Annual GREAT day to be held April 21

GREAT Day in Bailey Hall, via Kate Rodgers, Photo Editor

GREAT Day at SUNY Geneseo will be held Thursday, Apr. 21. According to the Geneseo website, GREAT Day is a college-wide symposium celebrating the creative and scholarly endeavors of Geneseo students. GREAT stands for Geneseo Recognizes Excellence, Achievement & Talent, and the day is reserved for student presentations of their research and creative works. 

The event will take place over the course of the entire day, with presentations from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The keynote speech by Diane Stanitski will be held at 1:45 p.m. in the Wadsworth Auditorium, and classes will be cancelled for the day.

Senior geology major Connor Curley is one of the students presenting their research. His research with Professor of Geology Scott Giorgis took place over the summer of 2021.

Curley said, “I’m presenting research I did on rocks from the Scottsville Basin in Virginia. I did a paleomagnetic analysis, and that’s a long, complicated formula for geophysics, but it's basically supposed to show the kind of work I did over the summer. I did it mostly alone, but I did have a professor who mentored me through it. It was his idea that I was researching. I just did the work for it.” 

Curley said that he felt confident presenting research in front of an audience, and that he had done similar presentations in class. 

“This is my first time presenting research that I've done myself in the lab, but otherwise, I have presented research on other people's studies. I've found papers and put together research on that in some of my geology classes,” he said. 

Curley said that he felt that his classes had prepared him to give formal presentations on geology and hoped that other fields of study did so as well. 

“I feel like the geology major does a really good job of prepping us for this. Once you get into the 200 level classes, each course requires at least one project, and that usually involves a professional write up or a poster. So, I feel like we've had a lot of opportunities to practice it before GREAT Day,” Curley said. “I think this shows what you would do with a professor in grad school. I know every grad school program is different, but with geology you're mostly working with one professor or one group, and I think this definitely prepared me for more work with formal, scientific writing and all that.”

“I would hope that other majors are also prepping students throughout the semester. We've known about the GREAT Day presentation since the first day of the semester. They told us to start thinking about ideas, and then each week we had a different task like writing our hypothesis or getting our methods ready. I would definitely hope that other majors do that and prep their students,” he said. 

In addition to STEM students presenting research, the Learning Independence, Vocational, and Educational Skills (LIVES) Program at Geneseo is presenting the progress their students have made throughout the year. According to the Geneseo website, the LIVES Program works “to provide an opportunity for students with intellectual and/or other developmental disabilities to learn independence, vocational skills, and functional educational skills within an inclusive educational community supported by university students, educators, administrators, and community leaders.” 

Students in the LIVES Program will be giving presentations on their experiences and their work at Geneseo at 10:30 a.m. in Newton 204. 

Students are encouraged to spend the day watching presentations and performances by Geneseo students and faculty.