M/S Symposium: An Underappreciated and Labor-Intensive Event to Celebrate Math/Science Seniors

Every year, the Math/Science Department’s Senior Symposium, in which the seniors showcase their months-long research projects, is held in the DJD Lobby in early April. This year, I had the privilege of interviewing three Math/Sci seniors, Emil Antselevich, Henry Evans, and Ren Peterson (pictured from left to right below) about everything that goes into the symposium. 

In their Junior year, Math/Science students begin to reach out to various professors and specialists looking for a mentor. When they find one willing to collaborate with them, their mentor will then either allow them to assist on a research project being conducted by one of their primary students or will allow them to pursue a topic on their own.

Ideally, the students will then spend their summer completing any in-lab work needed for the project, though this does not always go off without a hitch. Sometimes, especially if a student starts later or struggles to find a mentor, they could be going into the lab after school in the Autumn for weeks. Doing lab work in the Autumn is cumbersome, not only because it’s exhausting, but also because, according to Evans: “It goes a lot slower in the Fall because we have so much other stuff that we’re doing…”

Generally speaking, the projects, at least the meat of them, should be done by Thanksgiving, preferably before Thanksgiving break, and almost certainly before Winter Holiday. Though, Antselevich, mentioned that he and several people he knew were still working on parts of their project into January. 

To add stakes other than grades to this process, the research project seniors present at the symposium are reviewed by judges and are their senior qualifiers. Essentially meaning, if they flunk their project or it does poorly with the judges, they don’t graduate. Antselevich jokingly said, “If you fail, you die.”

All in all, the Senior Symposium is one of the most underappreciated and least talked about events in this school. The amount of work the Math/Science seniors put into their projects is both intimidating and inspiring and deserves to be celebrated and appreciated. If you didn’t attend the symposium this year, make sure you go next year! Attend any year you are available to, for that matter, the event is all-day and the Math/Science department and its seniors deserve recognition for all their hard work!