Scholars Day Celebration

Each spring, Monmouth College celebrates the academic achievements of the students. The campus community comes together to celebrate, along aside the Founder’s Day activities, these student scholars. This celebration is known as the "Scholars Day Celebration".

"A great majority of Monmouth College students engage in academic scholarship above and beyond standard academic expectations put before them in the classroom. It is too often the case that this scholarship stays confined to the boundaries of the classroom or academic building. It is time to free these activities and to come together as a campus to share the excitement that happens each day at Monmouth College." (March 31, 2011 announcement of the 1st Annual Scholars Day Celebration)

Scholarship is broadly defined as an inquiry or investigation conducted by a student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline (as defined by the Council on Undergraduate Research). This scholarship can be a result of student-faculty collaboration, an independent study, or project that highlights exemplary works done as a part of coursework. Presentations can take the form of a poster, an exhibit, a reading, a theatrical or musical performance, or a summary of a larger performance. All presentations will have a faculty or staff sponsor who is ultimately responsible for insuring the intellectual merit. All students are welcome to present; all students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

History

In October of 2008, Ken Cramer, Marsha Dopheide, Logan Mayfield, and Brad Sturgeon where asked by Dean Jakubek to represent Monmouth College at the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Workshop entitled, Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research. This 3-day meeting was held on the campus of Truman State University; the application submitted by these faculty can be found here. Once accepted to attend the meeting, a "self-study" was completed by the attending faculty.

As an outcome of the meeting, these faculty members developed a plan, based off of a draft plan. Included in this plan was a "mission statement" and a working definition of "scholarship":

Mission: – To create a culture of active and engaged students through student-faculty collaborative scholarship. To encourage original, creative and scholarly student work that models disciplinary ways of knowing.

Working definition of “scholarship” – This is something we’ll want to define together, but for purposes of a starting point, we found CUR’s definition to be very helpful in bringing together disparate disciplines (sciences, arts, and humanities): “Inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate in collaboration with a faculty mentor that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.” Thus, it could include student directed plays, original music scores, literature criticism, scientific research, entrepreneurial business ventures, etc.

The application sent to CUR, Sept 11, 2008

A draft of the "plan" developed during the meeting

The final "plan" resulting from the meeting

Media:Monmouth Self-study for consultant visit.docx

Media:Self-study FINAL Monmouth.doc

Media:Scholars Day planning process.docx

Media:poster_board_design.pdf

Media:FacultyStaff announcement about Scholar's Day Celebration_2011.txt

Media:2013 Annual Scholars Day Celebration.txt