Why should you present at the Student Academic Conference?

• Build your resume
• Share your passion
• Develop confidence
• Network with other students, faculty and college staff

• Talk to mentors - a project/paper from a past or current study is a great start.
• A hobby or other outside interest lends itself well to a presentation.
• Use something related to your career or volunteer work.
• Whatever you choose, be sure you have (or can create) passion.
• See what students presented last year.

• Passion attracts and holds audience attention.
• Attention leads to active listening, which makes for a better presentation session.

• Resources for more help:
  1. Presentation Tips - organization and preparation, and slide tips from a renowned expert.
  2. Making PowerPoint Slides: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides
  3. Free Presentation Slide Building Tools (if you don't have access to Microsoft PowerPoint)
     • Open Office
     • Google Docs

• Gather all the information (i. e. notes, papers, projects, books) you need to create the presentation. If you are planning to use PowerPoint, a Word document from which you can later extract bits of information is a good way to organize your information.

• Divide the material into logical, straightforward segments. Use easy to understand terms and language. You want to be sure that the audience will be able to understand and conceptualize what you are talking about.

• Develop bullet points that will become your PowerPoint or overhead slides. Keep your slides simple and uncluttered. Stay with complementary colors and avoid lots of animation. A good rule of thumb is one major idea per slide. And, use photographs instead of clip art whenever possible (try the Flickr Creative Commons to find photos).

• As you summarize each major section, write talking points (notes) for yourself for each of the slides you will cover. If you do this in PowerPoint, you can type your notes in the notes section of each slide. When you print out your handouts, you will have the option to print slides with notes. You can print one copy for yourself, which will serve as your guide and print only the slides for your audience.

• Practice, Practice, Practice! If you don’t have family or friends who are willing to be your test audience, present to yourself in a mirror. Or, better yet, contact the Student Academic Conference Committee member at your center and ask if s/he would arrange an audience for you. The dry run is a great way to get over the butterflies in your stomach, work out the timing, and arrive at the conference knowing your presentation will go according to plan.