<ecently, the Noon News Bulletin was regularly carrying ads for students to come forward and volunteer for a part in the Carleton Symposium, but few students knew what the symposium really is. The symposium is the brainchild of Samuel Robson, a junior history major. When Robson came back from his Off Campus studies program from Nicaragua, he wanted to share what he had learnt from living there about Nicaragua’s awkward foreign relations with the United States. But he found that even thought there are approximately 70% Carls who go off campus in their Carleton careers, there is no common platform where they all can come up and share their varied experiences.
Robson states, “ While Carleton students are participating in a wide variety of activities and having vivid experiences, they lack an organized format to share the wealth of knowledge they have accumulated and pass it on to other Carls.” The symposium has been designed like a conference and gives students an open mike to share their Off campus studies experiences, researches, papers, class assignments etc with fellow students.
Robson’s friends Arpita Bhattacharya and Rebecca Gourevitch have helped him develop the symposium and advertise for it. While NNB has been the main source of their advertisements so far, they plan to advertise the symposium more seriously by means of all campus mails and posters, and by also talking to administrative managers and leaders of student organizations.
The Symposium will also give Student organizations an opportunity to come forward and connect to more Carleton students by sharing what they have been doing and what their plans are for future, as there is often a lack of awareness of students outside organizations about what many organizations do or are doing.
According to Robson, when he developed the idea for the symposium, he imagined that a lot of Science students would come forward to share the researches they have been taking a part in, but to his surprise, not a single student from the Science departments has come forward to take part in the symposium. “We stuck posters all over Olin!” states a dismayed Robson. Nor have students from Social Sciences departments come forward to share the papers they have been working on. The majority of students leading the symposiums, so far are students who want to share there off campus studies experiences. Robson stated that he hopes that after the symposium begins, it will grow more cross departmental.
The OCS office has pledged funds for the symposium to provide snacks during the presentations and Robson has also contacted the president of the CSA to talk about the possibility of getting more funds.
Robson hopes that people have a positive reaction to the idea of the symposium and come forward to participate actively.
The first of the symposiums take place on the afternoons of 7th and 8th February in the Library Athenaeum. Students interested in participating in the symposium in winter term should email Robson by Saturday, the 28th of February.
