{"id":2854,"date":"2010-04-30T14:15:20","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T19:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2010-04-30T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T19:15:20","slug":"live-outside-your-comfort-zone-grad-students-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2010\/04\/live-outside-your-comfort-zone-grad-students-told\/","title":{"rendered":"Live outside your comfort zone, grad students told"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mapping

Raymond Akong elaborates on his Chemistry poster presentation at the Mapping the New Knowledges conference.<\/p><\/div>\n

Brock\u2019s Cheryl McCormick, Psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience, opened the recent Mapping the New Knowledges graduate student research conference by encouraging students to live outside their comfort zone.<\/p>\n

For graduate students to accept the responsibility and the privilege of being called researchers, they must have the courage to seek out experiences that will challenge their ideas and research, McCormick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore often than not, when you put yourself out there, it will be a positive experience,\u201d she said during her keynote address at the April 22 event. \u201cSometimes you may get a little bruised. But if you are not getting beaten up from time to time \u2013 and I mean metaphorically beaten up by your advisor, committee members, people at conferences and reviewers \u2014 then you may not really be engaging anyone with your efforts and should ask yourself why.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are not getting beaten up from time to time, you certainly aren\u2019t learning anything. You can only measure your progress by the hurdles you overcome. But most of all, have fun. There is much joy in doing research.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCormick\u2019s address captured the spirit of the day-long conference, an annual event that showcases the valuable contribution that graduate students make to the University\u2019s thriving research culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat you are here today, sharing your knowledge with your academic peers \u2013 graduate students and faculty \u2014 demonstrates that you are researchers,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

This year, the diversity and quality of graduate research stood out said Professor John McNamara, chair of the conference organizing committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very impressed with the calibre of research presentations and the breadth of topics,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cAs well, we had outstanding attendance from faculty and our graduate community. There was a lot of interaction throughout the day between our participants and those who attended the conference. That highlights the success of the conference as an opportunity to share knowledge and to stimulate an exchange of ideas that leads to new and exciting directions for our research.”<\/p>\n

In her address, McCormick also talked about how she realized as a university student that she had a passion for research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the first time that I experienced that feeling in which you think you are going to burst because you have been so captivated by some finding, some perspective, some understanding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that passion for research that McCormick has continued to share as a faculty supervisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving student researchers work alongside me continues to benefit me as a researcher,\u201d she said. \u201cI have been very fortunate to have many exceptional undergraduate students and graduate students in my lab; as much as I challenge them, they also challenge me, and we learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mapping the New Knowledges conference is presented in partnership by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Brock Research and the Graduate Students’ Association.<\/p>\n

\"mappingnewknowledges2\"

Rebecca Starkman, graduate student in Child and Youth Studies, explains her presentation.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students were encouraged to be bold at the recent Mapping the New Knowledges graduate student research conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1,5],"tags":[147,3330,3325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2859,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions\/2859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}