On April 22, 2022, Roosevelt´s 38th Annual Research Practicum Symposium was the first hybrid symposium ever. Symposium is an event when the Science/Tech seniors present their year-long research projects to parents, teachers, and their fellow seniors. This year it was held in the auditorium and parents and other staff members could view presentations on Zoom. 

After first period, S/T seniors headed down to the auditorium; the RP teachers and Principal McNeil down there waiting for them. Students heard from the RP teacher staff and a Roosevelt alum Dr. Clarence M. Findley, MD, Ph.D., who spoke on his biology research and left the students with a motivational message quoting Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go! . The selected students presented their projects: Austin Luu, Antuan Palmer, Gavin Crisologo, Abigail Lopez-Freire, and Chad Bo.

Gavin Crisologo, one of the presenters, expressed how important it is to be passionate about what you’re researching. In fact, Gavin discovered his love for “AI, machine learning, and deep learning”, and he plans to further study these subjects in college.

Having the opportunity to be a part of Symposium and present in front of hundreds of seniors prepares seniors for college-level presentations and allow them to cultivate their public speaking skills.  

When asked what the most challenging issue he came across while preparing for symposium Crisologo mentioned that although the slides weren’t difficult to make, he had to spend a long time animating on “short-term memory networks” and had to simplify his explanations so that his audience could follow along and understand him.

As this was the 38th annual ERHS Symposium, this act of presenting in front of peers is nothing new to the ERHS S/T community. The symposium in 2015, which was also pre-COVID, was recorded by Clara Janzen in her article “STEM Seniors Celebrate Achievements at Symposium” in The Raider Review.  Pictures from this article showed parents, staff, and students packed into the Media Center and everyone sharing snacks and pastries. 

With the current mandates, this year’s Symposium did not offer food and it was in the more secluded area of the auditorium, however as mandates start lessening, RP students may be able to get back to enjoying communion in the media center as they used to.