The Beta Beta Beta South Central Regional Convention gives biology students a chance to present their biological research and compete to go to the national convention.
Five OCU students will present at the convention:
Dylan Smith-Sutton, cell and molecular biology junior,
Stormy Vandeplas, environmental studies senior,
Erin McCoy, biology junior,
Lillie Pennington, biology junior, and
Becky Lavictoire, biology junior.
“It provides a venue for students to present their research to their peers and their equals,” said Dr. Adam Ryburn, professor of biology and co-adviser of Beta Beta Beta. “They’ll need presentation skills, leadership skills and networking skills. That’s what this is really for, to focus on students interacting with other students.”
Pennington plans to do ecological research in the future and said she knows presenting the research is an important part of that. The conference is beneficial because it’s a low-risk way to practice her research communication skills, she said.
“The TriBeta conference is low-risk because while it’s mostly strangers, it’s also mostly undergraduate research,” Pennington said. “It’s not like a national conference where most of the presenters have been working on their research for years.”
Lavictoire also said the conference is important for the experience students get.
“Most students aren’t able to present their research at a conference, or even go to one,” Lavictoire said. “Presenting in front of and with my peers is really valuable professionally.”
The convention is always hosted at the University of Oklahoma Biological Field Station at Lake Texhoma in April, but a different school is elected to host the convention at that location every year.
This year has a memorable host because OCU, the alpha chapter, will host, according to Ryburn.
“Whenever we can be put in the spotlight, we like to do that,” Ryburn said.
OCU’s TriBeta is the alpha chapter, meaning it was the first to be established in the nation. The chapter was founded in 1922 by Dr. Frank G. Brooks and a group of OCU students. Brooks also helped form the national organization in 1925. Now there is about 600 chapters across the United States and Puerto Rico.
This regional convention includes 70 different colleges and universities.
Only members of TriBeta can attend the convention, which is April 10-12.
Any student interested can become a member of the chapter. Students interested can contact Ryburn at aryburn@okcu.edu.
To find out more about the convention, visit www.tribetasrc.com/.
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