Last week Friday all of us ENVS seniors presented at Lewis & Clark’s 2nd annual Festival of Scholars. We each had a 40×32″ poster and 2 hours to present our work to passing students. I found this to be a very valuable opportunity not only to share the research I’ve been working on for the past 2-3 semesters, but also to practice communicating my findings to people outside of my discipline. For example, I was asked to define the word “greenwashing” a number of times— a term common in the ENVS department, but evidently less well-known in other departments. It was also very interesting to see what details people seemed to focus on in my work. For example, I ended up receiving a lot of questions about labor issues and social inequality in Abu Dhabi as a whole, while questions related to Masdar’s renewable energy development program largely went unasked.
Overall, people seemed to respond very positively to my work — which felt great. A handful of students lingered around my poster for a long time, and one even asked for sources to help him pursue a related thesis topic next year. Even this week, I’ve had numerous people approach me to say they found my presentation very compelling. Obviously, it feels very validating to see others express genuine interest in a project that I have invested so much time and energy in. It is also very heartening to see the knowledge that I’ve accumulated through this extended research process move beyond myself, and actually make some small impression on my peers. All in all, I think this experience at Festival of Scholars helped give me the final burst of energy and excitement that I’ll need to finish my final draft over the course of the next week.