Early this year Thompson Rivers University in BC held an undergraduate student conference, and I encouraged our majors to apply to present. Jon Roberts '10 took me up on it, and went up to give his paper on "The Third Place Question in New Urbanism". Here's Jon's recap of the event:
The TRU Conference was an excellent experience, both for the academic in me and for the American me. I was the sole Yank in the room (save some ex-pats now teaching there) so it was great as a Politics and Government major being grilled by non-Americans! On top of that, the conference was well-organized and small enough that it afforded a good deal of feedback from panel moderators and ample opportunity to chat with professors there. And while the grad school talks and other policy conversations were Canadian-specific, it was definitely illuminating. All in all, a great experience that I would highly recommend to students for future involvement.
I liked hearing that the TRU folks seized on Jon's presence to tout their conference as "international," since he was the only non-Canadian presenter. He also was apparently treated to a number of free drinks as well. Oh Canada!
So students, you should think about going next year. Conferences can be fun and a nice tidbit to put on the resume.
