Celebration of Scholars

Celebration of Scholars 2025
An Interdisciplinary Academic Symposium

1-5:30 p.m., Thursday, April 3
3rd Floor, J.W. Jones Student Union

Submissions are open until 5 p.m., Friday, March 21, 2025!

Celebration of Scholars Call for Papers and Projects

The Society of President’s Scholars, in conjunction with Career Services, the Honors Program, and the Provost’s Office, are proud to sponsor the Celebration of Scholars, an interdisciplinary symposium spotlighting exceptional student work throughout campus.

The symposium is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at Northwest and may include work completed over the last year or before. Faculty and staff are encouraged to recommend the symposium to students and to sponsor their best work, and students are encouraged to submit their work. If you have a student working on a project and believe they will have a completed or mostly completed project to present by April 3rd and you are willing to sponsor that student, please encourage the student to submit their work. We especially encourage you to ask graduating seniors who are working on final senior projects to think about this.

Submissions are due by Friday, March 21 before 5 p.m.

Submission Application Form

This year’s symposium will be 1 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3rd. Sessions will take place throughout the afternoon and evening while posters, artwork, and other projects will be displayed throughout the event.

The symposium gives the University community a chance to see the work students are completing across disciplines, and it gives participating students an audience beyond the classroom. In past years, students have presented creative writing, original research, and analytical papers. They have given speeches, conducted panel discussions, and displayed original works of art and visual summaries of their projects in science, education and business. They also have presented dramatic readings and played or analyzed music, and some have presented other original work or projects completed in class or during internships. The selection committee is open to new and innovative approaches in what students want to present and how they would like to present it!

Please address any questions to Dr. Mohammed Meziani at meziani@nwmissouri.edu.

Thank you,

Mohammed Meziani, sponsors of the Society of President’s Scholars

What You Need To Know

Here's why you should participate

You will get an opportunity to hear people ooh, aah, clap, smile, and generally respond positively to your work.
You can list your participation on your resume. This type of involvement looks great to potential employers.
You will impress your family and friends.
You will be even prouder of your work than you are now, truly believing all your hard work did pay off.

Here’s what you need to do to participate

Submission Application Form

After you find a faculty member to be your sponsor, fill out the application form. (Faculty are quite happy to do this, and it doesn’t have to be the teacher for whom you completed your work.)
If you are presenting with other students who worked on the same project, please put all of your names on a single form. If you and a friend want to present different projects but at the same session, please submit separate forms and indicate your preference to present at the same time.
Submit the form. Available online until 5:00 PM March 21. Late submissions will not be considered.
Poster Printing: Career Services will cover the cost of those submitted by March 28.
- Email your poster file to Mail & Printing Services (MAILCPY@nwmissouri.edu) and include that Career Services is covering the cost of the poster for Celebration of Scholars. The Mail and Printing Supervisor knows to expect submissions. Students will receive an email when it is ready for pickup at Mail and Printing Services, which can be found next to UPD.

Here’s how you can be judged and win

Although always dependent on the funding available each year, there will be raffle prizes available for participants and cash prizes for the top presentations at the Celebration.
Judging is conducted by Northwest faculty and is based on the materials you submitted with your application, the quality of the work produced, and your presentation on the day of the event.
The judges may be from within your field or from outside of it – or possible both – so judging also is based on your ability to express the importance and quality of your work to an expert and to a novice.
This year, only presentations will be competitively judged. Exhibits are still eligible for the raffle prizes.