AEC Presentations
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Academic Excellence Celebration
These presenters are proud to share their scholarly and creative work. Working individually or collaboratively, they demonstrate their ability to apply, analyze, and synthesize knowledge gained from classes, majors, or graduate programs. This year the event features both live and pre-recorded presentations.
TUNE IN!
McKendree Radio - Live: Click to Listen
Podcasters from McKendree Radio will set up in the PAC lobby and broadcast live during the entire Academic Excellence Celebration. The team will interview participants, event planners and advisors, and highlight the exciting scholarship featured throughout the day.
Presenters: Antonio Munoz, Bryce Kollack, Courtney Smith, David Richard, Ethan Hansen, Ethan Young, Felicity Crowell, Hannah White, Jackson Lustig, Keely Davis, Quinn Atchison
Sponsor: Dr. Rich Murphy
Location: PAC Lobby
LIVE PRESENTATIONS
10:00 AM - 10:20 AM
Promoting a New Product Idea
Students will present an advertising campaign for a new product idea. The presenters will discuss different ways to promote their product idea along with the strategy behind the advertising campaign.
Presenters: Taylor Anderson, Luci Blomme, Zach Buscher, Cameron Flethcher-Smith, Timothy Middleton, Camilla Lago Da Fonseca, Lexus Petrich, Luke Schmidt, Luna Tsuzuki
Sponsor: Dr. Brittany Dobill
Location: PAC 216
Contested City: Interpreting Civil War Era St. Louis
The Civil War Era course conducted research on Civil War History in St. Louis. Students will share what happened during a field visit to multiple sites of memory & mourning, with a focus on why some are very famously memorialized, while others are hidden under some of our most popular leisure sites.
Presenters: Jacob Allen, Quinn Atchison, Isabella Barbaglia, Christopher Durbin, Gabriel Gagen, Hayley Gentry, Gretchen Kuhn, Anna Leitner, Peyton Osgood, Kathryn Smith
Sponsor: Dr. Lauren Thompson
Location: PAC 215
Revisiting the Harlem Renaissance
The presenters will showcase the website they created for their capstone research papers on the New Negro, a major icon of the Harlem Renaissance.
Presenters: Eli Dierks, Felicity Crowell, Alivia Garcia, Hailey Rose, Jayden Touchette
Sponsor: Dr. Martha Patterson
Location: PAC 217
A Look into College Personality, Coping, Passion, and Resilience
McKendree Honors Program
The presenter will discuss personality, coping, passion, and resilience as they pertain to college students, as well as possible differences between athletes and non-athletes. Background, methods, results, and discussion will be included.
Presenters: Ethan Hansen
Sponsor: Dr. Michael Hahn
Location: PAC 220
The Effect of Dual-Task Training on Balance and Cognitive Ability
McKendree Honors Program
The presenter will discuss the relationship between balance exercises and their correlation with performance scores of cognitive testing. The presenter will examine the effectiveness of dual-task cognitive training on improving both balance and cognitive retention scores.
Presenters: Nolan Puent
Sponsor: Dr. Dawn Hankins
Location: PAC 222
The Social Media Dilemma
Each presenter will discuss their stance on the question, "Does the evolving engine of social media have a positive or negative effect on consumer behavior?" As a controversial topic, each student will showcase a different perspective supported by research to persuade the audience to their side.
Presenters: Allon Levitin, Milos Vicentic
Sponsor: Dr. Allie Helfrich
Location: PAC 218
10:30 AM - 10:50 AM
Promoting a New Product Idea
Students will present an advertising campaign for a new product idea. The presenters will discuss different ways to promote their product idea along with the strategy behind the advertising campaign.
Presenters: William Ache, Caden Chamma, Andi Menard Cordoba, Billy Doyle, Ryan Kastl, Jaevon McCoy, Zion Rodriguez, Hayley Schnefke, Jake Waltzer, Jeb Vanetta
Sponsor: Dr. Brittany Dobill
Location: PAC 216
McKendree Culture: Why Some Stay and Some Leave
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, nationwide enrollment in undergraduate institutions fell by four percent between 2020 and 2022. With rising college costs and a diminishing incoming student pool, retaining good college students is important to the success of nearly all higher education programs. In this study, focus groups and phenomenological analysis were used to understand why some students choose to stay and graduate from McKendree University while others choose to transfer or drop out. In this panel, the researchers will discuss the results of their study and the potential impact of their findings on recruiting, retention, and the overall culture at McKendree University.
Presenters: Quinn Atchison, Antonio Munoz
Sponsor: Dr. Rich Murphy
Location: PAC 215
Tax Planning Strategies of Charitable Giving
The presenters will discuss the tax impact of charitable giving and will explain several tax-advantaged methods for making cash and noncash charitable contributions.
Presenters: Johnathan Bumpers, Genesis Clay, Gavin Davidson, Michael Ford, Molly Grant, Estelle Meeker
Sponsor: Terese Kasson
Location: PAC 218
China's Rise and Brazil's Choice
McKendree's Emma McIlhargie and Aaron Brown will debate the following resolution, which was used at the 2023 National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship Tournament: The Federative Republic of Brazil should join the Belt and Road Initiative.
Presenters: Aaron Brown, Emma McIlhargie
Sponsor: Brent Nicholson
Location: PAC 220
Catalyst Literary Magazine Reading
The editors and contributing writers of Catalyst will read work published in the 2023 issue of the magazine. Copies of the magazine will be distributed.
