Research is vital to our profession, and St. Albert’s Day is a great opportunity for our students and faculty to showcase the work they have been doing in various fields. It is meant to be a time of learning, questioning, and sharing with each other that reignites enthusiasm for research on our campus. The second year students who participated were excited and proud of the research that we performed, and we were looking forward to this time to display and defend our work.

This year, our class was given an assignment that we presume was meant to increase our attendance at St. Albert’s Day, encourage us to examine the many posters present, and perhaps increase our appreciation for the research done. The assignment did increase attendance, but at the expense of our enthusiasm for and enjoyment of the event.

Frankly, we were frustrated by the "copy/paste" simplicity of this assignment. We walked among the posters simply searching for a few that met the criteria required by the assignment, only to write down the necessary data and leave the poster in search of the next answer -- a "scavenger hunt" that stifled our curiosity and desire to explore our own genuine research interests. In short, when it came to having students review the research posters, this assignment discarded quality in favor of quantity.

If attendance was the desired outcome of this assignment, a sign-in sheet would have sufficed. If an appreciation and critical examination of research was the aim, perhaps assigning students to report thoroughly on one to two posters they found interesting would have been a better approach.

We thank the administration for continuing to emphasize the importance of St. Albert’s Day as a time to take pride in ourselves, our classmates, our school, and our health system. We appreciate the desire to increase attendance at this event, but suggest that this be achieved through different means next year.

The Stritch '13 Class