Madeleine McCormick Presents at Buena Vista University's Thirteenth Annual Scholars Day

2017 May 1

Buena Vista University's (BVU) thirteenth annual Scholars Day was held Saturday, April 29. The event provided students from all disciplines an opportunity to present their best original research, academic posters, artistic creations and performances to their peers, professors and the public.

This year's Scholars Day event featured 63 presentations from 120 students, exploring topics from literature and business to science and history.

Madeleine McCormick, a junior digital media major from Huxley , was one of the students who participated. McCormick's presentation was titled "Rigged or Righteous: Freedom of the Press," and the project's abstract is as follows:

In honor of First Amendment Week 2016, we challenged ourselves to ask members of our community the question, "What does 'free press' mean to you?" After studying the 2016 State of the First Amendment survey, we found only 11% of American citizens recognize freedom of the press as a right guaranteed by the First Amendment and 21% believe the First Amendment goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. As active student journalists on our campus, we observed conversation about the political rhetoric surrounding press. These findings motivated us to seek out participants in our community to learn about their opinions on the topic. Along with our initial question, we asked, "What freedoms do you think the press does have or doesn't have and do you think there are certain things press should or shouldn't do?"

The keynote speaker for the event was Adrienne B. Haynes, a 2010 BVU graduate, who is an attorney and business woman who specializes in helping entrepreneurs develop sustainable infrastructure and business practices. Haynes is the managing partner of SEED Law, a business law firm, and owner of SEED Collective, a consultancy. She is the founder of the nonprofit, the Construction Business Institute, and is active in both the Multicultural Business Coalition and Black Female Attorneys network. Haynes is also a member of the BVU National Alumni Association Board of Directors.

"This is a special event because it gives students' a real-life platform where they can showcase their success beyond exams and grades," said Dr. Steven Mills, assistant professor of Spanish and chair of the events committee who organized the event. "With a Scholars Day presentation, students take their hard work and form it into a new medium or method for discussion. They become experts on their topic and then stand in front of peers and become teachers about what they have done and how it adds to the greater corpus of knowledge in their field."

This year marked the first time Scholars Day and the annual Student Recognition Dinner - which was held later that evening - were combined.

"For the first time, those who presented as part of Scholars Day received an invitation to the dinner and were recognized alongside all the others receiving honors and awards for academic excellence," added Mills. "They deserved to be a part of the celebration of hard work and dedication."