Special Features: Resources to Support Student Learning
Last Updated: July 2007
Creation and Use of Scholarship by Students
The College has numerous opportunities available to students for expressing their scholarship and creativity. Among these are the Investigative Studies Program, capstone presentations, conference presentations, academic competitions, and various outlets for student publications.
The Investigative Studies Program challenges the College's "most academically gifted and highly motivated students." The program provides "summer grants for undergraduates interested in pursuing special research and creative projects, as well as travel grants for presentation of findings at regional and national conferences." An Investigative Studies Symposium is held each fall at which summer grant recipients share the results of their projects with the campus community.
Each academic major at the College requires a culminating or capstone experience. Several departments regularly sponsor capstone presentations to allow seniors to share the fruits of their research with a wider audience. Among these are Art, Biology and Environmental Science, Chemistry, English, History, Music, and Theatre, as well as the McDonough Leadership Program. Marietta College students regularly present at conferences. For example, over the last several years, senior Petroleum Engineering students present results of his or her research at the Ohio Space Grant Consortium Annual Student Research Symposium and occasionally at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Eastern Regional Meeting, several Psychology students have presented papers at a variety of academic conferences, and Campus Writing Center tutors have presented papers at three regional and two national conferences.
Marietta College students regularly take part in a variety of academic competitions. For example:
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest: Undergraduate students are provided opportunities to interact with students from other colleges and universities and sharpen and demonstrate their problem-solving, programming, and teamwork skills. The contest is a two-tiered competition among teams of students; teams first compete in regional contests with the winning team from each region advancing to the "World Finals."
- ECC Mathematics Competition: 2005 marks the eighth year for this annual competition. Teams of up to four students are given ten mathematics problems and three hours to solve them. The team with the highest score wins the competition. Marietta College hosted and won the event in 2001; the 2004 team placed third out of 12 teams.
- Forensics: Marietta College Forensics provides an opportunity for students to hone their public speaking skills, learn about literature, create programs of interest, make friends, increase their self confidence, and travel. All students are welcome to the wonderful, wacky, and witty world of Marietta College forensics in any capacity that benefits them. A variety of events are available for students, including After Dinner (Humorous) Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, Persuasive Speaking, Poetry Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, and Prose Interpretation. In addition, Marietta College hosts the Wilcox Forensics Invitational Tournament in November of each year where students from colleges and universities throughout the region come to enjoy camaraderie and competition.
- Model UN: Students participate in a simulation activity in which they play the role of diplomats from other countries. Colleges are assigned to represent countries on various UN committees and try to ensure that the resolutions that are written reflect their country's interests. To prepare, students study their country's foreign policy and the issues under discussion in their particular UN committee. The simulations run for three days and have been located in Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio in the recent past.
- State (Ohio) Athletic Training Quiz Bowl: A team of athletic training majors competes in this annual competition. In 2004, the Marietta College entrant won both the state and district level contests, marking the first time an Ohio-based institution won district.
- Tau Pi Phi Case Study Competition: The economics and business honor society, Tau Pi Phi, sponsors a two-day case competition. Students work with Harvard Business School-type cases and present their findings and recommendations to panels of judges made up of area business leaders and other executives. Marietta College has participated in the competition every year since the mid-1980s with some 40-50 students having benefited from the experience.
Several outlets for the publication of creative work and scholarly activity of Marietta College students exist. Among these are Pulse, Confluence, and Macro & micro, the latter an Economics, Management, and Accounting Department publication.
