By Elijah Horman and Shyire Thompson
The students will be running the school at this year’s annual Showcase event, taking place on Tuesday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The annual Showcase allows students from an array of majors to share their work from throughout the year. In all, about 150 students from 15 majors will present at the daylong event.
This year’s panels include DECA presenting a business ethics case study, simulation and game design projects, and the biology department presenting their research findings.
A full schedule can be found at: bit.ly/WPUShowcase.
The event returns to an in-person format this year. In 2020, Showcase was canceled entirely; in 2021, it was a smaller, hybrid event with both in-person and virtual panels.
“We are finally able to kind of really come together again,” said Eliza Laskowski, an English professor and chair of the speakers and events committee, which plans Showcase.
Laskowski worries that two years without a full-scale event might lead to less attendance this year. Classes are canceled for the day, and many professors offer extra credit to attend.
“This is a big event for our campus, except we are now looking at a student body that essentially hasn’t really experienced Showcase,” Laskowski said.
This year’s opening kickoff will feature a scene from the musical “Zombie Prom,” presented by the WPU theater department. Four sessions of panels will follow, with lunch on the lawn in between. In the afternoon, students will share their internship experiences, and an Academic Awards ceremony will be held.
All students are welcome to attend Showcase. Numerous majors are featured, so students can learn more about what kinds of projects they’ll be doing in the future, or what other majors are like.
Roldanny Alvarez, an exercise and sports science major, said students will benefit from attending.
“I really enjoy this event, because it offers a student a chance to learn about other majors,” Alvarez said. “Sometimes you can learn about something that you never knew you would be interested in.”
Students who participate also benefit. Mitch Baddour, a senior majoring in business administration, has presented in the past.
“It helped me overcome presenting in front of a huge audience,” said Baddour. “I appreciated the feedback from viewers and I learned a lot from my experience.”