Presenters: Brianna Burke, Lilibeth Castillo, Scarlett Catanzaro, Alivia Garcia, Jake Kingsley, Madison Rohn, Hannah White
Sponsor: Dr. Jenny Mueller
Location: PAC 217
The Highest Love
McKendree Honors Program
The presenter will philosophically discuss and compare the agapic and erosic types of love in terms of maturity and relevance to personal love.
Presenters: Regan Gubera
Sponsor: Dr. Kevin Zanelotti
Location: PAC 222
11:00 AM - 11:20 AM
The Relationship between Training Times and Depression Rates in College Athletes
McKendree Honors Program
The presenter will discuss the results from a research study investigating whether earlier training time correlates positively with depression rates in college athletes.
Presenters: Hallie Anderson
Sponsor: Dr. Lisa Mathis
Location: PAC 222
Promoting a New Product Idea
Students will present an advertising campaign for a new product idea. The presenters will discuss different ways to promote their product idea along with the strategy behind the advertising campaign.
Presenters: Rasheek Bonds, Katelyn Grandcolas, Petra Holzmann, Josh Jones, Jeremy Kinealy, Olivia Miner, Matteo Schubert, Joey Semerad, Jennifer Soto, Milos Vicentic, Jacob Welch
Sponsor: Dr. Brittany Dobill
Location: PAC 216
Running a Charitable 5K Race
The presenters will discuss the challenges of running a successful charitable 5K sporting event, and the keys to fundraising for this type of event.
Presenters: Griffin Brunner, Viola Cipriani, Christian Mejia, Dylan Powell, Brandon Roth, Isaac Winter
Sponsor: Dr. Robert Itri
Location: PAC 218
Big-Oh Service Bot (version 2)
The presenters will use knowledge from Data Mining, Compiler Design and Analysis of Algorithms to promote efficiency of work. The presenters will talk about time complexity in solving IT services on campus with Big-Oh Robot. The presenters will also discuss how the idea of calculus and computer network was used to establish the robotic motion.
Presenters: Diego Castillo, Ryan Fung, Emmanuel Segbedzi
Sponsor: Dr. Ahed Elmsallati
Location: PAC 215
It's on US - McKendree Experience in Review
The presenters will provide a historical context for "It's On US" campaign at the national and local level. The presenters will discuss the activities and events that were held for the first campaign and the 2023 campaign. The presenters will provide their own lessons learned from planning and implementing the event as well as lessons learned for the campus community.
Presenters: Ryan Radke, Noah Scrum, Brittany Thompson
Sponsor: Jennifer Miller
Location: PAC 217
9/11, the Baby Economy, and Crab People
McKendree’s Jayden Touchette and Madeline Trinity perform two events they qualified for during the 2023 National Forensic Association Championship Tournament.
Presenters: Jayden Touchette, Madeline Trinity
Sponsor: Joe Blasdel
Location: PAC 220
11:30 AM - 11:50 AM
Examining and Proving the Hollowness of the 'Angry' Black Woman Stereotype
McKendree Honors Program
The presenter will discuss the 'angry' black woman stereotype and how this stereotype conditions many black women to carefully monitor their expressions and body language to make sure they sound calm and reasonable and calibrate themselves into a narrow range designed not to offend people in power. The presenter will then highlight the impact of this demonizing stereotype. Background, analysis of survey results, and conclusions drawn from the study will be provided and addressed.
Presenters: Dominique Donegan
Sponsor: Dr. Lauren Thompson
Location: PAC 222
The Everchanging Interaction between Humans and Robots
This presentation will address the growth and expansion of robots in human environments, which is the future of the world. Different types of robots will be explained in the presentation along with advice of how humans and robots can have positive and meaningful interactions in an easy and smooth way. Robots helping humans with all sorts of tasks such as daily chores and even in important aspects, such as in the military, will be mentioned.
Presenters: Sonia Halabi
Sponsor: Dr. Nichole DeWall
Location: PAC 217
You Decide! & and Final Girls
McKendree’s Jayden Touchette performs two events she qualified for during the 2023 National Forensic Association Championship Tournament.
Presenters: Jayden Touchette
Sponsor: Joe Blasdel
Location: PAC 220
The Social Media Dilemma
Each presenter will discuss their stance on the question, "Does the evolving engine of social media have a positive or negative impact on consumer behavior?" As a controversial topic, each student will showcase a different perspective supported by research in effort to persuade the audience to their side.
Presenters: Jacob Waltzer, Anna Warkel
Sponsor: Dr. Allie Helfrich
Location: PAC 218
PRE-RECORDED PRESENTATIONS
Title: Implementation of a Patient Care Technician Visual Bedside Report Tool to Reduce Fall Rates
The presenter will discuss the results of implementing a visual communication tool during patient care technician bedside handoff in reducing patient falls in the acute care setting. The presenter will review the background, methods, analysis, and impact of the project on the adult surgical patient population.
Name: Gina Ashbrook, MSN, RN-BC, NPD-BC
Sponsor: Dr. Jill Parsons
Title: Improving Access to Healthcare in Rural Hospitals: Using Lean Six Sigma Methodology to Impact System Wide Patient Flow
The presenter will discuss the complex problem of poor patient flow in hospitals and the impact on patient outcomes. The presenter will describe how using Lean Six Sigma methodology guided by Kotter's 8-Step Change Model can identify root causes of poor patient flow, create realistic strategic solutions, and promote sustainable patient flow outcomes.
Name: Jennifer Throgmorton, DNP, RN, CENP
Sponsor: Dr. Janice Albers
