Thirty years! When URCAD began in 1997, we weren’t sure that we would be able to attract attendees. We had about fifty student presenters scheduled for the inaugural event, which was held on the 7th floor of the AOK Library. We decided to have a midday program and invite Dr. Hrabowski to speak. His presence and wonderful snacks including chocolate covered strawberries ensured a good crowd. Now we serve chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate our success.
Indeed, URCAD was successful, and it didn’t take long for it to become a popular venue for showcasing our students. On one occasion when the Board of Visitors were at UMBC, I was in an oral presentation session that was as good as any I had seen at a professional conference. With one more student to go, I saw a top CEO pull out his phone and leave the room. I was concerned, and after the session I asked him what he thought of the presentations. He said that he called his office and told his colleagues to get to UMBC as fast as they could. He wanted to start recruiting our students so that they were sure to work for his company once they graduated. My concern shifted to delight!
Students, faculty, and staff came together to create a community of undergraduate researchers and succeeded. Key contributors to this effort include Pat Joseph, Beth Pennington, Kathy Sutphin, Teresa Viancour, Janet McGlynn, and April Householder. Although too numerous to mention, we also recognize everyone who mentored an undergraduate student, set up poster boards, edited the program, or contributed in any way to URCAD. We would be remiss not to mention the students themselves. This day celebrates student’s curiosity, imagination, and dedication to the art and science of discovery. We owe them all an abundance of gratitude.
Whether listening to an oral presentation, discussing the process of inquiry or specific findings at a poster session, viewing an exhibit or performance, you will encounter scholars who have identified problems worthy of investigation, posed significant questions, conducted disciplined inquiry, and analyzed their findings in the tradition of sophisticated researchers. I am confident that you will be stimulated, impressed, and to some degree awed by the complexity of thought and elegant findings presented. The future intellectual triumphs of our students are seeded in the work they are sharing today.
To write these remarks, I went back to my welcome notes from the earliest years in which I was reminded of Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1934) “Letters to a Young Poet”. I share them here as they continue to hold sway: “Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language….It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question.”
Welcome to URCAD!
Diane M. Lee