Boland Undergraduate Symposium

            A few weeks ago, I was able to attend the Boland Symposium at the Millennial Center in Johnson City, TN. This symposium consisted of several ETSU senior students, a large portion who are members of the Honors College (including my great-grand big), who were presenting their theses. I was only able to attend for a short time, but there were so many presentations that covered material ranging from snapchat to medical research and the amount of effort that was put into these presentations and the time leading up to them was evident.

            I was able to attend the presentation by Laura Cabaniss, “The Role of Attitudes and Motivations as Major Factors in Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language.” I have never actually taken a Spanish class before, but rather took several French courses in high school. I loved every minute of those classes and still attempt to speak as much of the language as I can as to retain what I learned then. This presentation was very interesting to me because even though I myself do not currently study Spanish, the language and the learning process regarding becoming fluent in a new language has always been of major interest for me.

            Laura discussed the techniques she used for gathering information such as speaking to professors on campus who teach these classes and having their students fill out an attitude survey. These surveys gave her the basic information she needed, including demographics and confidence/attitude ratings, to be able to calculate how the attitude affected the students’ ability to retain the information and do well in the class. She was able to see correlations between those who were taking the class because they truly wanted to learn the language (those majoring/minoring in Spanish, or those who just enjoy it) and those who were forced to take the course to take care of a credit they need to graduate. She used all of this information and created numerical data depending on attitude score that each student was assigned based on the information they provided her with.

            Watching her give this presentation was not only interesting for the fact that her topic was one of high interest for me, but also because I was able to see what myself and my peers would be doing in a short period of time. Not just with this presentation, but with all of the other presenters that I spoke with, you could see their excitement, fear, nervousness, and, after they presented, relief that radiated from them. This was a huge moment that they had worked so hard for, and being able to see their excitement at its coming to fruition, made me excited to begin this stressful, mentally/physically taxing, and so very rewarding process. Seeing them present reminds me that I can do it, I can make it and become everything I want to be, I just have to believe in myself and put in the work to get there.