Participation Overview and Guidelines
What is a poster symposium?
Poster sessions have become a popular way of presenting scholarship in a variety of disciplines at professional meetings. Poster sessions are popular because more people can view and read the poster than at a traditional oral presentation, and more importantly, there is a greater opportunity to interact with the scholar. The Millikin Poster Symposium is designed to provide all undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to share their scholarly activities regardless of discipline, enhance student written and oral communication skills, increase campus and community exposure to the variety of scholarly activities conducted by students and faculty, and encourage students and faculty to participate in future scholarship events.
Cash awards for top-judged posters are funded by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and the Judith and G. Richard Locke Awards.
What can be expected at the poster symposium?
The symposium is held in University Commons. The audience will be a mix of Millikin students, faculty, judges, visiting high school students, and invited guests (e.g., parents, Board of Trustees) who examine, read, and chat with the student authors about their scholarship. Poster authors will stand near their posters and answer questions. Questions typically range from, "What did you do? Why/how did you decide to do the study? What did you learn from your project? What can you do with your results?, etc." Past presenters report they enjoyed chatting with others about their research and felt the experience increased their confidence and ability to make public presentations.
Participation rules
- Your scholarly work is eligible if it has been conducted sometime between May 1, 2023 and March 1, 2024 and not been previously submitted to the Millikin Poster Symposium. Examples of scholarly work includes student-faculty collaborative projects conducted in regularly scheduled courses, seminars, independent study, directed study, internships, JMS projects, or the masters degree programs. Scholarly work also includes: research resulting in data, performance art, literary expositions and critiques, and creative artistic displays.
- A faculty member must sponsor your poster entry by stating that your scholarly work represents B or better grade level work.
- Your actual poster display Title font may be as large as 72 point font. Your actual poster Text font should be in 16 - 18 point font using 1 inch margins to insure that it can be easily read from a distance of 5 feet. Your poster text should be affixed to poster board or professionally made vinyl banner that can be attached to wooden scaffolding with pushpins or nails. Your poster dimensions can be no bigger than 4 feet horizontally and 4 feet vertically. The body of your poster should conform to the style guidelines of your discipline. Seek the guidance of your faculty sponsor or view past posters in the hallways of Leighty Tabor Science Center.
- You will be assigned a presentation number that will be e-mailed to you by Wednesday, April 23, 2025. The Poster Symposium will take place in the Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Rooms on the 3rd Floor of the University Commons. The poster numbers will be attached to the scaffolds and should be attached to your poster with a push pin or tape. Do not change poster numbers or locations as the judges will use these numbers to locate and evaluate the posters.
- Presenters are responsible for tacking their posters to the scaffolding between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM on Friday, April 25, 2025. Items to hang posters will be available. Lori Gilbert, Lisa Casey, and student workers will be located in The David J. Rathje Family Reception area to assist with questions during this time.
- At least one of the poster's authors (when multiple authors exist) must be present from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM during the poster session and judging. It is recommended that authors arrive no later than 12:45 AM. Two judges will evaluate each poster, so poster authors must wear their name tags (symposium provided). Dress is business professional. The prize money will be distributed by checks and can be picked up from Lori Gilbert in Shilling 212. Winners will receive an email when their prize check is available.
- Your poster dimensions can be no bigger than 4 feet horizontally and 4 feet vertically.
It is not necessary to have your poster printed by a commercial poster publisher, but if you do, please be aware that the cost, delivery, and poster materials vary. A list of a few sources students have used in the past are listed below:
http://phdposters.com/
http://www.posterburner.com/
http://posterpresentations.com/html/price_guide.html
Submissions open Monday, January 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM and will close Friday, March 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM. No late entries will be accepted.
Submission requirements
- Put the whole title in capital letters. Your poster title is limited to a maximum of 25 words.
- Put the poster authors names in capital letters, organized in order of author contribution.
- Put the affiliation of all authors (typically Millikin, but may be different with multiple author / multiple institutionally supported research).
- Put the sponsor and discipline information in the appropriate order as shown.
- Your poster abstract is limited to 250 words.
Entries will be rejected if they do not adhere to the requirements listed above.
Sample
GENERAL SYNTHESIS OF ACETYLACETONATES & OXIDES MADE FROM ACETYLACETONATES. KRIS ORLANDO & CLARENCE JOSEFSON, Millikin University. Sponsor: Dr. Clarence Josefson, Department of Chemistry.
In the second organic laboratory, students are often required to synthesize metal acetylacetonates as part of a coordination chemistry project. Students would use different procedures to make these acetylacetonates with a variety of transition met...
(rest of abstract)
Any remaining questions about participation, poster construction, or other related topics may be directed to celebrationsofscholarship@millikin.edu.
**REMINDER** Your poster dimensions can be no bigger than 4 feet horizontally and 4 feet vertically!