Five UVM Department of Political Science students (Kira Nikolaides, Holly Coughlan, Will Omohundro, Madeline Tagatac, and Katherine Peck) attended the annual Pi Sigma Alpha (PSA) Undergraduate Research Conference from Friday, March 5 – Sunday, March 7. They joined 112 students from around the United States in presenting research papers on panels representing the range of Political Science subfields. The conference was held virtually, as this year students were unable to travel to Washington, DC for in person meetings. Despite this disappointment, the quality of the panels was very high, with graduate students (and occasional faculty members) serving as panel moderators and discussants. This was the 7^th year of the conference, and the 5^th year of UVM student participation.

In addition to the student panels held all day Saturday, professional development panels (on law school, graduate school, and working in Washington)  were offered on Sunday. On Friday evening, Florida state representative Anna V. Eskamoni (a member of PSA) addressed the conference, and on Saturday during  lunch Congressman Jamie Raskin (Maryland, 8^th District) and CBS News chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett spoke.

Here are some student reflections on attending the conference:

Will Omohundro: I have been continuing the conversation from my panel with two of the other students on my panel over LinkedIn. I am actually going to meet with S____ from Columbia University this week to talk about her organization and how I can help going forward. I had a wonderful experience this weekend and I feel like I have found some more tangible ways to make an immediate change in the issues I am passionate about. I also feel like I have been exposed to some great resources looking toward graduate school and potential jobs.

Holly Coughlan: I jumped around the career and grad/ law school panels and found them quite helpful! It was a lot of fun watching presentations and presenting this weekend.

MadelineTagatac: I attended the panel on graduate school and learned a lot about the application process and how to decide what program is best for me! I got the panelists' contact info if I have any questions. Participating overall was super interesting -- I loved seeing all these fascinating presentations and getting to connect with other students. I got their LinkedIn information and have been messaging them about their presentations. It was very inspiring to see so many other students present their work.