gentrification in Atlanta	Tuesday 11:00-12:15	Room A
*Noelle Lashley (primary presenter) Brandon Janeway Eryka Johnson (secondary presenters)	Examining the Impacts of Virtual Reality Journalism	Tuesday 11:00-12:15	Room A
*Reilly Megee	JODD: The Creation of the Journal of Digital Design	Tuesday 11:00-12:15	Room A
Charlotte Norsworthy	Building the Language: Analyzing the Development of Virtual Reality as a Journalistic Medium	Tuesday 11:00-12:15	Room A
* Emma Protis	No Longer Used: Designing Non-Exploitative Communication Methods to Represent Survivors of Human Trafficking	Monday 1:25-2:15	Room I

 

Poster Presentations

(all poster presentations will be on Monday, April 9, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.)

Presenter	Title	Poster Number
*Lyndsey Jackson	The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Purchase Habits of College Consumers	Poster 25
*Jillian Jones	The Impact of Beauty Vloggers on the Purchasing Decisions of Millennial and Generation Z Female Consumers	Poster 26
Lacey O’Brien	Shop ‘til You Drop: A Closer Look at Millennial Shopping Habits Online vs. In-Store	Poster 27
Emily Starling	Let’s Make it a Popularity Contest: University Health Centers or Outside Health Services	Poster 28
Caroline Tompkins	A Major Decision: The Decision-Making Process of Choosing an Undergraduate Major	Poster 29
Olivia Tompkins	We Can’t Get No Satisfaction From Instagram… Or Can We?	Poster 30
Hannah Weeg	A Study of the Consequences of Social Media on the Mental Health of College-Aged Millennials	Poster 31

 

*Names noted are CURO research assistants

Date: April 2, 2018
Author:  Jessica Twine,  jdt86350@uga.edu